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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'Democracy' Rediscovered: Civilization through Association in French West Africa
Author:Conklin, Alice L.ISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:37
Issue:145
Pages:59-84
Language:English
Geographic terms:French-speaking Africa
West Africa
France
Subjects:colonialism
colonial administration
History and Exploration
External link:https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1997.1988
Abstract:This paper examines the new rhetoric and policy of 'democratic' association that emerged in Dakar (Senegal) after World War I. New threats to French authority - the election of Blaise Diagne and revolts throughout French West Africa (AOF) against conscription - along with a shift to the right in France, led administrators in the 1920s to reformulate the 'politique indigène' followed since 1895. The legitimate aspirations of old and new African elites for power were now to be met by associating them in decisionmaking. The author traces how four successive Governors-General - François Clozel (1915-1917), Joost van Vollenhoven (1917-1918), Martial Merlin (1919-1923) and Jules Carde (1923-1930) - used the term association, and how the idea of association affected their decisionmaking in Dakar. Through the concept of association, Dakar embraced a much more positive image of traditional West African social organization than had existed in the past. However, though ostensibly a liberalizing move, association in fact was fundamentally backwards looking, seeking to contain the African ambitions that Dakar's prewar policies had unwittingly unleashed. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French.
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