Table Of ContentA MISSION TO CIVILIZE
THE
REPUBLICAN
IDEA OF EMPIRE
IN FRANCE AND
WEST AFRICA,
1895-1930
ALICE L. CONKLIN
Alice L. Conklin
A Mission
to Civilize
THE REPUBLICAN IDEA
OF EM PIRE IN FRANCE AND
W EST AFRICA, 1 8 9 5 -1 9 3 0
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
STANFORD. CALIFORNIA
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 1997 by the Board of Trustees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University
Printed in the United States of America
cip data are at the back of the book
For Rob, Timothy, and David
Preface
It is January 1985, and I have just arrived in Dakar, Senegal,
to continue research on France's mission civilisatrice under the
Third Republic. Dakar is a sprawling and dusty African city, not as
modern as Abidjan, or so I am told. The financial and governmental
center remains much as it was under colonial times, when Dakar
was the capital of France's West African federation. At indepen
dence, the gleaming white palace of the former governor general be
came, with only slight modification, the presidential palace. In this,
the oldest planned part of the city dating back to the beginning of
the century, streets still bear names such as Avenue Faidherbe, Av
enue Roume (after French West Africa's third governor general), Rue
Jule^ Ferry, Rue Victor Hugo, and Avenue Pasteur; outside the down
town, African names dominate: Avenue Lamine Gueye, Avenue Mo
hammed V. But the official city center has not bothered to divest it
self of these markers of its former subjugation to republican France.
How should the modern historian read this particular postcolonial
landscape? Are the French names signs of Senegalese indifference to
ward their former rulers, retained simply because no one has both
ered to change them? Or, to the contrary, do they represent a con
tinued "investment" on the part of the Senegalese government in a
close relationship—cultural, economic, and diplomatic—with
France? Do they evoke hostility? These questions are not easily an
swered, but they help get at issues that are at the heart of this book.
At its most basic, the following study seeks to explore the illusions
and justifications that lay behind the decision by French imperial
viii Preface
ists to erect republican signposts wherever they went at the end of
the nineteenth century. Such an understanding may not in and of it
self explain why these signposts remain in place today. On the other
hand, it should at least guarantee that henceforth they will be read
in one more way: as an ironic and salutory reminder of the cultural
and ideological ways in which democratic France reconciled itself to
overseas expansion for much of the twentieth century. Given the re
cent legislation in France denying automatic citizenship to children
born on French soil of immigrant parents—a restriction also at odds
with republican France's universalist rhetoric—this reminder seems
not merely timely, but imperative.1 France since the Revolution has
claimed to extend a helping hand to the rest of the world while, in
fact, pushing numerous "others" away. This trend was perhaps most
pronounced in the colonies, but it continues to haunt France today.
This book began as a dissertation presented to Princeton Univer
sity. During the early phases of the project, I was fortunate to work
with four historians whose ideas and approaches to understanding
the past have inspired many of my own. Arno Mayer first suggested
that I work on the French idea of the mission civilisatrice, and has
supported this project since its inception. It is from him that I
learned to take the independent role of ideas in history—and the vi
olence they cause—seriously. Natalie Zemon Davis posed stimulat
ing questions about the possible similarities between an encroach
ing early modern state in rural France and a "civilizing" colonial
state in nineteenth-century West Africa. It is a pleasure to thank her
for her continuing interest in my study of the French outside of
France. Robert Tignor brought to this undertaking the healthy skep
ticism of an Africanist dubious of any claims the French might have
made to being committed "civilizers." His constant probing of what
was "different" about the French in Africa helped me to rethink the
relationship between metropole and colony. Finally, Philip Nord's
work on French republicanism and continuing insistence that de
mocratic politics and ideology have mattered in the past and con
tinue to matter in France today have shaped this book, at every stage.
