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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
As the oldest and, for a long time, the most important French possession in West Africa, Senegal occupied a privileged position among the French West African colonies. This exceptional status was boosted by the elective institutions conceded to the colony between 1870 and 1880, namely, municipal organization, a conseil général, and deputy representation.
In 1870, ‘Senegal’ was no more than a congeries of scattered military posts and trading stations. By far the most important of these establishments were the quatre communes, famous for their special legal status and their privileged inhabitants, made up of the French and the mulattoes, who controlled the political situation, and the Senegalese. By 1870 the colony had acquired some of the important ingredients which could accelerate the growth of political consciousness: a relatively good communications network; growing urban centres; a developing élite, made up largely of traders and agents of the Bordeaux commercial firms who controlled the economic situation; and an administrative regime which had little or no place for unofficial representation.
The élite demanded a conseil général which alone, they felt, could protect their interests effectively. The outcome of their agitation was determined by three main factors: their influence; the attitude of the local administration, notorious for its hostility to elective institutions; and political vicissitudes in France. The institutions were conceded in the 1870s; that is, during the first years of the Third Republic, when the policy of assimilation began to be consciously applied in French colonies.
The establishment of these institutions widened the gap between the quatre communes, to which the reform was limited, and the rest of Senegal, where the system of indirect rule held sway, and marked the beginning of mutual jealousy and conflict between the two sections. It put Senegal ahead of the rest of French West Africa, which continued until after World War II to be governed in a less liberal fashion. It marked France's first major effort at political assimilation in West Africa, and witnessed the determination of the Bordeaux firms, who had spearheaded the movement for the conseil général, to control not only the economic but also the political life of the colony. And lastly, it helped to create the situation whereby the Senegalese, who had until then been no more than mere pawns on the political chessboard of the French and the mulattoes, emerged, with the advent of Blaise Diagne in 1914, as the politically dominant group in Senegal.
1 Idowu, H. O., The Conseil Général in Senegal, 1879–1920’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Ibadan, 06 1966), I.Google Scholar
2 Cukru, P., Histoire du Sénégal du XV6 Siècle à 1870 (Paris, 1910), 19.Google Scholar
3 Ibid. 41, 42. Cultru gave two alternative dates, 1658 and 1659, but modern writers tend to prefer the latter date.
4 Cf. Hargreaves, John D., ‘Assimilation in eighteenth-century Senegal’, J. Afr. Hist. VI, 2 (1965), 177–84.Google Scholar
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6 Cf. Saint-Martin, Yves, ‘Une source de l'histoire coloniale du Sénégal: les rapports de situation politique (1874–1891)’ (unpublished thesis, approved by the University of Dakar, for the degree of Diplôme d'études Supérieures, 06, 1964), 35.Google Scholar
7 The official designation was premier ariondissement and deuxième arrondissement. These correspond geographically to ‘Northern Region’ and ‘Southern Region’.
8 Bulletin Administratif du Sénégal (B.A.S.) (1819–1842), 559–87).Google Scholar
9 Cf. Idowu, 22, 23.
10 Désiré-Vuillemin, G., ‘Un commerce qui meurt: la traite de la gomme dans les escales du Sénégal’, Cahiers d'Outre-mer, V (1952), 90–4;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Guiraud, Xavier, L'Arachide Sénégalaise (Paris, 1938), 37.Google Scholar
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13 Ibid.
14 Conseil Général du Sénégal, Record of Proceedings, Dec. 1883 session, 50.
15 Idowu, 18–20.
16 ’Recensement de la population du Sénégal, année 1877’, 22G6, Archives Nationales du Sénégal, Dakar (A.N.S.).
17 Idowu, 83–98, on the Africans, the French, and the mulattoes. Between 1860 and 1920 the mulatto population did not exceed 1,700.
18 Maguet, Edgard, Des conseils généraux dans les colonies françaises autres que l'Algérie (Paris, 1991), 44–57.Google Scholar
19 Organic Ordinance, 7 Sept. 1840. See also Idowu, 46–9..
20 These tariffs had been fixed in 1864 and 1866, after consultation with the commercial classes. The power to fix customs duties was conferred on the conseils généraux of the ‘model’ colonies by the 1866 senatux consult. It was because Senegal had no conseil général that this same power was conferred on the governor.
21 Bordeaux firms to minister, 23 June 1869, ‘Sénégal & Dépendances’ (S. & D.), VII, 18 (c), Archives Nationales, Section Outre-mer, Paris (A.N.S.O.M.) Ibid. for the Chamber'lsquo;s letter, dated I July 1869. The finns put Senegal's budget at 1,170,000 fr., of which 600,000 fr. came from taxes paid by commerce. Also, according to them, Réunion had 62 million fr. of commerce, Martinique 53 million fr., Guadeloupe 42 million fr., Guiana II million fr., and Senegal 37 million fr.
22 Minister to Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce, 8 July 1869, I B97, A.N.S. One of these reforms was the creation of a Department of Internal Affairs, to help the governor in matters relating to internal administration. A chamber of commerce was set up in St Louis and in Goree in December 1869.
23 Bordeaux firms to minister, 23 Sept. 1869, ibid. In fact, recalling the x 840–8 St Louis and Goree councils, they demanded a conseil général for each of these localities. Also, as they were fed up with military expeditions (to which Senegal had been subjected since Faicdherbe), they demanded a ‘civilian government’.
