French West Africa claimed leadership over British colonies in antislavery enforcement.

Evidence

With these measures in place, the federal authorities did not hesitate to claim that they were now “at the forefront of the antislavery movement in Africa.” French West Africa was ahead of its British neighbors in particular, whom the author of Dakar’s report on slavery, Georges Deherme, accused of making France’s task more difficult by harboring slavers and “enslaving” peoples “emigrating to avoid the demands of civilizing freedom.” — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 339

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s understanding of inter-imperial rivalry in African colonial policy.