Destined to fail: Forced settlement at the office du niger, 1926–45

The Journal of African History

Volumn 42, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 239-260

  Filipovich, Jean ^a  

^a The Sacred Heart School of Montreal   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

agriculture; development; Mali

Indexed keywords

EID: 85008544028     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853701007824     Document Type: Article

References (106)

1. See Arthur Gaitskell, Gezira: A Story of Development in the Sudan (London, 1959) Tony Barnett, The Gezira Scheme: An Illusion of Development (London, 1977) and Victoria Bernal, ‘Cotton and colonial order in Sudan: A social history with emphasis on the Gezira scheme’, in Allen Isaacman and Richard Roberts (eds.), Cotton, Colonialism and Social History in Sub-Saharan Africa (London, 1995).
2. ANSOM, TP 38/1, ‘Mission Bélime 1919-1920’, ch. 3. (Yves Henry, Les irrigations au Niger et la culture du cotonnier: études et travaux d'agriculture (Paris, 1922), 59-69.
3. See Jean Gallais, Le delta intérieur du Niger: étude de géographie régionale, vol. i (Dakar, 1967) and Bokar N'Diaye, Groupes ethniques au Mali (Bamako, 1970).
4. Le delta intérieur du Niger: étude de géographie régionale.
5. M. Etesse, ‘Les grands produits africains ‘, Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise, 7 (July 1929), 380.
6. Yves Henry, Le coton dans l'Afrique occidentale franéaise (Paris, 1906), 101.
7. M. Etesse, ‘Les grands produits africains ‘, Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise, 8 (Aug. 1929) : 455-8.
8. Yves Henry, Irrigations et cultures irriguées en Afrique tropicale (Paris, 1918), 289-90.
9. David Heisser, ‘The impact of the Great War on French imperialism, 1914-1924’, (Ph.D. thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1972), 181-4.
10. ANSOM, TP 38/1, Mission Bélime, ch. 3, 2-7.
11. Heisser, ‘The impact’, 268.
12. ANSOM, TP 45/4, Bélime to Gov.-Gen. Merlin, June 1921.
13. Auguste Chevalier, ‘Etudes sur l'irrigation en Afrique occidentale’, Revue internationale de botanique appliquée et d'agriculture tropicale (July 1921), 114-7.
14. Henry, Les irrigations, 59-69.
15. Fernand Bernard, ‘La mise en valeur des colonies et le programme de Sarraut’, La Revue de Paris (Sept. 1922), 365-94 and 543-60.
16. These arguments constitute a considerable portion (pp. 16-115) of Belime's Les irrigations.
17. Richard Roberts and Martin A. Klein, ‘The Banamba slave exodus of 1905 and the decline of slavery in the western Soudan’, Journal of African History, 21 (1980), 375-92.
18. Belime, Les irrigations, 113.
19. Martial Merlin, in a speech quoted in Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise, 7 (July 1922), 363.
20. Belime, Les irrigations, 46. Bélime even suggested that more aggressive nations such as the United States, England or Japan might use French inaction as a pretext for seizing her colonies.
21. Governor-General Carde's annual address to the Conseil de Gouvernement, December 1926, reported in Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise, 1 (Jan. 1927), 23.
22. M. Bauzil, Note sur les méthodes de colonisation indige[ne de l'Office du Niger (n.p. : 1938), 72-3.
23. ANS, 2G-27-40. Rapport sur la colonisation indige’ ne au Soudan franéais pendant l'année 1927.
24. Reported in a supplement to Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise (Jan. 1930), 22
25. For a study of colonization of the rice sector, see Monica van Beusekom, ‘Colonial rural development: French policy and African response at the Office du Niger, Soudan franéais (Mali), 1920-60’ (Ph.D. thesis, Johns Hopkins University, 1989).
26. La politique de l'eau en A.O.F.’, La DépeWche Africaine (Feb.-Mar., 1929), 1.
27. Arguments in favour of forced labour appeared in the Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise throughout 1929 and 1930. See particularly no. 9 (Sept. 1930), 547-8.
28. Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise, 2 (Feb. 1931), 135.
29. ANSOM TP 50/3. Journal officiel, 7 Jan. 1932, 194
30. Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique franéaise, 11 (Nov. 1932), 723
31. ANSOM, TP 733}2. Minutes of the board of directors ’ meeting, 12 July 1933.
32. Archives Nationales du Mali, Bamako (hereafter ANM) Affaires Agricoles (hereafter AA) 1-R-42. Extrait du rapport général de la campagne 1943-4.