24 This argument was expunged from the minister's reply (dated 28 Oct. 1869) to the Bordeaux firms, but it appeared in the draft. According to the draft, there were 400 Europeans to 200,000 Africans in the whole of Senegal under French rule or influence. For the letter, ibid.; and for the draft, S. & D., VII, 18(c), A.N.S.O.M.
25 Governor to Minister, 16 Jan. 1870, 2B35 A.N.S.
26 For this interesting and powerful speech, see Journal Officiel de l'Empire français, 12 03 1870.Google Scholar
27 Cf. Idowu, 57, 58.
28 On this reform see Dethan, Georges, De l'organisation des conseils généraux (Paris, 1889).Google Scholar
29 Maguet, 20, 21.
30 See ‘Ordonnance du Roi’, 9 Feb 1827, S. &. D., VII, 7(a), A.N.S.O.M.
31 Petition of the Committee for Commerce, St Louis, to governor, 30 May 1827, ibid. The Organic Ordinance of 7 Sept. 1840 gave Senegal a delegate. From 1841 to 1848 Senegal's delegates were Victor Calvé of Bordeaux (1841–6), and Baron Roger, an exgovernor of Senegal (1846–8). The delegate's annual salary was fixed at 12,000 fr.
32 Senegal's first deputy was Durand Valantin (1848–9). He was succeeded by John Sleigth, but the latter's election was nullified in Nov. 1851. Both men were very influential local merchants.
33 B.A.S. (1852), 168–70.
34 The Organic Law of 30 Nov. 1875 on the election of deputies was silent on the representation of Senegal in the French Parliament. Thus, Senegal's representation was implicitly abolished. Senegal's 1871–5 deputy, Lafon de Fongaufler, may have offended certain powerful political milieux in France (Cf. Moniteur du Sénégal (1879), 119, 120.)Google Scholar
35 Minister to governor, 22 July 1871, 2B38, A.N.S.
36 Governor to minister, 14 August 1871. Ibid.
37 The petition of the commercial classes, dated 15 Jan. 1872, was forwarded by the deputy to the minister, with a covering letter dated 12 Feb. 1872, for which see S. & D., VII, 51(a), A.N.S.O.M.
38 Among such influential names which did not appear on the list of signatories were Gaspard Devès, Devès and Chaumet, Maurel and Prom, Maurel Frères, Caminade, and Delamaison.
39 B.A.S. (1872), 289–312.
40 For official reports on the councils, see 2B41 and 44, A.N.S.
41 Bordeaux firms to Minister, 29 Jan. and 12 March 1878, S. & D., VII, 30(b), A.N.S.O.M. The projects included (a) supply of fresh water to St Louis, and (b) construction of the St Louis–Dakar railway line. The Marseille firms were the most powerful commercial group in the rivières du sud.
42 Cf. Idowu, 68, 69.
43 Minister to governor, 28 Feb. 1878, S. & D. VII, 30(b), A.N.S.O.M. See also ‘Note, pour le Ministre’, 19 Feb. 1878, ibid.
44 B.A.S. (1879), 129–51. The decree was the product of the efforts of the administrative council in Senegal and of the commission in Paris. For the council's report, see ‘Conseil d'Administration du Sénégal, Procès-Verbal des délibérations’, 2–4 May 1878, 3E43, A.N.S. And for the commission's report, see Chairman of Commission to Minister, 28 Jan. 1879, S. &. D. VII, 31(a), A.N.S.O.M.
45 Governor Brière de l'Isle was recalled in 1881 largely because he had been declared persona non grata by Senegal's deputy, Gasconi. Also, it was largely through deputy Blaise Diagne's intervention that the citizenship rights of the quatre communes Senegalese, which the local administration had tried to abolish, were restored in 1916.
46 Cf. Idowu, 113.
47 B.A.S. (1848), 255–7.Google Scholar
48 Campbell, P., French Electoral Systems and Elections 1789–1957 (London, 1958), 59.Google Scholar
49 Cf. Idowu, , 327–30 (on ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ administration), and 377–8Google Scholar (on conflict between the ‘direct’ and the ‘indirect’ administration sections of Senegal). See also B.A.S. (1904), 147–50.Google Scholar On the concession of French citizenship to Senegal in 1794, 1830, 1833 and 1848, see Idowu, 379, 383, 384.
50 Mille, Pierre, ‘The “Black Vote” in Senegal’, J. Afr. Soc. I (1901), 64–79.Google Scholar
51 By the Oct. 1946 constitution establishing the French Union, they obtained conseils généraux as well as the right to send deputies to the French Parliament. On this reform, see Kenneth Robinson, ‘The public law of overseas France since the war’ (Reprint Series, no. I a, Oxford University Institute of Colonial Studies, 1951); and ‘Political development in French West Africa’ (Reprint Series, no. 13, Oxford University Institute of Colonial Studies, 1955). On the creation of municipal institutions in French West Africa in 1955, see Robinson, , ‘Local government reform in French tropical Africa’, J. Afr. Admin. VIII, no. 4 (10 1956), 179–85.Google Scholar
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53 On the history of assimilation in 19th century Senegal, see Idowu, 379–395.
54 For example, decrees of 50 Aug. 1872 and 4 Feb. 1879.
55 On this epoch-making event, see Idowu, 397–468.
