Colonial administrators saw citizenship-by-birthright as an arbitrary and dangerous precedent dividing Africa.

Evidence

Dakar was scandalized by Parliament’s action, which conflicted fundamentally with its gradually carved-out position on the question of evolue rights. Consulted ahead of time by the Colonial Ministry on the proposed law of I 9 Is, Clozel and his interim replacement, Gabriel Angoulvant, wrote lengthy memoranda warning of the disastrous political problems and the undesirable precedent that this privilege would create for the future administration of the federation. Such a move, they pointed out, could be attacked on legal grounds, since it made place of birth a criterion for acquiring citizenship for some subjects but not for others. This distinction was arbitrary and was bound to cause jealousy among the evolues of other colonies who would not enjoy the same privilege. How could French citizenship be reconciled with the preservation of the Muslim personal status, which allowed polygamy? The law said nothing about giving up this status. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 536

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves reader’s goal: colonial bureaucrats, not metropolitans, resisted universalist republican rights for Africans.