Representation, structure and agency: Divorce in the French Soudan during the early twentieth century

Journal of African History

Volumn 40, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 389-410

  Roberts, Richard ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENDER ISSUE; SOCIAL HISTORY; TWENTIETH CENTURY; WOMENS STATUS;

MALI;

EID: 0033393468     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0021853799007501     Document Type: Article

References (109)

1. Etat des jugements rendus en matière civile et commerciale par le Tribunal de province de Ségou pendant le quatrième trimestre de 1905, Archives Nationales, République du Mali (hereinafter ANM) 2 M 143. This article was originally presented at a conference on 'Imperialism and Identity: Remapping the Cultural Politics of Representation', held at the University of California, Berkeley, February 1998. This is a preliminary discussion for a proposed longer study tentatively entitled 'Courts and conflicts in the French Soudan, 1895 to 1912'. I have collected the complete run of all civil disputes brought before the tribunal de province for the districts of Sikasso, Bougouni, Bamako, Segu, Gumbu and Sokolo. I would like to thank the editors of this journal, Chris Lee, William Worger and Emily Osborn for their helpful comments on this article.
2. A third question, which falls outside of the discussion for this article, would ask methodological and epistemological questions about the nature and utility of court records derived from the registers of the provincial court for students of African social and legal history. For a preliminary discussion of these issues, see Richard Roberts, 'Text and testimony in the Tribunal de Première Instance, Dakar, during the early twentieth century', Journal of African History, 31 (1991), 447-63, and Richard Roberts, 'Conflicts over property in the Middle Niger valley at the beginning of the twentieth century', African Economic History, 25 (1997), 79-96.
3. A third question, which falls outside of the discussion for this article, would ask methodological and epistemological questions about the nature and utility of court records derived from the registers of the provincial court for students of African social and legal history. For a preliminary discussion of these issues, see Richard Roberts, 'Text and testimony in the Tribunal de Première Instance, Dakar, during the early twentieth century', Journal of African History, 31 (1991), 447-63, and Richard Roberts, 'Conflicts over property in the Middle Niger valley at the beginning of the twentieth century', African Economic History, 25 (1997), 79-96.
4. See Dominque Sarr and Richard Roberts, 'The jurisdiction of Muslim tribunals in colonial Senegal, 1857-1932', in Kristin Mann and Richard Roberts (eds.), Law in Colonial Africa (Portsmouth NH, 1991) and Roberts, 'Text and testimony'. Those Africans considered 'subjects' of France could not bring their grievances before these courts. Instead, they were directed to 'customary' courts. For parallels elsewhere in Africa,
5. See Dominque Sarr and Richard Roberts, 'The jurisdiction of Muslim tribunals in colonial Senegal, 1857-1932', in Kristin Mann and Richard Roberts (eds.), Law in Colonial Africa (Portsmouth NH, 1991) and Roberts, 'Text and testimony'. Those Africans considered 'subjects' of France could not bring their grievances before these courts. Instead, they were directed to 'customary' courts. For parallels elsewhere in Africa,
6. See Dominque Sarr and Richard Roberts, 'The jurisdiction of Muslim tribunals in colonial Senegal, 1857-1932', in Kristin Mann and Richard Roberts (eds.), Law in Colonial Africa (Portsmouth NH, 1991) and Roberts, 'Text and testimony'. Those Africans considered 'subjects' of France could not bring their grievances before these courts. Instead, they were directed to 'customary' courts. For parallels elsewhere in Africa,
7. see Mahmoud Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, 1996).
8. In compiling the registers of court cases, the French colonial officials nd African clerks may well have narrowed the expression of grievances into recognizable formula so that they could be 'heard' - or more precisely, recorded. Thus, the registers may not be an accurate record of what was actually said in the courtroom. David Cohen has described the tensions between what Basoga courts saw as 'appropriate, relevant and correct facts and arguments' and what litigants and witnesses saw as 'appropriate, relevant and correct'. David Cohen, '"A case for the Basoga": Lloyd Fallers and the construction of an African legal system', in Mann and Roberts (eds.), Law in Colonial Africa, 241. See also James Clifford's discussion of the Mashpee land claim trial, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature and Art (MA thesis, Cambridge University, 1988). Using court records as historical sources requires that we develop a methodology that subjects these records to critical interpretation of how they were produced and how testimony was shaped by court procedures.
