France reversed its prewar view by reframing precolonial chiefs as representative and honorable.

Evidence

Another new theme was a revised assessment of Africa’s traditional ruling class. In the postwar era a cardinal principle of French ideology was that the precolonial African chieftaincy was less exploitative and more representative than had earlier been believed. Merlin revealed this belief when he created councils of notables and communes and in reference to the policy of appointing traditional chiefs to office. “The institution [of councils and communes],” he wrote, “represents one phase in the reconstitution of the cadres of native society that we inconsiderately destroyed. It aims at restoring to life those councils of notables that existed in fact in the majority of communities and that constituted the representative body of common interests before the French conquest.” — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 681

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the earlier doctrine (from prior chapters) that all chiefs were bloody tyrants; a full ideological about-face worth tracking for the reader’s purpose.