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CHANGING CHILDHOOD: ‘LIBERATED MINORS’, GUARDIANSHIP, AND THE COLONIAL STATE IN SENEGAL, 1895–1911

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2019

KELLY M. DUKE BRYANT
KELLY M. DUKE BRYANT*
Affiliation:
Rowan University
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Abstract

This article focuses on formerly enslaved children at the turn of the twentieth century, exploring their contributions to discourses about childhood, labor, and stigma in Senegal's colonial towns. Drawing on records for over 1,600 so-called ‘liberated minors’, children who entered state guardianship after official recognition of their liberation from slavery, and on a variety of other sources, the article investigates both broad trends and individual experiences of work, mistreatment, conflict, and — sometimes — defiance. I argue that while many liberated minors seemed to accept their circumstances, others complained, disobeyed, or ran away, thereby challenging lingering stigmas and highlighting ways the state fell short of the anti-slavery and humane ideals touted by some officials. Attentive, insofar as records allow, to the actions and perspectives of liberated minors, the article contributes to the growing literature on the history of children and youth in Africa and to scholarship on post-emancipation societies.

Keywords

childrengenderlaborslaveryabolitionquantitative sources
Type
Cultural histories in the archives of colonial reform
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , July 2019 , pp. 209 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Rowan University, the TIAA-CREF Ruth Simms Hamilton Research Fellowship program, and the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program for providing funding at various stages. I am grateful for the opportunity to present portions of this research at the Diverse Unfreedoms and their Ghosts Conference at Rutgers University-Camden and at the Global History of Black Girlhood Conference at the University of Virginia in 2017. Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers and to the editors of The Journal of African History whose insightful comments made this a better article. Author's email: duke-bryant@rowan.edu.

References

1 Archives Nationales du Sénégal, Dakar, Senegal (ANS) H173, État de mineurs affranchis confiés à Saint-Louis, Mar. 1905; ANS H175, letter from Secrétaire Général to Commissaire de police, 18 Dec. 1905; ANS H175, letter from Secrétaire Général to Commissaire de police, 27 Oct. 1906; ANS H175, letter from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 31 Oct. 1906; ANS H175 letter from Secrétaire Général to Commissaire de Police, 3 Nov. 1906; ANS H175, letter from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 7 Nov. 1906.

2 Klein, M., Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa (Cambridge, 1998), 131–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Moitt, B., ‘Slavery and guardianship in postemancipation Senegal: colonial legislation and minors in tutelle, 1848–1905’, in Campbell, G., Miers, S., and Miller, J. C. (eds.), Child Slaves in the Modern World (Athens, OH, 2011), 143–53Google Scholar.

3 ANS K23, letter from Lieutenant Gouverneur du Sénégal to Gouverneur Général AOF, 4 May 1904; Conklin, A. L., ‘Colonialism and human rights, a contradiction in terms? The case of France and West Africa, 1895–1914’, American Historical Review 103:2 (1998), 419–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Cooper, F., Holt, T. C., and Scott, R. J., Beyond Slavery: Explorations of Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Postemancipation Societies (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000)Google Scholar; Duane, A. M., ‘Introduction: when is a child a slave?’ in Duane, A. M. (ed.), Child Slavery Before and After Emancipation: An Argument for Child-Centered Slavery Studies (New York, 2017), 5–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Mbodj, M., ‘The abolition of slavery in Senegal, 1820–1890: crisis or the rise of a new entrepreneurial class?’ in Klein, M. A. (ed.), Breaking the Chains: Slavery, Bondage, and Emancipation in Modern Africa and Asia (Madison, WI, 1993), 197–211Google Scholar; Klein, Slavery, 29, 71–5; Getz, T. R., Slavery and Reform in West Africa: Toward Emancipation in Nineteenth-Century Senegal and the Gold Coast (Athens, OH, 2004), 82–4Google Scholar; Moitt, ‘Slavery’, 140–56; A. A. Diptee, ‘Notions of African childhood in abolitionist discourses: colonial and postcolonial humanitarianism in the fight against child slavery’, in Duane (ed.), Child Slavery, 211–19; Faye, O., ‘Un aspect négligée de l'histoire sociale de la colonisation: les domestiques dans la vie de relations à Dakar de 1885 à 1940: etude d'un salariat urbain à la périphérie du monde du travail’, Annales de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, UCAD 23 (1993), 79–95Google Scholar; Faye, O., ‘Assister ou punir l'enfant: quelle expérience pour l'etat colonial au Sénégal?’, Cahiers Histoire et Civilisations 1 (2003), 17–29Google Scholar; Thioub, I., ‘La gestion de la marginalité juvénile dans la colonie du Sénégal: de l'abolition de l'esclavage aux écoles pénitentiaires, 1848–1906’, Cahiers Histoire et Civilisations 1 (2003), 117–30Google Scholar.

