Head taxes on Sudanese subjects financed French West Africa’s administration

Evidence

The passage of the loan bill made revision of the 1902 decree imperativeY Although the 1902 decree had been designed to create, in theory, a strong federal authority, it had considerably underestimated the expenses involved in both consolidating the expanded federal administration and launching a program of public works. The total revenues allocated the Government General in 1903 amounted to ten and a half million francs, generated largely from head taxes collected in the Sudanese territories. 18 This sum was clearly insufficient to secure the authorized sixty-five-million-franc loan or any future loans. What West Africa still required was an authority capable of generating greater revenues to pay for the administration in Dakar, and wealthy enough to act as a guarantor for outside capital investment. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 157

Categorization

• XREF: Central to the reader’s concern about the ramifications of French rule: the burden of the ‘civilizing’ administration fell on tax-paying African subjects.
• QUESTION: What was the head-tax rate and how were collections enforced across the Sudanese territories? Worth chasing for the human cost.