Civilizing-mission ideology deflected contradiction between French democratic values and colonial conquest

Evidence

However misguided, self-deluding, or underfunded-indeed, because they were all these things-these claims merit our attention. As an enduring tension of French republicanism, the civilizing ideal in whose name the nation of the “rights of man” deprived so many people of their freedom deserves to be better understood. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 49 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

France’s culture and democratic ideals have taken root most firmly overseas when not accompanied by a “mission” to civilize predicated upon first becoming rulers in another people’s land. The question is why it took a country with as strong a republican tradition as France so long to see the discrepancy between ideal and reality, between ends and means. Racist assumptions about Africans, the spoils the empire yielded, and the prestige it bestowed upon la grande nation are only half the answer. Equally to blame was a civilizing ideology that was never only racist in content. While racism was always present between 1895 and 1930, it came shrouded first in emancipationist rhetoric and subsequently in scientific “respect” for traditional cultures. Both claims made it difficult for many liberals to see how inconsistent the very notion of a civilizing mission was with the Republic’s universalist commitments. If the empire endured as long as it did, it was in part because French racism often worked hand-inglove with more progressive values. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 894 (#expands, via linked claim)

The question of dialogue in Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy and Jamaa movement has to be understood in the context where it arose. This is the context of colonial negation of African morality, rationality and humanity itself carried by the civilizing mission ideology, which gained intellectual, philosophical, theological and cultural foundation in the colonial will to power and its economic interests. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 665 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial ‘civilizing mission’ ideology negated African morality and rationality — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 665; France’s republican ideals coexisted with colonial domination through a civilizing ideal — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 49; French universalist values paradoxically sustained the colonial empire they contradicted — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 894 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• France’s republican ideals coexisted with colonial domination through a civilizing ideal #corroborates (0.92) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 49
• French universalist values paradoxically sustained the colonial empire they contradicted #expands (0.90) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 894
• Colonial ‘civilizing mission’ ideology negated African morality and rationality #expands (0.82) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 665
• Colonial conquest is redeemed in the conqueror’s mind by ideology #expands (0.80)