The French Colonial Mind, Volume 1: Mental Maps of Empire and Colonial Encounters

3 Colonial Minds and African Witchcraft: Interpretations of Murder as Seen in Cases from French West Africa in the Interwar Era

49 3 Colonial Minds and African Witchcraft Interpretations of Murder as Seen in Cases from French West Africa in the Interwar Era ruth ginio Belief in witchcraft, “ritual” crimes, and witches’ secret societies has always represented one of the primary images of Africa in the French colonial mind. It was certainly one of the continent’s most disturbing and lurid images that colonial minds could conjure. The literature of the period further reinforced it. Paul Morand’s descriptions of Africa, for example, in his novel Magie Noire, published in 1928, are filled with horrifying figures of witches and societies of hommes-panthères (leopard men).1 This chapter argues, however, that the discussion of witchcraft in the colonial context offers us more than mere reflections of French colonial imagery. It sheds light, in addition, on the different forms of knowledge production about this cultural phenomenon, in turn revealing the ways in which use of this knowledge became bound up with the exercise of political power within the colonial arena. Witchcraft, in fact, had two advantages for the colonizer. First, it supplied the ultimate justification for colonial rule—the eradication of primitive and barbaric beliefs. Second, it was a fascinating phenomenon that brought a whiff of interest and excitement to administrative service in Africa . These two advantages were, of course, rather contradictory, because for witchcraft to become truly fascinating it had to be more than just a barbaric superstition—it had to be real. As discussed, this is not the sole contradiction stemming from colonial inquiries into African witchcraft. Colonial Encounters, Imaginings of Empire 50 This chapter examines two kinds of knowledge about witchcraft that derived from the French colonial mind—academic knowledge and administrative knowledge.2 These two forms of knowledge are represented by two figures: the French philosopher Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857–1939) and Maurice Prouteaux, a long-serving member of the colonial administration from 1908 to 1934 who was also an amateur ethnographer. The chapter first discusses the two very different perceptions of African witchcraft represented by Lévy-Bruhl and Prouteaux, before moving on to consider how the “knowledge” created by these two differing kinds of investigation shaped decisions taken within the colonial legal arena in response to alleged witchcraft-related crimes. I have chosen to focus on ideas developed by Lévy-Bruhl and Prouteaux for two reasons. Each dealt excessively with questions related to witchcraft, and each left extensive reports explaining his analysis of African beliefs in witchcraft. Furthermore, the renowned British anthropologist Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard, professor of social anthropology at Oxford University, who was also deeply interested in African witchcraft, discussed Lévy-Bruhl’s work at length, while several ethnographic journals published articles written by Prouteaux. Taken together, the writings of Lévy-Bruhl and Prouteaux represent two distinct ways in which African witchcraft was understood in the French colonial mind. The chapter shows that although their contrasting perceptions of witchcraft endured throughout the interwar era, only one—that represented by Prouteaux—prevailed in the colonial legal field. This arena consisted of a system of native courts (tribunaux indigènes) that was established in 1903 and began operating two years later. Supposedly adapted to African traditions and customs, this court system actually copied the hierarchical structure of the metropolitan legal system. It was subdivided into four tiers: the village, the province, the circle courts, and the chambre d’homologation that served as the highest appeal court.3 A key drawback of this system was that its judgments incorporated and relied on a set of indigenous customs that the colonial authorities could not understand. The Metropolitan Academic Mind and African Witchcraft: The Case of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl In October 1937 Marcel de Coppet, governor-general of French West Africa (fwa), asked all governors of the federation’s territories to send Colonial Minds and African Witchcraft 51 him reports on recent criminal cases brought before the native courts in their colonies that involved witchcraft, ritual cannibalism, or felonies committed by so-called secret societies. The motive for this request was to assist Lucien Lévy-Bruhl’s scientific inquiries into what he referred to as “primitive mentality.” Both de Coppet’s instructions and the enthusiastic response to it emphasize the close relations between academic research in France and colonial administrative practice. On 4 February 1938, for example, the governor of Côte d’Ivoire submitted reports regarding...