As the project evolved, I benefited greatly from the reactions and
support of a number of historians across the three different fields
that this work ambitiously attempts to span: French history, colo
nial history, and African history. This book is much enriched by the
close and critical reading the following friends and associates have
given to portions of the manuscript: Vicki Caron, Steven Englund,
Preface IX
Sue Peabody, Rebecca Rogers, Herrick Chapman, Jeff Ravel, Tessie
Liu, Rachel Fuchs, Michael Adas, Patricia Lorcin, Barbara Cooper,
Odile Goerg, Jim Searing, Fred Cooper, Emmanuelle Saada, Jean
Schmitz, and Emmanuelle Sibeud. My warmest thanks go to
Richard Roberts, William Cohen, Julia Clancy-Smith, Len Berlan-
stein, Michael Osborne, and Frances Gouda, along with two anony
mous readers, for wading through the entire manuscript at different
stages of completion. Their collective and invariably incisive com
ments have made this final version that much stronger, and guided
me through literature I had not completely mastered on my own. In
addition, many of my colleagues in the History Department at the
University of Rochester have read one or more chapters. I wish to
thank Celia Applegate, Jean Pedersen, Stewart Weaver, Adrianna
Bakos, Ted Brown, and Stanley Engerman for the encouragement
that they have provided while constructively criticizing my project.
Dan Borns went beyond the call of good citizenship and read every
chapter at an early stage of revisions. His perceptive remarks helped
me to clarify my arguments and point them in new directions.
I have presented portions of the manuscript at several seminars
and colloquia, as well as at meetings of the American Historical As
sociation and the Society for French Historical Studies. It is a plea
sure to thank hosts and participants for the intellectual forum that
they provided, and the stimulating discussions of my work to which
they contributed. I am particularly grateful to members of the
Princeton dissertation writers' group,- Natalie Zemon Davis and the
Davis Seminar; Sandria Freitag, the SSRC, the Chicago Humanities
Institute, and the Committee on Southern Asian Studies at the Uni
versity of Chicago, for organizing the Creating a Public: The Euro
pean "Public Sphere" and Its Alternatives under Colonialism work
shop; Timothy Tackett and the University of California, Irvine, Con
ference on Violence and the Democratic Tradition in France,
1789-1914.; Celia Applegate and the Susan B. Anthony Center Col
loquium; Leora Auslander and the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Cen
tury European History workshop at the University of Chicago,- Gene
Lebovics and the New York Area French History seminar; Charles
Becker and Saliou M'baye, conveners of the Commémoration du
centenaire de la création de l'Afrique occidentale française collo
quium,- and Jean-Loup Amselle and Emmanuelle Sibeud, conveners
of the Maurice Delafosse Table-Ronde.
Research in Paris, France, and Dakar, Senegal, was made possible
by a Bourse Chateaubriand from the French government and a grad
X Preface
uate fellowship from Princeton University, A Junior leave from the
University of Rochester and grant from the Susan B. Anthony Center
allowed me to complete most of the revisions. In France and Senegal
I was helped by many people. Marie-Antoinette Menier of the
French National Archives, Section Outre-mer, and Saliou M'baye
and Mamadou N'diaye of the National Archives of the Republic of
Senegal rendered invaluable assistance. The archivists in the micro
film room of the French National Archives were always cheerful in
the face of my endless demands for more and more bobines. Many
of my revisions could not have been completed without the won
derful cooperation and efficiency of the Inter Library Loan Office of
Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester. At Stanford Uni
versity Press, I am most grateful to Norris Pope for his interest in
and encouragement of this project, to Jan Spauschus Johnsonior her
responsive and expert shepherding of the manuscript through the
editing process, and to Barbara Phillips for her careful copy-editing.
Finally I would like to thank a number of individuals for their
constant personal encouragement (and forbearance) as I moved for
ward with this project. Harriet Jackson and Janet Horne have been
close friends and intellectual compagnons de route for as long as I
can remember. They have certainly heard most of the arguments in
this book more times than they care to remember—and each time
they have pushed me to think them through more clearly. Barbara
Brooks and I have endlessly compared French and Japanese imperi
alism, when not exchanging stories about our children. In France,
Laurence Gouy's companionship and hospitality have made every
research trip there a pleasure. My brothers and sisters have sup
ported this project since its inception. A lover of books, my mother
inspired me to write my own. My father instilled in all of us a re
spect for education that has obviously borne fruit. Born at the
halfway mark, Timothy is still too young to realize how much of my
energy this book has absorbed. His younger brother, David, arrived
just in time to delay the finishing touches. The distractions, frustra
tions, and sheer pleasure of raising both have helped me to keep the
challenges of writing in perspective. I owe the most, however, to my
husband, Rob, for his patience and humor, sharp editorial eye, and
flexible and committed parenting. I cannot imagine having com
pleted this book without him.
A.L.C.
