The politique des races sought to abolish chiefly intermediaries for direct French rule

Evidence

The distrust of all chiefs and preference for direct communication integral to the politique des races can be seen in one final policy decision. As time went on, Panty was not content with simply reducing the prestige of traditional African rulers. So strong was his antipathy to what he perceived to be aristocratic vestiges in West Africa, that Panty eventually envisaged eliminating outright all canton and province chiefs and transferring their administrative duties to village chiefs, whom the commandant would supervise directly. Panty had contemplated this same policy in his capacity as lieutenant governor of Upper Senegal-Niger. At that time he had written Governor General Roume, in reference to canton chiefs, that “the administration and the natives have a common interest in getting rid of these often useless, sometimes dangerous and always onerous intermediaries.” A 1914 circular issued shortly before Panty’s death represented a first step in implementing this policy on a federation-wide basis. Canton chiefs, the governor general insisted, were no longer to play an active role in collecting taxes; they were merely to assist as “simple spectators.” In their place, village chiefs would carry out all fiscal duties. Thus the system of administration based on the canton approached the ideal of “direct contact,” since there would now be only one fiscal intermediary-the village chiefbetween the administration and their subjects, instead of the two that had existed previously. This system would, Panty felt sure, win the French the loyalty of the African masses; they would face fewer oppressors in their daily lives, and come that much closer to a benevolent representative of French civilization. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 402

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains that the politique des races was not mere divide-and-rule but specifically demanded elimination of chiefs and direct French-native contact.
• QUESTION: Did reducing chiefs to ‘simple spectators’ for tax collection actually decentralize or simply make French rule more authoritarian at village level? Worth checking how village chiefs responded.