France’s association policy was meant to unite old chiefly and new educated elites.

Evidence

Now Dakar was arguing that this education would also promote civilization. According to Merlin’s revised rhetoric, the interests of the colonial state and its subjects could be met by means of one and the same policy: that of a close association between old and new elites in the running of the federation. This same view, and the policies to which it gave rise, would continue under his successor, Jules Carde. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 695