6 See, for example, Bellingham, B., ‘The history of childhood since the “invention of childhood”: some issues in the eighties’, Journal of Family History 13:2 (1988), 347–58Google Scholar; Cunningham, H., Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500 (New York, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Diptee, A. A. and Klein, M. A., ‘African childhoods and the colonial project’, Journal of Family History 35:1 (2010), 3–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stearns, P. N., Childhood in World History (New York, 2017)Google Scholar.

7 For a good overview of this literature, see Waller, R., ‘Rebellious youth in colonial Africa’, The Journal of African History, 47 (2006): 77–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also d'Almeida-Topor, H., Goerg, O., Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. and Guitart, F. (eds.), Les Jeunes en Afrique: évolution et rôle (XIXe-XXe siècles) (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar; Brennan, J. R., ‘Youth, the TANU Youth League and managed vigilantism in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, 1925–73’, Africa 76:2 (2006), 221–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Burton, A., ‘Urchins, loafers and the cult of the cowboy: urbanization and delinquency in Dar Es Salaam, 1919–61’, The Journal of African History 42:2 (2001), 199–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Burton, A. and Charton-Bigot, H. (eds.), Generations Past: Youth in East African History (Athens, OH, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fourchard, L., ‘Lagos and the invention of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria, 1920–1960’, The Journal of African History 47:1 (2006), 115–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 See, for example, Aderinto, S. (ed.), Children and Childhood in Colonial Nigerian Histories (New York, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Coe, C., ‘Domestic violence and child circulation in the southeastern Gold Coast, 1905–28’, in Burrill, E. S., Roberts, R. L., and Thornberry, E. (eds.), Domestic Violence and the Law in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa (Athens, OH, 2010), 54–73Google Scholar; Duff, S. E., Changing Childhoods in the Cape Colony: Dutch Reformed Church Evangelicalism and Colonial Childhood, 1860–1895 (New York, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hunter, M., ‘The bond of education: gender, the value of children, and the making of Umlazi Township in 1960s South Africa’, The Journal of African History 55:3 (2014), 467–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; White, O., Children of the French Empire: Miscegenation and Colonial Society in French West Africa, 1895–1960 (Oxford, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 George, A., Making Modern Girls: A History of Girlhood, Labor, and Social Development in Colonial Lagos (Athens, OH, 2014), 6Google Scholar. For other examples, see Grier, B. C., Invisible Hands: Child Labor and the State in Colonial Zimbabwe (Portsmouth, NH, 2006)Google Scholar; Lawrance, B., Amistad's Orphans: An Atlantic Story of Children, Slavery, and Smuggling (New Haven, 2014)Google Scholar; Razy, E. and Rodet, M. (eds.), Children on the Move in Africa: Past and Present Experiences of Migration (Suffolk, 2016)Google Scholar; Rich, J., ‘Searching for success: boys, family aspirations, and opportunities in Gabon, ca. 1900–1940’, Journal of Family History 35:1 (2010), 7–24CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

10 This article draws on a database of over 1600 children who entered guardianship in Senegal from 1895 to 1911, which I compiled based on monthly/quarterly records from the guardianship commissions and a register dated May 1904. In addition to names, these records provide basic demographic information and, for many of the liberated minors, indications of their well-being or whereabouts at various moments after their liberation. Since the records for Saint-Louis are most complete, all quantitative analysis is derived from data on the 1,324 children who entered guardianship in that town. These sources can be found in the following ANS dossiers: H173, H174, H175, H176, H177, H178, H206, 1F1, and K23. Hereafter, I cite the database as KDB-database.

