Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qlrfm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T07:22:40.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mobilizing labour in African agriculture: the role of the International Colonial Institute in the elaboration of a standard of colonial administration, 1895–1930*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2010

Benoit Daviron
Benoit Daviron
Affiliation:
CIRAD, UMR MOISA, 73 rue Jean-François Breton, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France E-mail: daviron@cirad.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How could labour be mobilized for the production of agricultural commodities in colonial lands? This question was discussed by European powers on many occasions between 1895 and 1930, within the International Colonial Institute (ICI). Three key phases and issues can be identified in these debates relating to Africa: the recruitment of Indian indentured labour (1895–1905); the recruitment and management of indigenous peoples as paid labourers (1905–1918); and the mobilization of indigenous smallholder agriculture (1918–1930). During the whole period under study, the use of constraint, and its legitimacy, appear as a permanent feature of ICI debates. Associated first with European plantations, the use of force became a means to mobilize native farmers in accordance with the conceptions of colonial administrations regarding good agricultural practices. In addition, the ICI’s vision of colonial realities evolved from an out-of-date position during the first and second phases to a forward-looking one during the third phase, albeit one quite unrealistic in the scope of its ambition.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 479 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Cooper, Frederick, and Stoler, Ann L., ‘Between metropole and colony: rethinking a research agenda’, in Frederick Cooper and Ann L. Stoler, eds., Tensions of empire: colonial cultures in a bourgeois world, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. 13.

2 Antony Anghie, ‘Colonialism and the birth of international institutions: sovereignty, economy, and the mandate system of the League of Nations’, International Law and Politics, 34, 3, 2002, pp. 513–632; R. M. Douglas, Michael D. Callahan, and Elizabeth Bishop, Imperialism on trial: international oversight of colonial rule in historical perspective, Oxford: Lexington Books, 2006.

3 Cooper, Frederick, Decolonization and African society: the labour question in French and British Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pp. 25–31.

4 In 1948, the ICI became the Institut des Sciences Politiques et Sociales Appliquées aux Pays de Civilisations Différentes (Institute of Political and Social Sciences Applied to Countries with Different Civilizations) and later the Institut International des Civilisations Différentes (International Institute of Different Civilizations). The latter arranged for intercultural exchanges, and disappeared in 1982, owing to a lack of resources.

5 See for example Emmanuelle Saada, ‘Penser le fait colonial à travers le droit’, Mil Neuf Cent: Revue d’Histoire Intellectuelle, 27, 1, 2009, pp. 103–16; Romain Bertrand, ‘Histoire d’une “réforme morale” de la politique coloniale des Pays-Bas: les Ethicites et l’Insulinde (vers 1880–1930)’, Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, 54, 4, 2007, pp. 86–116; Gary Wildern, ‘Colonial ethnology and political rationality in French West Africa’, History and Anthropology, 14, 3, 2003, pp. 219–52; Ann L. Stoler, ‘Sexual affronts and racial frontiers: European identities and the cultural politics of exclusion in colonial Southeast Asia’, in Avtar Brah and Annie E. Coombes, eds., Hybridity and its discontents: politics, science, culture, London: Routledge, 2000, pp. 19–56.

6 ICI, Compte rendu de la session tenue à Berlin les 6 et 7 septembre 1897, Brussels: ICI, 1897, p. 71.

7 ICI, Compte rendu de la session tenue à Bruxelles les 5, 6 et 7 avril 1899, Brussels: ICI, 1899, p. 43.

8 Leroy-Beaulieu, Paul, De la colonisation chez les peuples modernes, Paris: Guillaume et Cie, Libraires, 1874Google Scholar. For later examples see Henri Blondel, Le régime du travail et la colonisation libre dans nos colonies et pays de protectorat, Paris: Berger-Levrault et Cie, 1896 ; René Robin, ‘La question de la main d’oeuvre dans les colonies d’exploitations françaises’, doctoral thesis, Faculté de Droit de l’Université de Paris, 1899; André Duchêne, ‘Le problème actuel de la main d’oeuvre dans les Colonies’, in Congrés International Colonial, Paris, 1900, pp. 561–76; Joseph Imbart de la Tour, François Dorvault, and Henri Lecomte, Les colonies françaises: régime de la propriété, régime de la main d’oeuvre, l’agriculture aux colonies, Paris: Augustin Challamel, 1900.

