Colonial administration diluted originating citizens’ political power by reorganizing institutions

Evidence

Confronted with such familiar language, Dakar determined that the best way to “prevent any attack on our authority” consisted of “respecting the historic rights of the originaires but nevertheless resituating them in the common law [of the rest of the federation], through a more precise text” and “cantonizing their elected representatives within narrow limits.” In practice, this meant reorganizing Senegal’s liberal political institutions, in order to give the administration and its aristocratic allies a greater voice than that of the originaires. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 548

Categorization

• XREF: Classic co-optation and institutional gerrymandering response — dividing representatives by packing councils with appointed chiefs.