9. In compiling the registers of court cases, the French colonial officials nd African clerks may well have narrowed the expression of grievances into recognizable formula so that they could be 'heard' - or more precisely, recorded. Thus, the registers may not be an accurate record of what was actually said in the courtroom. David Cohen has described the tensions between what Basoga courts saw as 'appropriate, relevant and correct facts and arguments' and what litigants and witnesses saw as 'appropriate, relevant and correct'. David Cohen, '"A case for the Basoga": Lloyd Fallers and the construction of an African legal system', in Mann and Roberts (eds.), Law in Colonial Africa, 241. See also James Clifford's discussion of the Mashpee land claim trial, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature and Art (MA thesis, Cambridge University, 1988). Using court records as historical sources requires that we develop a methodology that subjects these records to critical interpretation of how they were produced and how testimony was shaped by court procedures.
10. Cognitive psychology may provide some leads on guiding our understanding of human processes of perception, knowing, learning and problem solving. For a study of cognitive problem solving linked to spatial knowledge, see Mary M. Smith, Peter E. Morris, Philip Levy, and Andrew W. Ellis, Cognition in Action (London, 1987), ch. 11. See also, Richard A. Carlson, Experience and Cognition (London, 1997), 195-263.
11. Cognitive psychology may provide some leads on guiding our understanding of human processes of perception, knowing, learning and problem solving. For a study of cognitive problem solving linked to spatial knowledge, see Mary M. Smith, Peter E. Morris, Philip Levy, and Andrew W. Ellis, Cognition in Action (London, 1987), ch. 11. See also, Richard A. Carlson, Experience and Cognition (London, 1997), 195-263.
12. Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society (Berkeley, 1984), 9, 14.
13. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip I, trans. Sian Reynolds (New York, 1972), 20-21.
14. See, for example, A. G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), ch. 4; Robin Law (ed.), From Slave Trade to 'Legitimate Commerce': The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-century West Africa (Cambridge, 1995), and Bouboucar Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1998).
15. See, for example, A. G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), ch. 4; Robin Law (ed.), From Slave Trade to 'Legitimate Commerce': The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-century West Africa (Cambridge, 1995), and Bouboucar Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1998).
16. See, for example, A. G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), ch. 4; Robin Law (ed.), From Slave Trade to 'Legitimate Commerce': The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-century West Africa (Cambridge, 1995), and Bouboucar Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1998).
17. See, for example, Sara Berry, No Condition is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in sub-Saharan Africa (Madison, 1993); Jan Hogendorn and Paul Lovejoy, Slow Death to Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936 (Cambridge, 1993); Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988).
18. See, for example, Sara Berry, No Condition is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in sub-Saharan Africa (Madison, 1993); Jan Hogendorn and Paul Lovejoy, Slow Death to Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936 (Cambridge, 1993); Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988).
19. See, for example, Sara Berry, No Condition is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in sub-Saharan Africa (Madison, 1993); Jan Hogendorn and Paul Lovejoy, Slow Death to Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936 (Cambridge, 1993); Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988).
20. Richard Roberts and Martin Klein, 'The Banamba slave exodus of 1905 and the decline of slavery in the Western Sudan', Journal of African History, 21 (1980), 375-94; Martin A. Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa (Cambridge, 1998); Richard Roberts, 'The end of slavery in the French Soudan, 1905-1914', in Miers and Roberts, The End of Slavery.
21. Richard Roberts and Martin Klein, 'The Banamba slave exodus of 1905 and the decline of slavery in the Western Sudan', Journal of African History, 21 (1980), 375-94; Martin A. Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa (Cambridge, 1998); Richard Roberts, 'The end of slavery in the French Soudan, 1905-1914', in Miers and Roberts, The End of Slavery.