33. %* Bauzil, ‘Note sur les méthodes’, 91-6, and ANM, AA 1-R-4. Extrait du rapport
34. général de la campagne 1943-4.
35. &! Diré was the site of a cotton plantation founded by a wealthy banker named Marcel
36. Hirsch in the early 1920s. Its history is obscure, but it was appropriated and populated
37. by the Office sometime between 1932 and 1935.
38. Peter Hammond, Yatenga: Technology in the Culture of a West African Kingdom (New York, 1966), 11.
39. Ruth Schachter-Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa (Oxford, 1964), 259.
40. Bélime, La production, 117.
41. Bauzil, Note sur les méthodes, 23.
42. ANM, AA 1-34. Communication from the commandant de cercle of Bamako to the governor of Soudan, 20 Jan. 1930.
43. ANM, AA 1-R-28. Report on the population of the colonization villages, 6 Aug. 1937, by M. Le Floch, Chef de Subdivision de Macina.
44. ANS, Fonds Moderne (hereafter FM) 15-G-39. Cercle de Ouahigouya. Inspection des Affaires administratives, 1939. The Togo naba was one of the Yatenga naba's four ministers and chief of the province of Togo.
45. ANS, FM, Rapports politiques 2G-35-9. Rapport politique annuel 1935, le Soudan.
46. ANSOM, TP 734}2. Projet d'arre#té réorganisant les services administratifs et techniques permanents de l'Office du Niger. Effective 1 Jan. 1937.
47. ANM AA 1-R-28. Charles Hanin, commandant de cercle of Ségou, to the governor of Soudan, 25 Aug. 1937.
48. Magasa, Papa Commandant, 91-2.
49. ANM AA 1-R42. Note sur la faéon dont il a été procédé au recrutement des colons de l'Office du Niger dans le cercle de Ouahigouya.
50. ANM, AA 1-R-42. Report by Inspector General of Administrative Affairs, J. Lenoir, 9 Feb. 1945.
51. ANM, AA 1-R-5. Gov.-Gen. de Coppet to the governor of Soudan, 12 Jan. 1938.
52. Michel Bouleau, ‘Le peuplement des terres irriguées de la vallée du moyen Niger’, mémoire s'inscrivant dans le cadre d'une étude sur les mouvements migratoires au sein de l'Union Franéaise. È cole Nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer, Oct. 1952, 30.
53. ANM, AA 1-R-28. Commandant de cercle of Ségou to the governor of Soudan, no.117, 24 Jan. 1939.
54. ANM, AA 1-R-67. Note from A. Calvel, governor of Soudan, 18 Sept. 1944.
55. Gérard Rémy, Les migrations de travail et les mouvements de colonisation mossi (Paris, 1973), 110.
56. ANS, FM 2D 20. The Director of Political and Administrative Affairs to the Colonial Inspector General, Dakar, 20 Jan. 1942.
57. Bauzil, Note sur les méthodes, 87.
58. ANSOM, AP 626/4. Bargues report, 5.
59. ANSOM, AP 626}4. Bélime's reply to Inspector Bargues’ report on settler recruitment, 5-6.
60. ANSOM, TP 734}1. Minutes of the board of directors’ meeting, 11 July 1935.
61. ANSOM, TP 734}1. Bélime, Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Office du Niger pendant l'année 1935, 41.
62. ANSOM, TP 1094}13. Mission Bagot, Inspector Bagot's comments on Bargues’ findings.
63. Marius Moutet was appointed Colonial Minister, and Jules Marcel de Coppet was made Governor-General of FWA.
64. ANSOM, TP. 734}2. Sorel report, minutes of the board of directors’ meeting, 10 July 1936.
65. ANSOM, Affaires économiques (Direction des È tudes finanéie’ res) 377}7. Savineau report, Dec. 1937. Hereafter AE (DEF).
66. ANM, AA 1-R43. Report on a visit to the Office du Niger, 5 Nov. 1937, by H. Coindard, Adjoint du commandant de cercle of San, to the Governor of Soudan at Koulouba. Coindard's observations were supported by statements from the commandants de cercle of Bamako, San, Koutiala, Ouhigouya, Nior and Tougan-Dionisi.
67. ANSOM, TP 732}2. Minutes of the meeting of the Comité permanent de l'Office du Niger, July 1938.
68. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 377/7. Savineau Report.
69. He did make such allegations in a letter to Bauzil on 12 June 1942. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 371}1.
70. For an examination of Maurras and the French right, see James McCearney, Maurras et son temps (Paris, 1977).
71. ANSOM, TP 734}3. Minutes of board of directors’ meeting, 10 July 1936.
72. ANSOM, AE (DEF), 371}7. Bulletin quotidien de la chambre de commerce de Dakar, no. 3.340, 20 April and 16 May 1938.
