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

4. Education, Association, and an Independent Press

96 4 Q Education, Association, and an Independent Press Colonial cultures were never direct translations of European society planted in the colonies, but unique cultural configurations, homespun creations in which European food, dress, housing and morality were given new political meanings in the particular social order of colonial rule. —Ann Laura Stoler, “Rethinking Colonial Categories: European Communities and the Boundaries of Rule.” In the late nineteenth century, as France engaged in wars of conquest and consolidated control over the states of the Senegal River valley and the peanut basin, some within the métis population joined the Alliance Française, an organization founded to protect and support the spread of French language and culture. Others joined the Masonic lodge and founded newspapers with an anticlerical point of view. They espoused the virtues of the republicintheirnewspapers,celebratedBastilleDay,joinedrifleclubs,and held annual regattas on the Senegal River. Although the métis attended Frenchschools,adopted Frenchdress,and identified closely withthe ideals espousedbytheThirdRepublic,theyalsotransformedtheseculturalidioms to serve their purposes. They solidified their role as the predominant French-educated and professional elite of Senegal’s colonial capital. The notion of a unified, monolithic colonizer conquering and permanently altering the kinship structures, political economy, and daily life of the heterogeneous African masses is no longer tenable. Anthropologists have turned the lens back on European communities in the colonies to Education, Association, and an Independent Press 97 show that they brought the class, regional, and gender distinctions of metropolitan societies with them as they established new communities in overseas territories. Colonial projects, as Ann Laura Stoler points out, were aimed at not only remaking African or Asian people but also maintaining social distinctions among themselves while keeping European subordinates and potential subversives in line. The cultural idioms imposed through colonial policies centered on education, sexuality, civil law, food, dress, and national celebration brought about a new construction of Europeanness.1 As the descendants of European men and African women, the métis populationinSenegalblurredtheboundariesofcolonialrule.Asettlercommunity only emerged in Senegal after World War I and then on a fairly small scale. The ministry of the navy governed the Senegal colony until a civilian administrationreplacedthemilitaryinthe1880s.Between1850and1900,the majority of European personnel in Senegal consisted of military officers, members of the judiciary, bureaucrats, and representatives of French commercial firms. Mainly young men, Europeans in the colony rarely remained in the country for long. As France began to launch wars of conquest in Senegal ’s interior, the métis represented the primary group of French-educated townresidentswhohadclosetiestoFrenchcultureandsocietybutalsopossessed intimate knowledge of the local situation. Colonial officials and capitalist firms needed the métis as partners in their imperialist aims. Inthewakeofthegumcrisisofthe1840s,themétisincreasinglylooked to the liberal professions for socioeconomic mobility. Colonial policies supported advanced education for the métis in order to affirm their identification with French culture and values and to develop this class of intermediaries who could facilitate French policies in the colony. For the métis, pursuing higher education afforded them the same qualifications for leadershipasFrenchmilitaryofficersorbureaucrats .Becominglawyersandjoining associations such as the chamber of commerce strengthened métis networks with ruling elites in metropolitan France. French education sought to make young girls into pious wives and respectable mothers, but schooling also allowed métis women to enter public discourse as the voice of morality for the urban community. Schools and associations provided an institutional framework for the métis population to engage with republicanideasandenterintometropolitandebates ,creatingnewfieldsofinteraction between Africans and Europeans in the urban community. The MÉtis of Senegal 98 The emergence ofanindependent pressprovided anavenue for certain individuals within the métis community to articulate their ideas and contest colonial practices. The métis adopted the tools espoused under the Third Republic for expanding political discourse and democratic rights for Frenchcitizensandusedittotheirownadvantage.Intheirnewspapersand public speeches, they grappled with the same contradictions inherent in French colonialism. They argued against the abuse of colonial power but considered conquest necessary for progress. They decried the exploitation of workers but held personal investments in the perpetuation of slave markets in the interior and the colonial labor regime. Thedevelopmentofschools,associations,andanindependentpressfostered civic participation and provided an institutional basis for cooperation betweenthemétiseliteandcolonialauthorities.Atthesametime,theliberal reforms enacted facilitated the exchange of ideas between Senegal’s urban elite and subversives within the European community, providing new avenues for the métis to articulate their ideas and challenge French power. Educational and Professional Choices Schools, like law and dress, provided colonial regimes with tools for transformingAfricanpeopleinthecitiesintoindividualswhowouldfurtherthe aimsofempire.Schoolsalsoprovidedresidentswithimportantinstitutions for group socialization...