Networking: Freemasons and the Colonial State in French West Africa, 1895-1914

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. White
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
French West Africa ◽  
Colonial State

Photography, Identity, and Migration

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-52
Author(s):  
Johann Le Guelte
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
French West Africa ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Identification Practices

This article examines the politics of interwar colonial identification practices put into place by the French colonial state in order to curtail the mobility of colonial (im)migrants. I argue that photography was used as a tool of imperial control in both French West Africa (AOF) and metropolitan France, since colonial men’s inability to provide the required photographic portraits often prevented them from moving around the empire. In response, colonial subjects appropriated photography in alternative ways to subvert these administrative restrictions. Moreover, they took advantage of metropolitan racial stereotypes to contest Western identification practices.

‘CIRCLE OF IRON’: AFRICAN COLONIAL EMPLOYEES AND THE INTERPRETATION OF COLONIAL RULE IN FRENCH WEST AFRICA

2003 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILY LYNN OSBORN
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
French West Africa ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
French Colonial

This article investigates the role of African colonial employees in the functioning of the colonial state in French West Africa. Case studies from the 1890s and early 1900s demonstrate that in the transition from conquest to occupation, low-level African colonial intermediaries continually shaped the localized meanings that colonialism acquired in practice. Well-placed African colonial intermediaries in the colonies of Guinée Française and Soudan Français often controlled the dissemination of information and knowledge in the interactions of French colonial officials with local elites and members of the general population. The contributions of these African employees to the daily operations of the French colonial state show that scholars have long overlooked a cadre of men who played a significant role in shaping colonial rule.

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