22. Richard Roberts and Martin Klein, 'The Banamba slave exodus of 1905 and the decline of slavery in the Western Sudan', Journal of African History, 21 (1980), 375-94; Martin A. Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa (Cambridge, 1998); Richard Roberts, 'The end of slavery in the French Soudan, 1905-1914', in Miers and Roberts, The End of Slavery.
23. Giddens, Constitution of Society, 25. Giddens refers to structures as being 'structuring properties allowing the "binding" of time -space in social systems . . . Those practices which have the greatest time - space extensions within such totalities can be referred to as institutions', ibid. 17.
24. Giddens, Constitution of Society, 25. Giddens refers to structures as being 'structuring properties allowing the "binding" of time -space in social systems . . . Those practices which have the greatest time - space extensions within such totalities can be referred to as institutions', ibid. 17.
25. The debate surrounding the origins of Anglo-American antislavery provides a fascinating discussion of ideology, representation and agency: see Thomas Bender (ed.), The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism as a Problem in Historical Explanation (Berkeley, 1992). See also David W. Cohen, The Production of History (Chicago, 1994).
26. The debate surrounding the origins of Anglo-American antislavery provides a fascinating discussion of ideology, representation and agency: see Thomas Bender (ed.), The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism as a Problem in Historical Explanation (Berkeley, 1992). See also David W. Cohen, The Production of History (Chicago, 1994).
27. Jonathon Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili coast, 1856-1888 (Portsmouth NH, 1995) captures this sense of unstable and contested institutions and practices. See also Jean-Loup Amselle, Vers le multiculturalisme français (Paris, 1996). For more detail, see Richard Roberts, 'Conflict of colonialisms and the making of the colonial legal system, 1893-1905', presented at the French Colonial History Society meeting, Monterey, May 1998. See also Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930 (Stanford, 1997), ch. 3.
28. Jonathon Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili coast, 1856-1888 (Portsmouth NH, 1995) captures this sense of unstable and contested institutions and practices. See also Jean-Loup Amselle, Vers le multiculturalisme français (Paris, 1996). For more detail, see Richard Roberts, 'Conflict of colonialisms and the making of the colonial legal system, 1893-1905', presented at the French Colonial History Society meeting, Monterey, May 1998. See also Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930 (Stanford, 1997), ch. 3.
29. Jonathon Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili coast, 1856-1888 (Portsmouth NH, 1995) captures this sense of unstable and contested institutions and practices. See also Jean-Loup Amselle, Vers le multiculturalisme français (Paris, 1996). For more detail, see Richard Roberts, 'Conflict of colonialisms and the making of the colonial legal system, 1893-1905', presented at the French Colonial History Society meeting, Monterey, May 1998. See also Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930 (Stanford, 1997), ch. 3.
30. Jonathon Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili coast, 1856-1888 (Portsmouth NH, 1995) captures this sense of unstable and contested institutions and practices. See also Jean-Loup Amselle, Vers le multiculturalisme français (Paris, 1996). For more detail, see Richard Roberts, 'Conflict of colonialisms and the making of the colonial legal system, 1893-1905', presented at the French Colonial History Society meeting, Monterey, May 1998. See also Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930 (Stanford, 1997), ch. 3.
31. For a parallel case in southwestern Nigeria, see Judith Byfield, 'Women, marriage, divorce and the emerging colonial state in Abeokuta (Nigeria), 1892-1904', Canadian Journal of African Studies, 30 (1996), 32-51.
32. Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, Bamako, 3rd Quarter 1906, ANM 2 M 54.
33. Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, Mopti, 1st Quarter 1911, ANM 2 M 79.
34. For example, Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, Koutiala, 2nd Quarter 1906, ANM 2 M 75.
35. The most important legislation was the Naquet Law, 1884; legislation regarding the protection of minors and child labor laws also influenced how French administrators approached the social problems raised by women seeking divorce.
36. Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice, Bouguni, 3rd Quarter 1910, ANM 2 M 59.
37. Rapport sur le fonctionnement des tribunaux indigènes, Gumbu, 4th Quarter 1906, ANM 2 M 65; also Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, Bamako, 2nd Quarter 1906, ANM 2 M 54.
38. The French colonial discourse on African women continued to change. See Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 168-72; Henri Labouret, À la recherche d'une politique indigène dans l'Ouest-africain (Paris, 1931); Soeur Marie-André du Sacré-Coeur, La femme noire en Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1939); Danielle Bazin-Tardieu, Femmes du Mali: statut, image, réactions au changement (Ottawa, 1975); Y. Knibiehler and R. Goutalier, La femme au temps des colonies (Paris, 1985); and Ghislaine Lydon, 'The unraveling of a neglected source: a report on women in francophone West Africa in the 1930s', Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 38 (1997), 555-84.
39. The French colonial discourse on African women continued to change. See Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 168-72; Henri Labouret, À la recherche d'une politique indigène dans l'Ouest-africain (Paris, 1931); Soeur Marie-André du Sacré-Coeur, La femme noire en Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1939); Danielle Bazin-Tardieu, Femmes du Mali: statut, image, réactions au changement (Ottawa, 1975); Y. Knibiehler and R. Goutalier, La femme au temps des colonies (Paris, 1985); and Ghislaine Lydon, 'The unraveling of a neglected source: a report on women in francophone West Africa in the 1930s', Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 38 (1997), 555-84.
40. The French colonial discourse on African women continued to change. See Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 168-72; Henri Labouret, À la recherche d'une politique indigène dans l'Ouest-africain (Paris, 1931); Soeur Marie-André du Sacré-Coeur, La femme noire en Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1939); Danielle Bazin-Tardieu, Femmes du Mali: statut, image, réactions au changement (Ottawa, 1975); Y. Knibiehler and R. Goutalier, La femme au temps des colonies (Paris, 1985); and Ghislaine Lydon, 'The unraveling of a neglected source: a report on women in francophone West Africa in the 1930s', Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 38 (1997), 555-84.
41. The French colonial discourse on African women continued to change. See Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 168-72; Henri Labouret, À la recherche d'une politique indigène dans l'Ouest-africain (Paris, 1931); Soeur Marie-André du Sacré-Coeur, La femme noire en Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1939); Danielle Bazin-Tardieu, Femmes du Mali: statut, image, réactions au changement (Ottawa, 1975); Y. Knibiehler and R. Goutalier, La femme au temps des colonies (Paris, 1985); and Ghislaine Lydon, 'The unraveling of a neglected source: a report on women in francophone West Africa in the 1930s', Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 38 (1997), 555-84.
42. The French colonial discourse on African women continued to change. See Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 168-72; Henri Labouret, À la recherche d'une politique indigène dans l'Ouest-africain (Paris, 1931); Soeur Marie-André du Sacré-Coeur, La femme noire en Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1939); Danielle Bazin-Tardieu, Femmes du Mali: statut, image, réactions au changement (Ottawa, 1975); Y. Knibiehler and R. Goutalier, La femme au temps des colonies (Paris, 1985); and Ghislaine Lydon, 'The unraveling of a neglected source: a report on women in francophone West Africa in the 1930s', Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 38 (1997), 555-84.
43. The French colonial discourse on African women continued to change. See Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 168-72; Henri Labouret, À la recherche d'une politique indigène dans l'Ouest-africain (Paris, 1931); Soeur Marie-André du Sacré-Coeur, La femme noire en Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1939); Danielle Bazin-Tardieu, Femmes du Mali: statut, image, réactions au changement (Ottawa, 1975); Y. Knibiehler and R. Goutalier, La femme au temps des colonies (Paris, 1985); and Ghislaine Lydon, 'The unraveling of a neglected source: a report on women in francophone West Africa in the 1930s', Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 38 (1997), 555-84.
44. Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, Koutiala, 2nd Quarter 1909, ANM 2 M 75.
