France’s governor general rejected assimilation as politically dangerous for West Africa

Evidence

In 1903, the new governor general of French West Africa, Ernest Roume, decided to create a federal school system that would provide free lay instruction to their African subjects. But he rejected assimilation as inappropriate and politically dangerous for a colony as vast and ethnically diverse as West Africa. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 265

Categorization

• XREF: Core to reader’s aim: official French rejection of assimilationism as a governing doctrine for the interior.