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9 French Race Theory, the Parisian Society of Anthropology, and the Debate over la Force Noire, 1909–1912
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221 9 French Race Theory, the Parisian Society of Anthropology, and the Debate over la Force Noire, 1909–1912 joe lunn After three years of often acrimonious public debate, on 7 February 1912 France initiated a policy of compulsory military recruitment in West Africa designed to create la force noire for eventual use in Europe should the need arise. During the next four decades about 725,000 West Africans were conscripted into the French Army as a result of this policy, most of whom served as combatants on the Western Front during two world wars. This temporary enforced migration of Africans to Europe has never been surpassed in scale, while the unintended effects of this unprecedented cross-cultural encounter ranged far beyond the outcome on the battlefields. This essay examines one critical aspect of this unique policy: the fashion in which a small coterie of prewar military advocates drew upon and appropriated social science theory to help sanction the implementation of the recruitment program. In so doing it also affords an opportunity to examine the racial preconceptions underpinning the creation of la force noire and the consequences these ideas—perpetuated in French military doctrine over more than forty years—had for the individual soldiers affected. This analysis addresses three principle themes: (1) the arguments advanced by prewar proponents of undertaking expanded recruitment in West Africa, which laid the foundations for the subsequent military deployment of these soldiers; (2) the debate between 1909 and 1912 Colonial Minds and Empire Soldiers 222 in metropolitan France about the advisability of implementing such a policy, with emphasis on the Société d’anthropologie de Paris and the intellectual validation advocates sought to obtain for their ideas from it; and (3) the consequences for African soldiers of the application of race theory to them during two world wars. In so doing I hope not only to shed new light on French military views of Africans at the beginning of the twentieth century but also to exemplify the very real human consequences of the interplay between theory and practice. La Force Noire and the Origins of the French Recruitment Policy The origins of the French recruitment policy in West Africa during the twentieth century were rooted in the particular exigencies of France’s military situation prior to 1914. Having suffered defeat, occupation, and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1871, the French, despite public avowals of revanche as the sacred aim of national policy, had seen their military position vis-à-vis their former foe progressively deteriorate . This was due to the ever increasing demographic disparity existing between France, with a stagnant prewar population of 39 million, and Germany, with a growing population of 64 million and, hence, the discrepancy in the size of the armies the two countries could mobilize in the event of war. As a result reliance on domestic conscription (especially for only a two-year term of service after 1905) was increasingly viewed as an inadequate guarantee of national security amid an atmosphere of escalating international tensions. Under these circumstances France sought to enhance its military strength on the eve of the First World War: conscription was introduced in Algeria in 1912, and a year later the size of the peacetime army was significantly increased with the adoption of a three-year service law.1 It was within this general context that the idea of augmenting French strength through the extensive recruitment of West Africans was advanced .2 This proposal represented a dramatic departure from the previous use of African troops by all other colonial powers; the scheme aimed at transforming a small, mercenary army designed for duty in Africa into a much larger force intended for eventual use in Europe. Although such ideas remained anathema to other European powers, the efficacy of this [54.224.70.148] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:53 GMT) Race Theory, Anthropology, and la Force Noire 223 proposal was nevertheless widely debated in France on the eve of the war.3 As discussed, the outcome of the metropolitan discourse on this proposal not only exemplified the primacy of defense considerations over all other matters but also affords telling insights into the French image of Africans during the first decade of the twentieth century. The idea of undertaking extensive recruitment in sub-Saharan Africa was initially propagated by a small coterie of “Soudanese” officers in the French Colonial Army. Citing their experiences there during the conquest, and during the military...