45. For the latest discussion on the history of French antislavery policy and its social consequences, see Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule.
46. Rapport complémentaire sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, Koutiala, 31 July 1910, ANM 2 M 75.
47. Maurice Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Paris, 1912, reprinted Paris, 1972). The original surveys are in very poor condition in the Malian Archives.
48. Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, III, 2.
49. Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, III, 3.
50. Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, III, 61-2.
51. Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, III, 61-2.
52. Charles Monteil, Les Bambara du Ségou et du Kaarta (Paris, 1924, reprinted Paris, 1977).
53. Monteil relied upon the assistance of only two crucial informants, the jeliw or griots, Kare Tammoura and Gran Konaté.
54. Maurice Delafosse, review of Les Bambara, originally published in Afrique française, Mar. 1924, and reprinted in the 1977 edition of Les Bambara, xviii.
55. 'Fa signifies, following the case, seigneur, maître, patriarche, père . . . It corresponds very well in the family to the lofty and respectable dignity which is reflected in the way Mistral referred to his father: mon seigneur père ou le maître'. Note in original text.
56. Les Bambara, 158-9.
57. Les Bambara, 173-4.
58. Les Bambara, 183.
59. Les Bambara, 185.
60. William Ponty, for long governor of the Soudan, became governor-general of French West Africa in 1908. Drawing upon his own field experience as well as the ideas of Delafosse and Monteil, Ponty elaborated a native policy he termed 'politique des races'. The politique des races sought to build colonialism on a respect for the stability of African social institutions, the genius of which lay in each ethnic group's traditions. Ponty's native policy simultaneously attacked the native aristocracy enshrined through the policies of indirect rule in order to return to the more egalitarian nature of African traditional societies and sought to encourage 'progress' through education and ethnic self-determination. There were, of course, deep contradictions in Ponty's formulation. See Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, and Andrew Hubbell, 'Patronage and predation: a social history of colonial chieftancies in a chiefless region, Souroudougou (Burkina Faso), 1850-1946', (Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, 1997).
61. William Ponty, for long governor of the Soudan, became governor-general of French West Africa in 1908. Drawing upon his own field experience as well as the ideas of Delafosse and Monteil, Ponty elaborated a native policy he termed 'politique des races'. The politique des races sought to build colonialism on a respect for the stability of African social institutions, the genius of which lay in each ethnic group's traditions. Ponty's native policy simultaneously attacked the native aristocracy enshrined through the policies of indirect rule in order to return to the more egalitarian nature of African traditional societies and sought to encourage 'progress' through education and ethnic self-determination. There were, of course, deep contradictions in Ponty's formulation. See Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, and Andrew Hubbell, 'Patronage and predation: a social history of colonial chieftancies in a chiefless region, Souroudougou (Burkina Faso), 1850-1946', (Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, 1997).
62. The notion of winners and losers is derived from Robert Kidder, 'Western law in India: external law and local response', in (ed.) Harry M. Johnson, Social System and Legal Process (San Francisco, 1978). I return to this notion below.
63. Regardless of the explicit instructions that Muslim assessors be appointed to the new courts and that Muslim law as part of Muslim social status be recognized (and despite French bias in favor of 'codified' Muslim law more generally), Muslims did not rush to the new courts. The Segu commandant noted that 'Muslims manifest a certain apprehension about bringing their grievances before mixed courts', (Rapport sur le fonctionnement des tribunaux indigènes, 2nd Quarter 1905, Segu, ANM 2 M 92). By mixed, the author meant composed of Muslim and non-Muslim judges. Moreover, a system of Muslim justice existed on the fringes of the French colonial courts well into the 1930s, which was probably the site for much of the adjudication of civil disputes among Muslims. Dennis Galvan, University of Florida, is currently working on Muslim courts in Senegal.
64. E. Roume, Justice indigène: instructions aux administrateurs sur l'application du décret du 10 Novembre 1903 portant réorganisation du Service de la justice dans les colonies relevant du Gouvernement général de l'Afrique occidentale française (Gorée, 1905), 41.
