French colonial infrastructure relied on forced African military labor
Evidence
- Much of the infrastructure construction in the interwar period used labor forcibly recruited by the administration. In I926, this form of labor was partially regulated through the creation of the S.M.O.T.I.G. (Service de la main d’oeuvre pour les travaux d’interet general). Regulations stipulated that the reserve or “deuxieme” portion of Africans drafted for military service could be used for public works projects. The idea for such recruitment can be traced to World War I, when Africans were sent from one part of the federation to another as a solution to the local labor shortages. The decision to force Africans to work on construction sites as part of their military service was justified on the grounds that they would acquire valuable skills and that public works were necessary to raise the standard of living. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1358
Categorization
- XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s focus on French republican empire being imposed on West Africa — forced labor as a core mechanism of the civilizing mission’s physical infrastructure.