9 Leroy-Beaulieu, De la colonisation, p. 578.

10 See for example Blondel, Régime.

11 The 1890 Brussels Anti-slavery Conference gave birth to the General Act for the Repression of the African Slave Trade and more generally clearly established the illegitimacy of slavery. See Suzanne Miers, Britain and the ending of the slave trade, London: Longman Group Ltd, 1975.

12 Northrup, David, Indentured labor in the age of imperialism, 1834–1922: studies in comparative world history, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995Google Scholar.

13 Mitchell, Brian, International historical statistics: Africa, Asia and Oceania 1750–2005, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007Google Scholar.

14 Tinker, Hugh, A new system of slavery: the export of Indian labour overseas, 1830–1920, London: Hansib, 1993Google Scholar, p. 69.

15 Théodore Lascade, De l’organisation du travail de la terre aux colonies françaises, Paris: Imprimerie de E. Brière, 1872.

16 Imbart de la Tour, Dorvault, and Lecomte, Colonies françaises, p. 143.

17 Ibid., p.160.

18 Tinker, New system, p. 327.

19 Northrup, Indentured labor.

20 Duchêne, ‘Problème actuel’, p. 566.

21 See, for example, William G. Clarence-Smith, ‘Cocoa plantations and coerced labor in the Gulf of Guinea’, in Martin A. Klein, ed., Breaking the chains: slavery, bondage, and emancipation in Modern Africa and Asia, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993, pp. 150–71.

22 ICI, Compte rendu … 1897; ICI, Compte rendu … 1899.

23 ICI, Compte rendu … 1897, p. 218.

24 ICI, Compte rendu … 1899, pp. 70 and 105.

25 Ibid., p. 137.

26 ICI, Compte rendu de la session tenue à Bruxelles les 29, 30 et 31 juillet 1912, Brussels: ICI, 1912, pp. 232–310.

27 Ibid., p. 247.

28 Ibid., p. 248.

29 Ibid., p. 271.

30 Hochschild, Adam, King Leopold’s ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1998Google Scholar.

31 Auguste Chevalier, Le cacaoyer dans l’Ouest African, Paris: A. Challamel, 1908; Duffy, James, A question of slavery, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967Google Scholar; Clarence-Smith, ‘Cocoa plantations’.

32 Satre, Lowell J., Chocolate on trial: slavery, politics, and the ethics of business, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2005Google Scholar.

33 Clarence-Smith, William G.Google Scholar, ‘The hidden costs of labour on the cocoa plantations of São Tomé and Principe, 1875–1914’, Portuguese Studies, 6, 1990, pp. 152–72.

34 Curtin, Philip D., The rise and fall of the plantation complex: essays in Atlantic history: studies in comparative world history, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990Google Scholar.

35 Robert Harms, ‘The end of red rubber: a reassessment’, Journal of African History, 16, 1, 1975, pp. 73–88.

36 Tinker, New system, p. 36 (English pounds converted into French francs).

37 ICI, Compte rendu … 1899, p. 119.

38 See for example Véronique Dimier, ‘Le discours idéologique de la méthode coloniale chez les Français et les Britanniques de l’entre-deux guerres à la décolonisation (1920–1960)’, Travaux et Documents du CEAN, 39, 1998; eadem, Le gouvernement des colonies: regards croisés franco-britanniques, Brussels: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 2004; Anghie, ‘Colonialism’.

39 ICI, Compte rendu … 1912, p. 266.

40 Jules Harmand, Domination et colonisation, Paris: Flamarion, 1910, p.151.

41 ICI, Extension intensive et rationnelle des cultures indigènes, Brussels: ICI, 1929.

42 See, for example, the declarations of Octave Louwers, responsible for colonial affairs at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and secretary general of the ICI during the 1929 session.

43 Henri Sambuc, legal expert specializing in Indochina and member of the French Colonial Union; Emile Baillaud, secretary general of the Colonial Institute of Marseille; Guy de la Motte Saint Pierre, Union of Vanilla Planters of Madagascar, president of the Madagascan section of the French Colonial Union; du Vivier de Streel, president of the French Equatorial Africa section within the French Colonial Union, president of the Agriculture Department at the Upper Council of French Colonies, and future director of the Colonial Exhibition

44 De Mello-Geraldes, professor of colonial agronomy at the Higher Agronomic Institute in Lisbon; Vicente Ferreira, governor general of Angola.