65. Roume, Justice indigène, 21-5.
66. Roume, Justice indigène, 25.
67. Governor-general Merlin, Instructions aux administrateurs de la Sénégambie-Niger sur l'application du Décret du 10 Novembre 1903 portant réorganisation du Service de la Justice, Gorée, October 1904, ANM 2 M 459.
68. Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, 3rd Quarter 1905, Bougouni, ANM 2 M 59; Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigene, 4th Quarter 1905, Bougouni, ANM 2 M 59.
69. Rapport sur le fonctionnement des tribunaux indigènes, 3rd Quarter 1906, Bougouni, ANM 2 M 59.
70. Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice, 2nd Quarter 1907, Jenne, ANM 2 M 60.
71. Rapport de M. l'Administrateur de cercle du Bamako sur le fonctionnement des tribunaux indigènes, ist Quarter 1909, Bamako, ANM 2 M 54.
72. Kidder, 'Western law in India', 159-62.
73. Rapport de l'administrateur sur le fonctionnement des tribunaux indigène, 4th Quarter 1908, Bamako, ANM 2 M 54.
74. Bernard Maupoil (ed.), Coutumiers juridiques de l'Afrique occidentale française, 2 vols. (Paris, 1939). Since 1896, the French had started to collect customary laws with the intention of using them as guides for local administrators. For more information, see Roberts, 'Conflicts over property'.
75. Alfred Aubert, 'Coutume Bambara, cercle de Bougouni', in Maupoil, Coutumiers juridiques, II, 63.
76. Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, May 1905, Bamako, ANM 2 M 54. Adultery blurred the lines between civil and correctional jurisdictions and needs to be teased out more fully.
77. Aubert and Ortoli in Maupoil, Coutumiers juridiques, list adultery as a cause for divorce. In his detailed study of Bambara marriage in the Dioila area, René Luneau ('Le mariage coutumier dans la société Bambara: Les traditions du village de Beleko (Mali)', unpublished diplôme de l'EPHE, Vième section, Paris, 1968, 148) does not count adultery as sufficient cause for divorce; he sees it as grounds for husbands to seek damages from the adulterer. Jane Collier's excellent discussion of adultery in Marriage and Inequality in Classless Societies (Stanford, 1988), clarifies many of the arguments about the centrality of adultery cases in Max Gluckman, The Judicial Process among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, 1955) and Lloyd Fallers, Law Without Precedent: Legal Ideas in Action in the Courts of Colonial Busoga (Chicago, 1969).
78. Aubert and Ortoli in Maupoil, Coutumiers juridiques, list adultery as a cause for divorce. In his detailed study of Bambara marriage in the Dioila area, René Luneau ('Le mariage coutumier dans la société Bambara: Les traditions du village de Beleko (Mali)', unpublished diplôme de l'EPHE, Vième section, Paris, 1968, 148) does not count adultery as sufficient cause for divorce; he sees it as grounds for husbands to seek damages from the adulterer. Jane Collier's excellent discussion of adultery in Marriage and Inequality in Classless Societies (Stanford, 1988), clarifies many of the arguments about the centrality of adultery cases in Max Gluckman, The Judicial Process among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, 1955) and Lloyd Fallers, Law Without Precedent: Legal Ideas in Action in the Courts of Colonial Busoga (Chicago, 1969).
79. Aubert and Ortoli in Maupoil, Coutumiers juridiques, list adultery as a cause for divorce. In his detailed study of Bambara marriage in the Dioila area, René Luneau ('Le mariage coutumier dans la société Bambara: Les traditions du village de Beleko (Mali)', unpublished diplôme de l'EPHE, Vième section, Paris, 1968, 148) does not count adultery as sufficient cause for divorce; he sees it as grounds for husbands to seek damages from the adulterer. Jane Collier's excellent discussion of adultery in Marriage and Inequality in Classless Societies (Stanford, 1988), clarifies many of the arguments about the centrality of adultery cases in Max Gluckman, The Judicial Process among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, 1955) and Lloyd Fallers, Law Without Precedent: Legal Ideas in Action in the Courts of Colonial Busoga (Chicago, 1969).