11 ANS M3, Arrêté creating conseils de tutelle, 13 Apr. 1849; ANS M3, Arrêté creating comités de patronage, 13 Apr. 1849; ANS M3, Arrêté, 1 May 1849. Initially, Baudin created separate committees to deal with formerly enslaved girls, but these were suppressed after little more than two weeks, giving the conseils de tutelle responsibility for girls as well.

12 Deherme, G., ‘L'esclavage en Afrique Occidental Française: étude historique, critique et positive’, in Lovejoy, P. E. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S. (eds.), Slavery and Its Abolition in French West Africa: The Official Reports of G. Poulet, E. Roume, and G. Deherme (Madison, WI, 1994), 123Google Scholar, 125; Mbodj, ‘The abolition’, 202–4; Klein, Slavery, 71–4; Thioub, ‘Gestion’, 122–3; Getz, Slavery, 82–3, 152; Moitt, ‘Slavery’. For further discussion of the continuation of trafficking after 1905, see Roberts, R. L., ‘The end of slavery, “crises” over trafficking, and the colonial state in the French Soudan’, in Lawrance, B. N. and Roberts, R. L. (eds.), Trafficking in Slavery's Wake: Law and the Experience of Women and Children in Africa (Athens, OH, 2012), 73–81Google Scholar; M. Rodet, ‘“Under the guise of guardianship and marriage”: mobilizing juvenile and female labor in the aftermath of slavery in Kayes, French Soudan, 1900–1939’, in Lawrance and Roberts (eds.), Trafficking, 91–6.

13 Getz, Slavery, 149–53; P. Lovejoy and A.S. Kanya-Forstner, ‘Introduction’, in Lovejoy and Kanya-Forstner (eds.), Slavery, 6–8; Moitt, B., ‘Slavery, flight, and redemption in Senegal, 1819–1905’, Slavery and Abolition 14:2 (1993), 70–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France (ANOM) SEN/XIV/28bis, letter from Ministre des Colonies to Gouverneur Général AOF, 31 Oct. 1903; ANOM SEN/XIV/28bis, letter from Lieutenant Gouverneur du Sénégal to Gouverneur Général AOF, 22 Nov. 1903; ANOM SEN/XIV/28bis, letter from Gouverneur Général AOF to Ministre des Colonies, 24 Nov. 1903; ANOM SEN/XIV/28bis, Arrêté, 24 Nov. 1903; É. Roux, Manuel à l'usage des administrateurs et du personnel des Affaires Indigènes de la colonie du Sénégal et des colonies relevant du Gouvernement Général de l'Afrique Occidentale Française (Paris, 1911), 234–5; Klein, Slavery, 131–3; Moitt, ‘Slavery’, 147–50.

15 ANS K23, letter from Lieutenant Gouverneur du Sénégal to Gouverneur Général AOF, 4 May 1904; ANS K23, letter from Gouverneur Général AOF to Lieutenant Gouverneur du Sénégal, 8 Jun. 1904; ANS K23, Arrêté, 1 Oct. 1904; Thioub, ‘Gestion’, 123–4; Moitt, ‘Slavery’, 150–2.

16 ANS H173, État des mineurs libérés confiés à des personnes de Saint-Louis, Oct. 1904; ANS H177, letter from Président de la commission des mineurs affranchis to Secrétaire Général, 5 Jan. 1907; ANS H178, letter from Administrateur Dolisie, commandant le cercle de Thiès to Gouverneur, 12 Feb. 1909; ANS H178, letter from Président du Tribunal to Lieutenant Gouverneur, 19 Jun. 1909; ANS H178, letter from Président du Tribunal to Lieutenant Gouverneur, 18 Sep. 1909; Roux, Manuel, 234.

17 ANS 3F26, Decision, 1 Mar. 1893; ANS 3F26, 8 Sep. 1899, État Nominatif des détenus et affranchis présents au Pénitencier de Thiès; Thioub, ‘Gestion’, 129.

18 Dépendances, Sénégal et, Conseil Général: session ordinaire de 1893 (Saint-Louis, 1894), 526–7Google Scholar; Sénégal et Dépendances, Conseil Général: session ordinaire de Novembre 1902 (Saint-Louis, 1903), 29, 193–4; Sénégal et Dépendances, Conseil Général: session ordinaire de Mai 1903 (Saint-Louis, 1903), 183–4; ANS H177, Arrêté, 22 Nov. 1907; Thioub, ‘Gestion’, 125–8; Faye, ‘Assister’, 20–1; Foster, E., Faith in Empire: Religion, Politics and Colonial Rule in French Senegal, 1880–1940 (Stanford, CA, 2013), 54–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 69–84.

