French courts staffed by Muslim judges were accelerating the spread of Islam among animists

Evidence

First, the governor general insisted that French courts had to respect the ethnic and religious identities of the different groups living in West Africa, from the most primitive forest dweller to the most evolved assimile. The court system set up by Roume did not, in Panty’s opinion, adequately conform to this principle. Urban areas had been arbitrarily placed under the jurisdiction of French courts; individual ethnic or religious groups in various parts of the federation did not benefit from courts composed exclusively of judges practicing their customs. Animist groups, in particular, were frequently being judged by courts presided over by Muslim cadis. This situation was contributing to the spread of Islam and had to be remedied. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 411

Categorization

• DEFINE: The passage introduces the colonial premise that each ethnic group should be judged by its own ‘natural’ judges, a technical rule in the 1912 judicial reform.
• QUESTION: Panty’s apparent alarm that Muslim cadis judging animists spreads Islam is a striking admission — does the scholarship elsewhere connect colonial courts to religious conversion dynamics in West Africa?