The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa

Acknowledgments

ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study would not have been possible without the generosity of many people and agencies. My initial research for this project came about with the assistance of a Social Science Research Council International PreDissertation Award. A Fulbright-Hays fellowship allowed me to carry out field research in Senegal and France. The Dubois-Rodney-Mandela postdoctoral fellowship from the Center of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan afforded me the space for me to begin to conceptualize the book. A Graduate Research Board summer award from the University of Maryland facilitated research in the Library of Congress and financial support from Macalester College permitted me to conduct additional research at the Spiritains archives in France. I am grateful for the support of people at these institutions as well as the intellectual communities that shaped my thinking and encouraged the development of this study. I owe a debt to the Africana Studies program and the History Department at the University of Notre Dame as well as colleagues at Macalester College and the University of Maryland, College Park. I benefited enormously from Senegalese teranaga or hospitality. Many people welcomed me, responded enthusiastically to my project, and patiently helped me to navigate unfamiliar terrain. The staff of the National Archives, especially directors Saliou Mbaye and Boubacar Ndiaye as well asMamadouNdiaye,assistedmebyaskingtherightquestionsofthearchival collectionsandaffordingmeaccesstokeydocuments.AtUniversityCheikh Anta Diop, historians Penda Mbow, Ibrahima Thioub, and Boubacar Barry provided valuable guidance. I also benefited from conversations with Charles Becker, Fatou Sow, Pathe Diagne, Fadel Dia, and Souylemane Bachir Diagne. I am indebted to Wilma Randle, Marie Florence Diokh, Acknowledgments x Ibrahima Thiaw, and Marieme Diawarra for their friendship. The staff of the West African Research Center in Dakar provided important logistical support. My first lessons in Wolof language and culture came as a student attheBaobabCenterinDakar.Iamgratefultotheadministrativestaffand instructors who provided me with a firm foundation to build upon. In Saint Louis, I aimed to get a sense of life in the town during its heyday by talking with long term residents and seeking out little known sources. I am grateful for the assistance of former director of CRNS, Abdoul Haidir Aïdara, Anne and Youssef Coulibaly, faculty at University Gaston Berger, as well as Monseigneur Pierre Sagna and the staff of the Catholic diocese of Saint Louis. Many doomu Ndar (sons and daughters of Saint Louis) were instrumental in my thinking, including Rabi Wane, Aminata Dia, Paul Ouattara, Moustapha Crespin and family, Marie Madeline Diallo, Aicha Fall, Madeline Thiouth, and Ibrahima Diallo. I am especially grateful to Louis Camara for sharing his connection to the historic city and assisting me with identifying and interviewing key subjects. Other informants, mentioned by name in the bibliography, offered me a window into métis society and valuable insight into their family histories. Several individuals passedaway during the course of completing thiswork. IamgratefultoAlmamyMathieuFall,AndréGuillabert,GeorgetteBonet, Alfred d’Erneville, and Sarita Henry for their insights. This book also draws on archival sources from France. The staff of the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Spiritains Archive, the Gironde Departmental Archives , the Bordeaux municipal archives, and the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce assisted in my research. I am also grateful to Yves Pehaut and Roger Pasquier for alerting me to key resources in France. Anumberofpeoplereadallorpartofthismanuscriptatvariousstages. Theircritiquesandcommentsprovedinvaluable.MythankstoDavidRobinson ,DarleneClarkHine,LeslieMoch,MartinKlein,andRaySilverman as well as Heran Sereke-Brhan, Cheikh Babou, Ghislaine Lydon, Kalala Ngalamulume, Emily Osborn, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Lorelle Semley, Wendy-WilsonFall,andFionaMcLaughlin.MamadouDiouf,ElsaBarkley Brown,MadelineZilfi,IraBerlin,andValerieOrlandoreadtheworkatcritical points and offered invaluable suggestions. The two anonymous reviews ofthebookhelpedenormouslyinshapingthefinalproduct,asdidthepatient and diligent work of Dee Mortensen, the editor at Indiana University Press, acknowledgments xi whoshepherdedthisworktocompletion.Twocopyeditors,CatherineSiskos and Elaine Durham Otto, polished the final product. Don Pirius of dpmaps. commadethemapsforthisbook.Theimageshavebeenreprintedwithgenerous permission from Georges Crespin, Christian Valantin, and the Senegal National Archives. A. Dolidon transcribed recorded interviews. Ultimately allofthewordsandideasputforthherearemyownasareanymistakes,omissions , or oversights. My family and friends have been a great source of support and encouragement . Alyson and Janet Jones have seen this work through from its very beginning. Words cannot express the depth of my gratitude. I must thank my network of friends and family in Detroit, East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., who listened to me, commiserated with me, and inspired me. Finally, this study would never have been conceived without Carolyn Jones’sinsistencethatIstudyfrancophoneAfricaasastudentatCassTechnical High School, and had it not been for the guidanceof teachersat Spelman...