19 ANS K23, letter from Secrétaire Général du Gouvernement Général to Lieutenant Gouverneur Sénégal, 27 Jan. 1904; ANS K23, newspaper clipping, ‘Au Sénégal’, L'Aurore, 20 May 1904. Indeed, secularization remained uneven and largely incomplete across French West Africa.

20 KDB-Database.

21 On surnames and ethnicity see KDB-Database; A. Diao, ‘Le catalogage des noms africains: étude des noms sénégalais et projet de norme: liste d’autorité à partir de catalogues d’éditeurs’ (unpublished master’s thesis, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Bibliothécaires, 1987), available at http://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique; H. Jones, The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa (Bloomington, 2013); Xavier Ricou, ‘Généalogie’, http://senegalmetis.com/Senegalmetis/Genealogie.html, accessed 3 July 2018; ‘Noms et prénoms sénégalais’, http://www.planete-senegal.com/senegal/noms_et_prenoms.php, accessed 3 July 2018.

22 KDB-Database.

23 KDB-Database.

24 ANS 22G20, Dénombrement de la population européenne et indigène des Colonies de l'Afrique Occidentale française, 1 Sep. 1904; Klein, Slavery, 23–9, 37–58, 79–83, 110, 119, 132; Klein, M. and Roberts, R., ‘Gender and emancipation in French West Africa’, in Scully, P. and Paton, D. (ed.), Gender and Slave Emancipation in the Atlantic World (Durham, 2005), 165–6Google Scholar; KDB-database. Although 1,324 children entered guardianship in Saint-Louis at some point between 1895 and 1911, many moved away, fled, died, married, or aged out. Signares were racially mixed women in Saint-Louis and, especially, Gorée who held considerable economic and social power prior to the abolition of slavery.

25 ANS 1F1, Laïta Fall's Certificat de liberté, 18 Nov. 1901; ANS M13, letter from Procureur Général to Gouverneur Général, 26 Dec. 1901; ANS 13G76, letter from Yandé Sène to Gouverneur Général, nd (1901); Sénégal et Dépendances, Conseil Général: session ordinaire de 1901 (Saint-Louis, 1901), 345–54; ANS K23, Procès-verbal, Commissariat de Police, 13 May 1904; Deherme, ‘L'esclavage’, 145; Roberts and Klein, ‘Gender’, 167.

26 Conklin, A. L., A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930 (Stanford, CA, 1997), 73–106Google Scholar.

27 ANS M3, Arrêté creating conseils de tutelle, 13 Apr. 1849; ANS M3, Conseil de tutelle, president's speech, nd (May 1849); ANOM SEN/XIV/28bis, Arrêté, 24 Nov. 1903; ANS K23, letter from Gouverneur Général AOF to Procureur Général, 8 Jun. 1904; KDB-database. Officials continued to send most newly liberated minors to private individuals even after the 1903 reform, due to the insufficiency or lack of availability of institutional settings.

28 ANS K23, Liste des mineurs affranchis placés en apprentissage chez divers entrepreneurs et ouvriers de Saint-Louis, nd (1904); ANS K23, Liste des enfants mineurs destinés à l'Ecole Pinet-Laprade, nd (1904); ANS K23, letter from Lieutenant Gouverneur du Sénégal to Gouverneur Général AOF, 2 May 1904; ANS 1F1, letter from Président du Tribunal to Maire, Dakar, 16 Oct. 1904.

29 KDB-database. The guardian's profession was not indicated for 510 liberated minors.

30 KDB-database. On liberated minors as domestics, see Faye, ‘Un aspect’, 80–5.

31 ANS 1F1, letter from F. Bonnard to Secrétaire Général, 18 Apr. 1905; ANS 1F1, letter from C. Gaure to Secrétaire Général, 31 Jan. 1906; ANS H206, letter from Coumba Siguita to Secrétaire Général, Saint-Louis, 3 Nov. 1909.

