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1. Setting the Stage for Vichy: French West Africa on the Eve of World War II
- University of Nebraska Press
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [3], (3) Lines: 17 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [3], (3) 1. Setting the Stage forVichy French West Africa on the Eve of World War II The federation of fwa was officially established in 1895. However, French presence and some form of governance, at least in certain regions, had existed since the seventeenth century. The federation was composed of seven territories—Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Dahomey (now Benin), French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea, and Mauritania—as well as one territory under French mandate since it was wrested from German control during World War I—Togo. The overall territory of the federation was 4,700,000 square kilometers, and on the eve of World War II its population stood at over fifteen million, including many diverse ethnic groups.1 A governor-general ruled the federation from its capital, Dakar, assisted by a secretary-general; a cabinet director; and a director of political , administrative, and social affairs. The governor-general was also directly responsible for the governor of each territory, and these governors in turn ruled with the aid of a colonial council.2 Under the governor a highly hierarchical system was created, beginning with the commandant de cercle and ending with the village chief—usually an African appointed by the French. Although the French colonial method of governing clearly favored direct rule down to the lowest level, in some areas, based on administrative and economic considerations, the precolonial ruler was kept in place, though he was divested of most of his power. An example is the Mossi kingdom in Upper Volta, which remained under the rule of its king, the Moro Naba.3 The establishment of the federation marked the transition from military to civilian rule, although military officials continued to govern problematic areas such as Niger and Mauritania. 4 The first region in fwa that was exposed to French influence already in the seventeenth century was 4 FWA and Its Place in theVichy Colonial Idea 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [4], (4) Lines: ——— 0.0pt ——— Normal PgEnds: [4], (4) the coast of Senegal. The towns Dakar, Rufisque, Gorée, and Saint Louis became in 1848 an experimental ground for the theory of assimilation, and their inhabitants, referred to as originaires, were granted the right to send a representative to the National Assembly in Paris. Until 1914 all the candidates for the National Assembly, the city councils, and the colonial council were either French or métis. In 1914, however, Blaise Diagne became the first African to be sent to the French parliament. 5 At this time Africans also began to form their own political parties in Senegal.6 This political activity among the colonized was rare in the French empire and had no equivalent in other colonial systems either. However, it is important to bear in mind that the originaires represented only a tiny portion of the Africans of fwa. The rest of this vast population was under harsh colonial rule and subjected to forced labor and to the indigénat, a legal system that enabled any French official to inflict limited punishments on Africans without trying them (see chapter 3). Most Africans were considered subjects (sujets) and had no political rights whatsoever. Before examining the political situation in fwa, it is important to consider the period that preceded the war and that brought certain winds of change to French colonial rule in fwa—namely, the period of the Popular Front. The 1936 electoral victory of the Popular Front in France raised hopes for improvements in the empire, as two of the parties of which it was composed, the Communist and the Socialist, were anticolonial in their views.7 However, it soon became apparent that the Popular Front had no coherent colonial program. Colonial affairs did not interest the French public and therefore remained marginalized. The new minister of the colonies, Marius Moutet, had claimed to support autonomy and eventual self-governance for the colonies, but once in power he stopped referring to...