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This article investigates the “religious” trade-unionist networks in French-speaking Africa during the 1960s. The Balkanization of unions, less well known than Africa’s political Balkanization, went hand in hand with the continued strengthening of Pan-African ties. These ties existed in both formalized and non-formalized arrangements, for example within international organizations such as the Pan-African Union of Religious Workers. Even after various nations obtained independence, strong relationships were still preserved with the trade unions of the former colonial governments, and also with international trade unions. The necessities of national construction, as well as the vagaries of politics, influenced the practices of trade unions, where the main stakeholders may sometimes be at the pinnacle of power, in prison, or in exile.