Failed colonial policy was blamed on African noncompliance rather than the strategy

Evidence

Once again lack of funds, local resistance, and not considering urbanization from any other point of view than the sanitary one helped defeat Dakar’s announced intentions. Yet failure did little to encourage the French to rethink their methods. The problem, they insisted, was lax compliance with existing regulations, not the strategy endorsed by science itself. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 239