Banning political assembly in French West Africa drove opposition underground and bred French repression

Evidence

The French had never promulgated the Third Republic’s r881 law on freedom of association in the federation, and it remained illegal to assemble without permission from the colonial administration. This prohibition effectively drove most political activity underground in the interwar period, making the French that much more out of touch with African discontent as it developed-and that much more ready to use force to repress it. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 560

Categorization

• XREF: Complements the ADDENDUM dynamic where legal restrictions force movements underground; connects to how material conditions (tax revolt) become political when legal channels are blocked. — connects to: the MOC “The Republic’s Impossible Embrace: How Universalism Turned Algeria from the Future of France into Its Undoing”