Colonial authorities exiled political critics without evidence of wrongdoing

Evidence

Given these “dangers,” containment became the order of the day. Hunkanrin, unlike Diagne, did not have powerful friends in Paris. The tax revolts in Dahomey provided the Government General with a convenient pretext for removing this unwanted voice from his colony of origin. In 1923, despite a lack of any direct evidence that Hunkanrin had been involved, the interim governor general banished him to ten years’ imprisonment in Mauritania. Governor General Jules Carde applauded this measure against “the Bolshevik of Dahomey,” adding that “the chateau life that awaits him there should be adequate to set him back on the proper path.” — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 565

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme in this book of how French republicanism’s universalist claims coexisted with repressive colonial practice.