45 ICI, Compte rendu de la session tenue à Bruxelles les 24, 25 et 26 juin 1929, Brussels: ICI, 1929, p. 159.

46 See the speech by du Vivier de Streel at the 1929 ICI session, in ibid., p. 214.

47 Ibid., p. 251.

48 Chevalier, Cacaoyer.

49 W. S. Tudhope, ‘The development of the cocoa industry in the Gold Coast and Ashanti’, Journal of the Royal African Society, 9, 33, 1909, pp. 34–45; idem, ‘The Gold Coast industry’, paper presented at the Third International Congress of Tropical Agriculture, London, 1917.

50 Tudhope, W. S., L’industrie du cacao à la Gold Coast, Paris: Augustin Challamel, 1919Google Scholar. The article in French is accompanied by an additional note by M. Luc, Director of Colonial Agriculture, who criticized Tudhope for being too critical of native production.

51 See for example André Ringoet, ‘Collaboration agricole d’entreprises européennes et de planteurs indigènes’, paper presented at the VII? Congrés International d’Agriculture tropical et subtropical, Paris, 1937; ICI, Compte rendu … 1929, p. clxvi.

52 Regarding the valuing of the native plantations see, for example, Colonie de la Côte d’Ivoire, Développement de la culture du cacaoyer au 31 décembre 1915, Bingerville: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1916; François Main, ‘Amélioration des produits: séchage du cacao, extraction de l’huile de palme, choix et sélection des semences’, paper presented at the VI° Congrés International d’Agriculture tropical et subtropical, Paris, 1931.

53 ICI, Compte rendu de la session tenue à Paris les 17, 18 et 19 mai 1921, Brussels: ICI, pp. 224 and 236.

54 See, for example, the speech made in 1903 by Ernest Roume, governor general of the French West Africa Federation to the Association Cotonnière Coloniale, quoted in Richard L. Roberts, Two worlds of cotton: colonialism and the regional economy in the French Soudan, 1800–1946, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996, p. 85; or the answer of Sir Hugh Clifford to the questionnaire of the Empire Cotton Growing Committee of Manchester (quoted by Camille Janssen in ICI, Compte rendu … 1921, p. 236).

55 Union Coloniale Française, ‘Compte rendu des travaux’, paper presented at the Congrès d’Agriculture Coloniale, Paris, 1920.

56 Odet Denys, ‘Du rôle de l’agriculture indigène dans les colonies d’exploitation: étude sur l’Afrique Occidentale française et Madagascar’, doctoral thesis, Faculté de Droit de l’Université de Paris, 1917, p. 4.

57 See, for example, the speech by Guy de la Motte Saint Pierre in ICI, Compte rendu … 1929, p. 178.

58 Ibid., p. 146.

59 Bertrand, ‘Histoire’, p. 109.

60 The desire to transform a nomadic people into peasants would leave a lasting impression on Belgian policy in Congo, with the introduction of ‘native peasantry’ projects from 1936 onwards.

61 See, for example, the speeches of Henri Labouret and Robert Delavignette in the International and Inter-colonial Congress of the Native Society held in 1931.

62 Monica van Beusekom, ‘Colonisation indigène: French rural development ideology at the Office du Niger’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 30, 2, 1997, pp. 299–323.

63 Pierre Barral, ‘Note historique sur l’emploi du terme “paysan”’, Etudes Rurales, 21, 1966, pp. 72–80.

64 Weber, Eugen, Peasants into Frenchmen: the modernization of rural France, 1870–1914, London: Chatto & Windus, 1979Google Scholar; Pierre Cornu and Jean-Luc Mayaud, eds., Au nom de la terre: agrarisme et agrariens en France et en Europe du 19e siècle à nos jours, Paris: Boutique de l’Histoire Éditions, 2007.

65 Edouard Lynch, ‘La première guerre mondiale: renouvellement et mutations de l’agrarisme français’, in Cornu and Mayaud, Au nom de la terre, pp. 121–34.

66 D. A. Low, and John Lonsdale, ‘Introduction’, in D. A. Low and Alison Smith, eds., History of East Africa, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976, pp. 1–64, quoted in Frederick Cooper, ‘Africa in the world economy’, African Studies Review, 24, 2/3, 1981, pp. 1–86.

67 Christophe Bonneuil, ‘“Pénétrer l’indigène”: Arachide, paysans, agronomes et administrateurs coloniaux au Sénégal (1897–1950)’, Etudes Rurales, 151–2, 1999, pp. 199–223.

68 Phillips, Anne, The enigma of colonialism, London: James Currey, 1989Google Scholar.

69 Andrew Robert, ‘The imperial mind’, in Andrew D. Robert, ed., Cambridge history of Africa, from 1905 to 1940, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 59.