French administrators stripped African chiefs of judicial powers in 1912

Evidence

The new decree introduced several innovations in the administration of criminal justice in West Africa. It abolished the right of village chiefs to punish minor offenses, on the grounds that village chiefs either abused their prerogatives or did not understand the administration’s view of what constituted a minor offense. In addition, the commandant de cercle was given the right to appeal sentences rendered at the subdivision court level in criminal cases, when he considered the punishments too lenient or too harsh. French administrators had repeatedly requested such powers of appeal, arguing that African subjects rarely dared to appeal sentences by their own chiefs, and that as the natural protectors of the masses, the French had a duty to intervene when justice had not been served. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 426