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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Unruly agents: police reform, bureaucratization, and policemen's agency in interwar Togo
Author:Glasman, JoelISNI
Year:2014
Periodical:The Journal of African History (ISSN 0021-8537)
Volume:55
Issue:1
Pages:79-100
Language:English
Geographic term:Togo
Subjects:police
bureaucracy
colonial administration
protest
External link:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853713000832
Abstract:In the last few years, our understanding of police forces in Africa has increased significantly. Whilst in previous literature the police tended to be presented as a mere instrument in the hands of state elites, recent studies have shown the ability of policemen to defend their group interests. This article analyses a pivotal moment in the history of French West Africa, namely the creation of the 'Service de Sūreté' in the early 1930s. Drawing on archival evidence from Togo, it takes a close look at the shift from military to urban policing, arguing that the bureaucratization of security modified the agency of African policemen. Whereas previously their forms of protest were very much connected with the specific setting of military camps (indiscipline, desertion, rebellion), these now increasingly included written protests within the administration. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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