Senegal 18851960:

1
Senegal (1885-1960)

• A Case Study of Colonialism and Independence

2
Political Systems Predating Colonialism (13th
15th Centuries)
3
European Presence

• 1400s Portuguese in St. Louis, Goree
• 1600s French in Dakar, Goree, Saint Louis

4
Slave Trade

• Based on Island of Goree

5
The French Colonial Conquest (1880s)

• Resistance to French colonization came from
• Warriors of the Wolof Kingdoms (Lat Dior)
• Islamic Leaders (Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba)

6
The Legend of Lat Dior

• King of the Wolof kingdom of Kayor that included
  Dakar and coastal Senegal
  
• Converts to Islam in 1860
• Resists French invasion of the interior of
  Senegal
  
• In particular resists the building of the
  Dakar-St. Louis railway
  
• Dies in battle in 1886
• Followers seek out Cheikh Amadou Bamba, pledge
  allegiance to him and his new religious order

7
Early Islamic Resistance Cheikh Amadou Bamba and
his followers

• 1883 Founds Sufi brotherhood (Mouride)
• Encourages followers to follow him beyond the
  realm of the French into the interior
  
• Growing support worries French
• Sent into exile in Gabon and Mauritania
• Not an armed resistance

8
The Establishment of a Formal French Colony in
Senegal

• French West Africa established in 1895

9
Conditions upon Colonization

• Break down of the Wolof kingdoms
• Social chaos as slavery is abolished, warrior
  classes, ruling classes and lower castes search
  for new positions
  

• French colonial state seeking revenue
• French colonial state seeking to establish
  hegemony

10
Solving the Revenue Imperative

• The Bizarre Partnership of the Groundnut
• The Mutual Self-Interest of the French Colonial
  State and the Mouride Brotherhood
  
• Colonialism in a Second Degree

11
The Use of Intermediaries

• The Legitimate Intermediaries
• Religious leaders used to
• Encourage groundnut production
• Secure volunteer laborers and soldiers
• Legitimate because of religious doctrine and
  belief
  
• The Illegitimate Intermediaries
• Cantonal Chiefs used to
• Collect head taxes
• Secure forced laborers
• Illegitimate because installed by French and used
  force

12
The Citizen Subject Divide

• Citizens of the Four Communes Dakar, St. Louis,
  Rufisque, and Goree (Blaise Diagne, first black
  deputy to the National Assembly in France)
  
• Citizens through Assimilation and Education (L.S.
  Senghor, Senegals first president and deputy to
  French National Assembly)
  
• Subjects of Rural Areas
• Under guidance of marabouts
• Under surveillance of cantonal chiefs

13
Enfranchisement in Senegal

• 1914 Four Communes elect Diagne to National
  Assembly
  
• Post WWII Progress
• 1946 Voting rights extended to all Senegalese
  but according to certain conditions (literacy,
  land owndership, etc.)
  
• 1951 Voting rights extended to all Senegalese
• 1956 Loi Cadre
• 1960 Full Independence
• Bureaucrat replaced by politician

14
The Independence Movement in Senegal

• Highly elitist, emerges among citizen class
• Developed among those incorporated into colonial
  state apparatus and French politics
  
• Embraces Negritude and African Socialism
  developed by L.S. Senghor
  
• Demands independence, but does not demand
  revolution

15
Expectations Created by Welfare Colonialism at
Independence

• Democratization raised hopes for political
  representation
  
• Rapid improvements in the 1950s in social
  welfare
  
• Increased expenditures in the 1950s make it hard
  for newly independent states to keep up spending

16
The Condition at Independence

• Electoral Competition
• Diagne with the SFIO
• Senghor with the BDS
• Must earn rural votes
• Marabouts control rural votes
• Threatened by African Socialism
• Resist any fundamental reforms

17
End Result

• Agriculture remains organized around groundnut
  production
  
• Controlled by the state through marketing boards,
  legacy of colonial state according to Young
  
• Power continues to accrue in the hands of
  religious leaders
  
• Government remains beholden to religious leaders
  for political support