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Saving Francophone Africa's Statistical Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Raymond R. Gervais  and
Richard Marcoux
Raymond R. Gervais
Affiliation:
McGill University
Richard Marcoux
Affiliation:
Université de Montréal
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Extract

Colonial administration, as every other administration, was built on the production and management of numbers: export figures (to assess the economic performance of each colony); population estimates, often falsely labeled “censuses” (to establish each colony's capacity to pay the head tax); school enrollment statistics (to establish budgets and document the road to “civilization”). French colonialism was probably one of the more centralized and number-producing systems. The regional (e.g., Dakar) and central (Paris) capitals were always requesting data for budgeting or simply for monitoring the evolution of each component of the empire.

In the field of population statistics, before 1945 the process yielded very few reliable data, though a more systematic examination is required to be sure. Historically this can be explained by the evolution both of data collection and training in statistics in France during the first half of the twentieth century. The situation was well documented in the first decades of the century by Fernand Faure, a prominent member of the Société de Statistique de Paris, who noted that training in statistics was not very popular in the French civil service because no specific demand was made by higher levels of administrative or political power. Nevertheless, the Société and individuals in the Statistique Générale de France did succeed in pressing for the creation in 1922 of the Institut Supérieur de Statistique de l'Université de Paris (ISUP), but the lack of means at the institute made it virtually impossible for it to meet its training objectives.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 20 , 1993 , pp. 385 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1993

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References

Notes

1. See the massive two-volume set published by the Institut National de Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE). Pour une histoire de la statistique (Paris, 1987).Google Scholar Both volumes have important contributions to the institutional history of statistical collection, analysis, and production in France.

2. See Faure, Fernand, “France” in Koren, John, ed., The History of Statistics, their Development and Progress in Many Countries, Memoirs to Commemorate the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the American Statistical Association (New York 1970 [1918]): 215–329.Google Scholar

3. The texts by Desrosières/Mairesse/Volle (1:509-18) and Morrisson (2:811-23) titled “L'enseignement des statistiques en France du milieu du XIXème Siècle à 1960,” give the best presentation of the constraints on institutional capability-building during the crucial 1920–40 period.

4. For comparative purposes see the remarkable Domschke, E. and Goye, D. S., eds., The Handbook of National Population Censuses. Africa and Asia (New York, 1986).Google Scholar The classic three-volume set by Kuczynski, R. R.Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire (London, 1948)Google Scholar thoroughly examined the situation in each colony.

5. For French West Africa see Berthelemy, J. C. “Histoire économique de l'Afrique occidentale francophone de 1946 à 1960” (Doctorat 3e cycle, Université de Paris, 1977)Google Scholar, and Cotte, C., “La politique économique de la France en Afrique Noire (1936-1946)” (Doctorat 3e cycle, Université de Paris, 1981).Google Scholar

6. For Carmille's role in the making of the French statistical system see Desrosières/Mairesse/Volle, “Enseignement.”

7. See Ficatier, A., “La coopération statistique avec les pays en voie de développement” in Pour une histoire de la statistique 2: 839–949Google Scholar; idem., Un certain regard sur une fonction de l'INSEE: de la statistique coloniale à la coopération technique (Paris, 1981).

8. France. Ministère de la France d'Outre-Mer. Service Colonial des Statistique. Annuaire statistique des possessions françaises. Années antérieures à la guerre (Paris, 1944–1946).Google Scholar This yearbook was not published in a binder format to allow the incorporation of corrected material as it became available. For an updated assessment see INSEE. Note sur les statistiques démographiques des territoires d'Outre-Mer (population autochtone des territoires africains et états associés d'Indochine) (Paris, 1953).Google Scholar

9. Statistical yearbooks were produced on a regular basis from 1945 to independence at the central and federation levels. For example, France. Ministère de la France d'Outre-Mer. Service des statistiques. Ministère des Finances et des Affaires Economiques, and INSEE. Annuaire statistique de l'Union française Outre-Mer, 1939-1946 (Paris, 1948)Google Scholar—other volumes were produced in 1951 and 1956; and Haut Comissariat de l'Afrique occidentale française. Annuaire (Dakar, 1950, 1956, 1957).Google Scholar

10. See Lévy-Bruhl and Morrisson in Pour une histoire de la statistique. The Ecole d'Application of the SNS, and after 1946 of INSEE, became the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique (ENSAE) in 1962, a completely separate training institute from ISUP, and the prime instrument for the training of African statisticians of the newly-created national statistical offices (Ficatier, “Coopération”).

11. Gendreau, F., “Les opérations statistiques de collecte des données démographiques dans l'Afrique noire coloniale,” Annales de démographie historique (1987): 33–50Google Scholar, gives a good overview of many of these operations.

12. For a list of publications see Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques. Bibliographie démographique, 1945-1970: travaux publiés par l'INSEE, Département de la coopération, les services de statistique des Etats africains d'expression française ou de Madagascar et le Secrétariat aux Affaires Etrangères (Paris, 1972).Google Scholar There are other, less complete, versions of this bibliography: e.g., Service de Coopération de l'INSEE. Bibliographie démographique (Paris, 1963, 1965, 1967)Google Scholar Also of interest is Service des Statistiques de la France d'Outre-Mer. Les recensements démographiques dans les pays d'Outre-Mer (Paris, 1957).Google Scholar To give but one example of these documents: Haute-Volta. Service de la Statistique. La situation démographique en Haute-Volta (Paris, 1961)Google Scholar is a three-volume presentation of the 1961 survey, prepared with the help of the Ministère de la Coopération and the Service de Coopération of INSEE.

13. Pierre Cantrelle had suggested, however, that these archives would be of interest to Africaniste: “Pour un inventaire des archives des recensements et enquêtes démographiques réalisés en Afrique d'expression française,” Bulletin de liaison. Groupe de démographie africaine, 14: 40-51.

14. Some of the information was previously presented in Marcoux, French in R., “Inventaire des documents d'archives: les enquêtes démographiques nationales des années 60 en pays sahéliens francophones,” Canadian Association of African Studies Newsletter (Winter 1990): 14–21.Google Scholar

15. Thérèse Locoh, foremost specialist on the population of Togo and West Africa, has been campaigning for many years for their preservation. See her “Pour une sauvegarde des sources de l'histoire démographique contemporaine en Afrique,” Annales de démographie historique (1987): 51–55.Google Scholar

16. Contact Mme Françoise Gubry, CEPED library, 15 rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, 75270 Paris Cedex 06.

17. See Marcoux, R., “Inventaire des tableaux mécanographiques des enquêtes démographiques des années soixante au Sahel: Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritanie et Niger” (Montreal, 1989)Google Scholar for the descriptive list.

18. All four countries have now organized their second population census and numerous population or health surveys. It may now be possible to follow the evolution of certain important parameters and variables through the thirty-year period since the first surveys.

19. Mali. Service de la Statistique (Bamako, n.d.). Bamako. Recensement de 1958 et enquête démographique 1960-61. Résultats définitifs, 46: “des femmes qui, en l'absence prolongée de leur mari, se sont ou ont été considérés à tort comme chefs de ménage.”

20. Contact the following persons for more details: Dieudonné Ouedraogo, Centre d'étude et de recherche en population et développement (CERPOD); Francis Gendreau, CEPED, 15 rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, 75270 Paris Cedex 06; Victor Piché, PPDS, Département de Démographie, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succ. A, Montréal H3C 3J7.