'Les races guerrières': Racial preconceptions in the French Military about West African soldiers during the first world war

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 34, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 517-536

  Lunn, Joe ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN DEARBORN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0037635700     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200949903400402     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. On French West Africa and the first world war, see: Marc Michel, L'Appel à l'Afrique: Contributions et réactions à l'effort de guerre en AOF (1914-1919) (Paris 1982); Charles Balesi, From Adversaries to Comrades-In-Arms: West Africa and the French Military, 1885-1918 (Waltham, MA 1979); and Myron Echenberg, Colonial Conscripts: The 'Tirailleurs Sénégalais' in French West Africa, 1857-1960 (Portsmouth, NH/London 1991). With regard to the issue of French race theory, this interpretation differs in significant respects from the accounts offered by Michel and Balesi. In particular, I disagree with the view that the French were little influenced by the 'racist' preconceptions of the era. Rather, I argue that French assumptions about African inferiority were long-standing and deep-seated, that the tenets of biological determinism (including its racist implications) were widely accepted, and that, far from providing an exception to the rule, French attitudes were consistent with the mainstream of western European thought
2. Hubert Tison, La Loi de trois arts et l'opinion pubtique française (Paris 1966)
3. Jules Maurin and Jean-Charles Jauffret, 'L'Appel aux Armes, 1872-1914' in Guy Pedroncini (ed.), Histoire Militaire de la France, vol. 3, 1871-1940 (Paris 1992), 80-97
4. More extensive recruitment of North Africans and a return to a three-year service obligation for metropolitan Frenchmen were also debated as remedies for this problem and eventually promulgated during this same period. Jean-Charles Jauffret, 'Les Armes de la plus grande France' in ibid., 43-69
5. Mangin, La Force Noire (Paris 1910), 288-9
6. Mangin à Gouverneur Général, 2 November 1910, Archives nationales du Sénégal (hereafter ANS): Affaires militaires: 4 D 31; Mangin, La Force Noire, op. cit., 289, 228
7. Charles Mangin, 'L'Utilisation des Troupes Noires', Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, 2(1911), 89-91
8. La Force Noire, op. cit., 225-8, 247-52
9. Mangin, 'L'Utilisation des Troupes Noires', op. cit., 81
10. It should be stressed that these implicit prejudices were by no means uniquely limited to the French. Similar classification systems were also used by other European powers in their recruitment of colonial troops. See A.H.M. Kirk-Green, '"Damnosa hereditas": Ethnic Ranking and the Martial Races Imperative in Africa', Ethnic and Racial Studies, 11 (1980), 393-414
11. and J. Bayo Adekson, 'Ethnicity and Army Recruitment in Colonial Plural Societies', Ethnic and Racial Studies, 11 (1979), 151-65
12. On the pre-war French debate over la Force noire', see Les Troupes Noires (Le Parlement: Rapports. Commissions. Séances. L'Opinion Militaire et Coloniale. La Presse. Les Conférences. Conferences. Documents. Conclusion.) (Paris 1911). See also Marc Michel, 'Colonisation et defense nationale: le général Mangin et "la force noire"', Guerres mondiales, 37 (1987), 27-44
13. and idem, 'Un mythe: la "Force Noire" avant 1914', Relations Internationales, 1 (1974), 83-90
14. Henri Bonnal, Gaulois, 8 December 1909
15. Hyppolyte Langlois, Temps, 12 November 1909
16. Cited in Captain Rachou, Le Mirage des urmées indigènes (Angoulême 1911), 65. See also Général de Torcy. 'La Question des troupes noires en Algérie', Bulletin de la Réunion d'Études Algériennes (Paris 1911), 4-28
17. e Bataillon de Tirailleurs Sénégalais refused marching orders. Eight African 'ringleaders' were eventually arrested and two imprisoned. See Michel, L 'Appel à l'Afrique, op. cit., 350-2
18. Of the 44 Senegalese battalions engaged in France in 1918, 22 were assigned to the 1st or 2nd Corps of the Colonial Army, while the remainder were loaned to metropolitan formations. See: AG: GQG: 16 N 100. See also: Jean Charbonneau, Les contingents coloniaux: du Soleil 3et de la Gloire (Paris 1931), 62
19. Michel, L'Appel à l'Afrique, op. cit., 403-8. Stressing the non-racist character of the French in comparison with other Europeans of the era, and pointing to the tactical amalgamation of African and French troops in combat, Michel has concluded that Senegalese casualties were equivalent to those incurred throughout the war by the French infantry. Balesi supports Michel's contention, emphasizing many of the same cultural and organizational considerations and concluding that African and French losses - even on the Aisne - were roughly equivalent. Balesi, From Adversaries to Comrades-in-Arms, op. cit., 101-2. These general findings are also endorsed by Echenberg, who, while stressing the negative 'cultural and racial' stereotypes held by French military planners about Africans, suggests that instead of being higher than French losses, Senegalese casualties were actually proportionately lower. Echenberg, Colonial Conscripts, op. cit., 46
20. Clayton, France, Soldiers and Africa (London 1988), 338
21. The precise figures are 15.56 per cent to 16,56 per cent. The total number of West Africans mobilized during the war (including 31,000 in the pre-war army, 161,000 tirailleurs, and 7200 originaires subsequently recruited or conscripted between 1914 and 1918) was approximately 199,200. Of these at least 31,000 died during the war. French figures are based on the 'Rapport Marin', which was submitted to the French Chamber in 1920 as the definitive assessment of this question. The total number of Frenchmen mobilized during the war was 7,740,000, of whom 1,281,979 perished. See 'Rapport Marin', Journaux Officiels. Documents Parlementaires, 1920, t. 2, annexe 633, 44
22. Approximately 140,000 West Africans, including originaires, served as combatants, of whom 31,000 were killed, representing 22.14 per cent of the total. By contrast, 6,987,000 Frenchmen served as combatants, of whom 1,255,766 died, or 17.97 per cent of the total. Hence, African fatalities were 18.84 per cent higher than those among French combatants. 'Rapport Marin', op. cit., 44
23. Among French infantrymen, 5,056,900 were mobilized and 1,158,000, or 22.9 per cent, were killed: 'Rapport Marin', 66. Although not all West Africans served in the infantry, very few were assigned to 'other services' such as the artillery. Since there are no records of the numbers in this latter group, the figures cited for the proportion of losses among all West African combatants (22.14 per cent) have been retained. Though an underestimate of the percentage of Senegalese infantry casualties, the discrepancy is slight
24. Balesi, From Adversaries to Comrades-In-Arms, op. cit., 267-8