Dakar openly debated forced labor due to metropolitan raw-material demands

Evidence

Such an open discussion of forced labor was new in the I 92o’s. It was undoubtedly the result of Dakar’s attempt to satisfy the metropole’s sudden demand for raw materials, without ruining the labor resources necessary for subsequent mise en valeur. As Carde put it at the beginning of the I924 circular, “it is necessary to foresee and organize future [production], while extracting the utmost possible from the present.” — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 807