32 ANS 1F1, letter from Béziat to Secrétaire Général, Saint-Louis, 5 Feb. 1906; ANS H177, letter from V. Peignet to Secrétaire Général, Dakar, 5 Dec. 1907.

33 ANS H206, letter from Administrateur en chef P. Godel to Lieutenant Gouverneur, Tivaouane, 6 July 1909. Aïssatou was also called Aïda.

34 ANS 1F1, Tableau de recensement des mineurs de la commune de Rufisque, 15 Mar. 1906.

35 This fits into a larger pattern, widespread in colonial Africa, of European officials, entrepreneurs, and colonists employing African boys and men as domestic servants. Reflecting the racist notion that Africans were perpetual children, these employers tended to refer to all male servants as ‘boys’, regardless of their actual age or social stage. See, for example, M. Gardini, ‘Working as a “boy”: labour, age, and masculinities in Togo, c. 1975–2005’, in Razy and Rodet (eds.), Children, 104–22; Hansen, K. T., Distant Companions: Servants and Employers in Zambia, 1900–1985 (Ithaca, NY, 1989), 65–70Google Scholar. For colonial portrayals of African adults as grown children, see Cohen, W. B., ‘The colonized as child: British and French colonial rule’ African Historical Studies 3:2 (1970), 427–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McNee, L., ‘The languages of childhood: the discursive construction of childhood and colonial policy in French West Africa’, African Studies Quarterly 7:4 (2004), 20–32Google Scholar.

36 ANS 1F1, note from Chef du 1er Bureau to Secrétaire Général, 5 May 1905; ANS H174, letter from Veuve H. Bancal to Secrétaire Général, 20 Mar. 1908.

37 ANS H175, letter from Pécarrère to Président du Tribunal de Saint-Louis, Dakar, 20 Jan. 1906.

38 ANS H177, letter from Lieutenant Gouverneur to M. Peignet, 11 Dec. 1907; ANS H174, letter from Veuve H. Bancal to Secrétaire Général, 20 Mar. 1908; ANS H174, letter from Lieutenant Gouverneur, p.i. to Mme Vve Bancal, 29 Mar. 1908.

39 On French concerns that former slaves would withdraw their labor entirely, precipitating a collapse of the colonial economy, see Klein, Slavery, esp. 178–185. On metropolitan policy, see Schafer, S., Children in Moral Danger and the Problem of Government in Third Republic France (Princeton, NJ, 1997)Google Scholar.

40 Roux, Manuel, 234. On colonial education, see Bryant, K. M. Duke, Education as Politics: Colonial Schooling and Political Debate in Senegal, 1850s–1914 (Madison, WI, 2015)Google Scholar.

41 ANS H175, letter from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 14 Dec. 1905. Physical and sexual abuse was not uncommon, and several others ran away from guardians following this sort of mistreatment. See, for example, ANS 1F1, letter from Secrétaire Général to Commissaire de police, 5 Sep. 1906; ANS 1F1, letter from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 5 Sep. 1906.

42 ANS H175, letter from Président de la commission des mineurs affranchis to Secrétaire Général, 23 Oct. 1906.

43 KDB-database. Since the circumstances leading to flight are normally impossible to discern from the inventories, analysis of context and possible motivation is based on qualitative evidence regarding a smaller number of cases. Furthermore, given that commissioners could not find over 450 children who entered guardianship in Saint-Louis, it is likely that many episodes of flight went unreported.

44 ANS H173, summons for J.-J. Crespin/Balla Fall, 20 Nov. 1906; ANS H173, letter from illegible (Service des contributions directes) to Président, 21 Nov. 1906; ANS 1F1, note from Chef du 1er Bureau to Secrétaire Général 5 May 1905.

45 ANS H175, Certificate de Liberté for Niélé Diara, 2 Aug. 1898; ANS H175, letter from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 25 Oct. 1906, ANS 1F1, letter from Secrétaire Général to Commissaire de police, 27 Oct. 1906.

46 ANS 1F1, letter from Secrétaire Général to Commissaire de police, 5 Sep. 1906; ANS H178, letter from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 4 Feb. 1911; ANS 1F1, letter from Baca Sar to Secrétaire Général, 27 Apr. 1906; ANS 1F1, Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 30 Apr. 1906; ANS H177, État de mineurs, Saint-Louis, 24 Jul. 1907.

