France linked civilizing Africans to material consumption, literacy, and abandoning native customs

Evidence

In 1902, the dynamic and experienced Ernest Roume was appointed governor general of French West Africa. Under pressure from Roume, Paris finally endowed the Government General with real fiscal autonomy and political authority. This reform allowed the new head of the federation to devote himself to the rational exploitation of West Africa’s resources. At the same time, as Dakar’s functions gradually increased, references to France’s civilizing mission multiplied commensurately, and a clearer picture began to emerge of how the new Government General viewed its role as civilizer of the West African peoples under its control. From the outset Dakar defined its role fairly broadly to include the material and the moral improvement of Africans. Their subjects, the French insisted, would not be civilized until they simultaneously consumed more, became literate, and gave up certain barbaric social practices. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 133

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what ‘civilized’ meant concretely in Dakar’s official rhetoric — consumption, literacy, dropping barbaric practices.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how republican ideas are forced into West Africa — this is the concrete definition of the imposed civilizing ideal.