Pre-1914 French civilizing doctrine mixed welfare goals with suppression of four African institutions

Evidence

Before 1914, two tenets dominated French civilization doctrine, neither of which can be described as straightforwardly “assimilationist” or “associationist.” First, confronted with the economic poverty of the indigenous populations, the French believed that civilization required that they improve their subjects’ standard of living through the rational development, or what the French called the mise en valeur, of the colonies’ natural and human resources. This objective, they thought, could best be achieved by building railroads-because railroads would link the interior to the coast and promote the exchange of peoples, currencies, commodities, and ideas-and by improving hygiene to eliminate the parasites deadly to Europeans and Africans. Second, the French insisted that civilization required that the different West African peoples had to evolve within their own cultures, to the extent that these cultures did not conflict with the republican principles of French civilization. When a conflict arose, the offending African mores were to be suppressed and replaced by French ones. After a prolonged struggle with African leaders in the Western Sudan, four African institutions were singled out for eradication: indigenous languages, slavery, barbaric customary law, and “feudal” chieftaincies. The republican virtues of a common language, freedom, social equality, and liberal justice were to take their place. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 37

Categorization

• SEED: The list of four targeted institutions (languages, slavery, customary law, feudal chieftaincies) is a potent comparative frame for examining how colonial powers select which indigenous institutions to destroy as obstacles to their ideals.