Association doctrine preserved French authority for decades by conceding only token sovereignty

Evidence

Within thirty years-rather than the centuries Dakar had originally imagined-the federal authorities would have to accept evolues as equals and turn power over to them altogether. In the short term, however, association helped preserve French rule, by offering a counterdoctrine to the evolue ideology of assimilation. This justified giving but a small part of French sovereignty to the new elite, instead of the full equality they demanded. Colonial officials were thus able to preserve, for the entire interwar period, the very authority that was being contested, without appearing as die-hard racists before world or metropolitan opinion. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 711

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader study of French republicanism exported to West Africa and how limited power-sharing sustained colonial rule.