80. I have borrowed the phrase from Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 (Cambridge, 1991), 102.
81. Camilla Toulmin, Cattle, Women and Wells: Managing household survival in the Sahel (Oxford, 1992), 4-5, ch. 13.
82. See John Comaroff (ed.), The Meaning of Marriage Payments (London, 1980), and Collier, Marriage and Inequality.
83. See John Comaroff (ed.), The Meaning of Marriage Payments (London, 1980), and Collier, Marriage and Inequality.
84. Jean Ortoli, 'Coutume Bambara, Cercle de Bamako', in Coutumiers juridiques, II, 135. See also Luneau, 'Le mariage coutumier', and Vernika Görög-Karady, 'La loi du père: autorité paternelle et mariage', in Vernika Görög-Karady (ed.), Le mariage dans les contes africaines: études et anthologie (Paris, 1994).
85. Jean Ortoli, 'Coutume Bambara, Cercle de Bamako', in Coutumiers juridiques, II, 135. See also Luneau, 'Le mariage coutumier', and Vernika Görög-Karady, 'La loi du père: autorité paternelle et mariage', in Vernika Görög-Karady (ed.), Le mariage dans les contes africaines: études et anthologie (Paris, 1994).
86. See Richard Roberts, 'Women's work and women's property: household social relations in the Maraka textile industry in the nineteenth century', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 26 (1984).
87. Cases involving incompletely transferred bridewealth regularly appear in the court records. Marriage disputes are thus simultaneously about marriage and contracts.
88. Toulmin, Cattle, Women and Wells, 266, 249 respectively. Luneau makes the same point: 'Mariage coutumier', 151-3.
89. Toulmin, Cattle, Women and Wells, 266, 249 respectively. Luneau makes the same point: 'Mariage coutumier', 151-3.
90. Ortoli, 'Coutume Bambara', 141-2; Aubert, 'Coutume Bambara', 86-99; Toulmin, Cattle, Women and Wells, 299.
91. Ortoli, 'Coutume Bambara', 141-2; Aubert, 'Coutume Bambara', 86-99; Toulmin, Cattle, Women and Wells, 299.
92. Ortoli, 'Coutume Bambara', 141-2; Aubert, 'Coutume Bambara', 86-99; Toulmin, Cattle, Women and Wells, 299.
93. Of course, Toulmin's description reflected a normative bias in the nature of her ethnographic data. Real life was certainly different. By high incidence, I refer to the prominence of divorce cases in the court records and to contemporary colonial administrators' perceptions. 66 Rapport sur le fonctionnement de la justice indigène, 1st Quarter 1906, Sikasso, ANM 2 M 93.
94. Rapport sur le fonctionnement des tribunaux, ist Quarter 1907, Segu, ANM 2 M 92.
95. There has been very little work on the meaning of marriage in Mali. Ethnographies describe marriage structures, but they do not capture the meanings the participants, especially the women, attach to them. There is, for example, no comparable study to Mary Smith's Baba of Karo: A Woman of the Muslim Hausa (New Haven, 1981), which is remarkable in its presentation of the life history of a Muslim Hausa woman. In a study focusing on the Bambara village of Kala, Camilla Toulmin writes of women's expectations: 'For women, marriage should provide a secure position where, with hard work and successful child-rearing, they will achieve a respected old age. As they grow older, they will hope to be surrounded by daughters-in-law to ease their burden of work, and a horde of grand-and great-grand-children to teach and mock their toothlessness' Cattle, Women and Wells, 3. Toulmin's view is not congruent with women seeking divorce as described in this paper. The most important study on marriage and divorce in Muslim West Africa is Barbara Cooper, Marriage in Maradi: Gender and Culture in a Hausa Society in Niger, 1900-1989 (Portsmouth NH, 1997).