47 ANS H173, letter from illegible (Service des contributions directes) to Président, 21 Nov. 1906; ANS H174, summons for Djiby Guèye, 29 Oct. 1908; ANS H178, letter from Administrateur adjoint commandant le cercle de Dagana to Secrétaire Général, 5 Dec. 1908.

48 See, for example, ANS H173, État de mineurs affranchis confiés à Saint-Louis, Nov. 1905; ANS H173, État de mineurs affranchis confiés à Saint-Louis, Aug. 1906.

49 ANS H173, État de mineurs affranchis confiés à Saint-Louis, Apr. 1905.

50 ANS 1F1, Cercle de Thiès, Mineurs affranchis, 15 Mar. 1906. For another example from outside the main towns, see ANS H178, telegram from Administrateur to Secrétaire Général, Saldé, 1 Apr. 1909; Klein, Slavery, 205–15. On labor as an economic strategy for children and families in a different African context, see Lord, J., ‘Child labor in the Gold Coast: the economics of work, education, and the family in late-colonial African childhoods, c. 1940–57’, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 4:1 (2011), 86–115CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 ANS H173, letter from Président de la commission to Secrétaire Général, 26 Nov. 1906; ANS H173, letter from Secrétaire Général to Président du Tribunal chargé de la Commission, 17 Dec. 1906.

52 ANS 1F1, letter from Edouard Duprat to Secrétaire Général, 12 Nov. 1904; ANS H174, letter from Edouard d'Erneville to Président de la Commission chargée des mineurs affranchis, 24 Jan.1908; ANS H206, letter from Vve Paul Deproge to Secrétaire Général, Gorée, 14 Sep. 1909.

53 Scott, J. C., Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, CT, 1985)Google Scholar.

54 ANS 1F1, letter from Mme Le Franc to Secrétaire Général, 20 Aug. 1906; ANS 1F1, letter from Henri Roumégaux to Secrétaire Général, 27 Aug. 1906; ANS 1F1, report from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 1 Sep. 1906; ANS 1F1, letter from Secrétaire Général (by order of Chef du 1er Bureau) to Commissaire de police, 11 Sep. 1906 and replies, 12 Sep. 1906; ANS 1F1, letter from Secrétaire Général to Mme Directrice de l'ouvroir, Sep. 1906.

55 ANS H178, Procès-Verbal, Commission des mineurs affranchis, Tivaouane, 10 Oct. 1908; ANS H206, letter from Administrateur J. Godel, Tivaouane, to Lieutenant Gouverneur, 22 Jul. 1909; ANS H206, letter from Administrateur en chef Godel to Lieutenant Gouverneur, 21 Oct. 1909; ANS H206, letter from Secrétaire Général to Administrateur Tivaouane, Nov. 1909.

56 They shared this preoccupation with employers of female domestics elsewhere in colonial and postcolonial Africa. See Hansen, Distant, 84–139; Hepburn, ‘“Bringing”’, 69–84; Waller, ‘Rebellious’, 83.

57 ANS H175, letter from M. Fréau to Secrétaire Général, 27 Sep. 1906; ANS H175, letter from Commissaire de police to Secrétaire Général, 25 Oct. 1906; ANS H175, letter from Charles Pellegrin to Secrétaire Général, 3 Jan. 1907. Previous guardians had already returned both girls to the administration. I have found only one example of a guardian complaining about a male ward who did not sleep at home, but, in contrast to complaints about girls, it contains no references to moral failings or inappropriate sex. See ANS 1F1, note for Secrétaire Général, 22 Jul. 1905.

58 On enslaved women and girls and sexuality, see Klein and Roberts, ‘Gender’, 165.

59 ANS K23, letter from Lieutenant Gouverneur Sénégal to Gouverneur Général AOF, 4 May 1904. I have not found evidence of African guardians complaining about the sexual conduct of their wards.

60 Klein, Slavery, 246–8.

61 ANS 1F1, letter from Secrétaire Général to Commissaire de Police and response, 5 Sep. 1906.

62 KDB-database. In addition, one male ward was reported as being a father, and three male wards married. All of these statistics are likely well below actual numbers.