Formalizing chief consultative councils could undermine chiefs’ local legitimacy

Evidence

Other inconsistencies were pointed out as early as 1921 by Lieutenant Governor Antonetti of Ivory Coast, when Merlin submitted the decrees of 1920 for comments to all his subordinates. Antonetti argued that the institution of councils as designed by Merlin could actually backfire. “Just as our authority would stand to gain from decisions based upon reasonable opinions [expressed by the chiefs],” he wrote Merlin, “it would stand to lose from requesting consultation and then ignoring the advice proffered.” And, inevitably, Antonetti continued, chiefs would make complaints that the French would not be able to redress. Transforming chiefs and their councils into formal administrative bodies would cause them to lose immediately their legitimacy in the eyes of the population. Chiefs, he argued, were being consulted more by the administration anyway, as they evolved; to grant such consultations a legal existence would constitute a mere trompe l’oeil. He concluded by adding that chiefs were often the oldest and most conservative members of the community and therefore least apt to be the instruments of the progress that France aspired to achieve in West Africa. … If anyone, the young evolues were best prepared to understand “the realism of our native policy.” Until the administration could balance these two different groups, Antonetti warned, it would be impossible to form genuine assemblies. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 726

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the book’s core theme of republican ideas being imposed on West Africa; the gap between French administrative ideals and on-the-ground legitimacy echoes the broader argument about forced political structures.