96. There has been very little work on the meaning of marriage in Mali. Ethnographies describe marriage structures, but they do not capture the meanings the participants, especially the women, attach to them. There is, for example, no comparable study to Mary Smith's Baba of Karo: A Woman of the Muslim Hausa (New Haven, 1981), which is remarkable in its presentation of the life history of a Muslim Hausa woman. In a study focusing on the Bambara village of Kala, Camilla Toulmin writes of women's expectations: 'For women, marriage should provide a secure position where, with hard work and successful child-rearing, they will achieve a respected old age. As they grow older, they will hope to be surrounded by daughters-in-law to ease their burden of work, and a horde of grand-and great-grand-children to teach and mock their toothlessness' Cattle, Women and Wells, 3. Toulmin's view is not congruent with women seeking divorce as described in this paper. The most important study on marriage and divorce in Muslim West Africa is Barbara Cooper, Marriage in Maradi: Gender and Culture in a Hausa Society in Niger, 1900-1989 (Portsmouth NH, 1997).
97. There has been very little work on the meaning of marriage in Mali. Ethnographies describe marriage structures, but they do not capture the meanings the participants, especially the women, attach to them. There is, for example, no comparable study to Mary Smith's Baba of Karo: A Woman of the Muslim Hausa (New Haven, 1981), which is remarkable in its presentation of the life history of a Muslim Hausa woman. In a study focusing on the Bambara village of Kala, Camilla Toulmin writes of women's expectations: 'For women, marriage should provide a secure position where, with hard work and successful child-rearing, they will achieve a respected old age. As they grow older, they will hope to be surrounded by daughters-in-law to ease their burden of work, and a horde of grand-and great-grand-children to teach and mock their toothlessness' Cattle, Women and Wells, 3. Toulmin's view is not congruent with women seeking divorce as described in this paper. The most important study on marriage and divorce in Muslim West Africa is Barbara Cooper, Marriage in Maradi: Gender and Culture in a Hausa Society in Niger, 1900-1989 (Portsmouth NH, 1997).
98. Claire Goldberg Moses, French Feminism in the Nineteenth Century (Albany, 1984), 209-11.
99. Terence Ranger, 'The invention of tradition in Africa', in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983); Martin Chanock, Law, Custom and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia (Cambridge, 1985).
100. Terence Ranger, 'The invention of tradition in Africa', in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983); Martin Chanock, Law, Custom and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia (Cambridge, 1985).
101. Richard Roberts, 'The end of slavery in the French Soudan, 1905-1914', in Meiers and Roberts (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa, 300. Sara Berry, No Condition is Permanent, 8, refers to analogous processes elsewhere in Africa as 'an era of intensified contestation over custom, power and property'.
102. Richard Roberts, 'The end of slavery in the French Soudan, 1905-1914', in Meiers and Roberts (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa, 300. Sara Berry, No Condition is Permanent, 8, refers to analogous processes elsewhere in Africa as 'an era of intensified contestation over custom, power and property'.
103. Richard Roberts, 'Ideology, slavery and social formation: the evolution of Maraka slavery in the Middle Niger valley', in Paul Lovejoy (ed.), The Ideology of Slavery in Africa (Beverly Hills, 1981).
104. This quote is William Ponty's, which was borrowed virtually word for word by Merlin and then Roume. No title, dealing with instructions regarding implementing the 10 Nov. 1903 Décret, n.d. [but February 1904], ANM 2 M 34.
105. See Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule, 159-215.
106. Cooper, Marriage in Maradi, p. 21. The literature on non-formal dispute resolution is extensive: see, for example, Laura Nader and Harry Todd (eds.), Disputing Process: Law in Ten Societies (New York, 1978).
107. Cooper, Marriage in Maradi, p. 21. The literature on non-formal dispute resolution is extensive: see, for example, Laura Nader and Harry Todd (eds.), Disputing Process: Law in Ten Societies (New York, 1978).
108. Cooper, Marriage in Maradi, 35.
109. See Martin Klein, 'Studying the history of those who would rather forget: oral history and the experience of slavery', History in Africa, 16 (1989).