Administering through chiefs served both French state interests and its civilizing rhetoric

Evidence

Like his other arguments, this belief overlapped with the needs of the colonial state in a specific way. We have seen how Merlin created councils to ensure the public education of chiefs in the rural areas, in order to enhance their prestige in the eyes of the masses and prevent further dissolution of social bonds. Now Dakar was arguing that this education would also promote civilization. According to Merlin’s revised rhetoric, the interests of the colonial state and its subjects could be met by means of one and the same policy: that of a close association between old and new elites in the running of the federation. This same view, and the policies to which it gave rise, would continue under his successor, Jules Carde. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 695

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A compact statement of how an imperial power can fuse its material control needs with its stated civilizing ideology into a single policy — rule through traditional elites disciplines the masses while claiming to elevate them.