73. Right-wing newspapers such as Maurras’ L'Action franéaise and the pro-fascist, anti-semitic Le Gringoire vilified the Popular Front government on a regular basis. The epithet ‘Builder of ruins’, applied to de Coppet, was used in the title of the leading article of Le Gringoire (20 May 1938). One of de Coppet's defenders, Max Burty, published a typically spirited riposte: ‘M. de Coppet doit e#tre retenu en A.O.F.’, in La Fle[che de Paris (21 July 1938), 4.
74. Félicien Challaye, ‘Une menace pour les indige’ nes d'Afrique’, La Fle[che de Paris (24 July 1938), 5.
75. Jean Canigou, ‘M. Rollin au Secours’, La Lumie[re (Nov. 1938), 4.
76. Gabriel Plancke, ‘L'Office du Niger’, République (Paris) (Nov. 1938), 112-3.
77. ANSOM, TP 1094/14. This expression was used by Bélime in his ‘Rapport général : production cotonnie’ re dans le delta central nigérien’, 1941.
78. ANS, FM, Séries 15G/42. Note from Colonial Inspector General Gayet on the administrative reorganization of the irrigated lands of the Soudan. Ségou, 20 Oct. 1942.
79. ANM, AA 1-R-40. Note on the population of land developed by the Office du Niger from A. Calvel, Governor of Soudan, 18 Sept. 1944.
80. Magasa, Papa Commandant (Testimony of Tenga Sawadogo), 97-8.
81. ANM, AA 1-R-43. Extrait du rapport politique annuel, 1944, du cercle de Ségou.
82. The indigénat was a set of regulations adopted in 1904 allowing administrators to impose fines and prison sentences on African subjects without recourse to the courts.
83. ANM, AA 1-R-40. Calvel's note of 18 Sept. 1944.
84. Schachter-Morgenthau, Political Parties, 8-10.
85. ANM, AA 1-R-40. L'administrateur-en-chef G. Mourgues, Délégué des Colonies aupre’ s de l'O.du N., Ségou, 9 Sept. 1943.
86. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 371}1. Bélime to Bauzil, 18 Apr. 1942. Bélime also accused Bauzil of being a ‘hardened liberal ’ and a ’ virtual Gaullist’ who had failed him in his struggle against his enemies.
87. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 371}3. Gov.-Gen. Cournarie's note to the Minister for the Colonies, 1 Dec. 1944.
88. Bouleau, Le peuplement, 55.
89. ANM, AA 1-R-42. Renseignements, no. 68. Bamako, 1 May 1944.
90. ANM, AA 1-R-42. Léon Robert, Commandant de cercle de Ségou, to the Governor of Soudan, Sept. 1944.
91. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 369/4. Summary of the Reste Commission report, 14.
92. ANSOM. 12-32.
93. Bauzil, Note sur les méthodes, 12-14.
94. Note sur les méthodes. 36-53.
95. Note sur les méthodes. 3-4.
96. Note sur les méthodes. 29.
97. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 371/7. Note from Pierre Viguier, Director General of the Office du Niger, to the Gov.-Gen. of FWA on the Mossi settlers at the Niono cotton centre, 1 July 1946.
98. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 369/4. Summary of the Reste Commission Report, 19. For a more thorough examination of Mossi response to resettlement at the Office, see Peter B. Hammond, ‘The Niger project: some cultural sources of conflict’, in William H. Lewis (ed.), Emerging Africa (Washington, DC, 1963), 12-28.
99. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 369}4. Summary of the Reste Commission report, 41-2.
100. ANSOM. 61.
101. ANSOM, A. E. (D.E.F.) 371/1. ‘Conclusions de la commission chargée d'étudier la situation de l'Office du Niger’, Ministe’ re des Colonies, Direction du Plan, Paris, 11 Aug. 1945.
102. Subsequently, Yatenga was restored to a reconstituted Upper Volta; but not until 1954 did the government of FWA decide to end the official call for settlers from Upper Volta.
103. ANSOM, Inspections des Colonies, Mission Huet 1947-8, appointed to examine the financial situation, budgeting and accounting at the Office du Niger.
104. ANSOM, AE (DEF) 731}7. Confidential letter from the office of the Minister for Overseas France to the High Commissioner of the Republic in FWA, 8 Nov. 1948.
105. Between 1953 and 1955, the Office recorded operating losses of 319 million CFA francs, and the administration could no longer entertain the hope that it would soon prove profitable. ANSOM, Bibliothe’ que B. R. 6474. Rapport de M. le Gouverneur de la France d'Outre-Mer. P. F. Roumani, Commissaire du Gouvernement: ‘L'Office du Niger’, 1957.
106. ANSOM, A. E. (D.E.F.) 362}2. Georges Peter, ‘Un exemple d'assistance technique: l'Office du Niger’, Cahiers franéais d'information, 245 (Feb. 1954), 1-6. By 1953, the project had received 700 million CFA francs through the Marshall Plan. Minutes of the board of directors’ meeting, 27 Apr. 1954.