Colonial ‘association’ meant informing chiefs of their duties, not empowering them

Evidence

Causing this egregious gap between what French ideology promised and the results obtained were certain contradictions in the way the association of the old elite was conceptualized in the first place. The measures taken by Merlin to respect the representative functions of the chieftaincy, including the creation of communes and assemblies of notables, could not possibly encourage the public education of chiefs. Despite Merlin’s claims to the contrary, the December 4 decrees failed to endow the various assemblies with the powers to function as anything but mouthpieces for the administration. A circular drawn up by the lieutenant governor of the Sudan in 1921, regarding the new rural assemblies, and which Dakar subsequently distributed to all the governors as a model for their colonies, confirms that the Government General saw association as little more than an obligation to inform notables of their duties as determined by the colonial government. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 722

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the actual (as opposed to advertised) meaning of ‘association’ as implemented: informing notables of duties rather than granting participatory power.
• XREF: Connects to the recurring colonial pattern where nominally progressive or participatory institutions (councils, representative bodies) are hollowed out to serve the administering power — parallels the reader’s broader theme across this book of contradictory republican-imperial ideology.