Freedom and Authority in French West Africa by Robert Delavignette

Author:Robert Delavignette [Delavignette, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African Studies, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9780429018930
Google: sxFqDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-08-16T04:45:53+00:00

THE CHIEF OF A CANTON: A FEUDAL RULER WHO DISCHARGES THE DUTIES OF AN OFFICIAL

As the village chief derives from a primitive feudal Africa based on the holding of land, so the chief of a canton belongs to modern Africa, and is part of the mechanism of colonial administration.

First, let us put a question of tactics. We often ask ourselves whether the territorial Command should be concentrated in a single station, or whether it should be deployed in a network of small stations grouped about the principal one. Should there be a cercle without subdivisions, or a cercle composed of subdivisions? The solution of this problem varies according to the number and importance of the canton chiefs.

Take as a starting point the following fact of experience: The presence of a European administrative organization beside a canton chief tends to limit his independence while at the same time extending his influence. The chief who lives in the neighbourhood of our offices adapts himself to their surveillance and profits from their activity. And if he becomes less free than other chiefs farther away, he nevertheless acquires pre-eminence over them. He can easily get in touch with the Commandant; he performs services for the colonials; he is introduced to the ways of the administration; he seems doubly chief because he is chief at headquarters.

In a district formed of a homogeneous country, of one race and religion, where the outstanding figure is a feudal grandee who has been appointed chief of a canton or several cantons, there is every advantage in establishing and concentrating the administration in the neighbourhood of the chief, and not constituting subdivisions. If, however, the chief’s power seems troublesome or dangerous, the partition of the territory into different cercles or into subdivisions will certainly break it up. But it must be realized that then new chiefs will spring up round each subdivision headquarters, and that by lopping branches off the big tree one does not always clear a space for the people, but may only make room for feudal shoots to spring up.

In a district composed of different countries where a number of independent chiefs exist, it will be wise to create several subdivisions and put the headquarters of each in the canton that is most important from the economic point of view. If the differences between the countries are very marked, it may be better to establish a single district and a centralized command.

Is it expedient to lay down rules for all these possible circumstances? It could be argued that a multiplicity of small chiefs of different cantons calls for the same tactics of concentrated command as the existence of a single great chief. The only axiom that will guide us in every case is that the political value of a canton chief is tied up with the economic value of his chiefdom. We need not hesitate to move the headquarters of cercles or subdivisions according to the economic progress of the cantons. No native feudal tradition can stand against a railway station, a factory, a market.

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