Colonial officials framed obligatory labor as overriding individual freedom in the name of progress

Evidence

If our subjects have shown a sincere willingness to break out of their atavistic laziness and misery, they are still far from attaining a modern rhythm of activity. There are even some who persist in the belief that they have earned the right to sloth, the moment they have put aside the minimal reserves for maintaining a vegetative life. We will make them understand that nobody has the power to escape from the law of work, and that any claim to personal freedom loses a great deal of its psychological value once the human collectivity, in the name of irresistible progress, whose elements or merits are not open to discussion, imperiously demands the integral development of all the resources that nature puts at its disposal. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 742

Categorization

• DEFINE: Governor General Carde articulates the official doctrine that coercive work mobilization is a legitimate suspension of ‘psychological’ individual freedom for the collective good.
• SEED: Article angle: the governor’s frank language — Africans as ‘atavistic,’ freedom as merely ‘psychological’ value before inevitable progress — exemplifies how republican universalism degraded into racial paternalism.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 742
• XREF: connects to: The colonial master rejects reciprocity and demands work, not recognition; French colonial authorities euphemized forced labor as obligatory public labor; The 1920s labor code aimed to civilize Africans through compulsory work, not protect rights (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• French colonial authorities euphemized forced labor as obligatory public labor #corroborates (0.85)