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This book explores the intermediary functions of Muslim interpreters in Senegal to affirm their status as active historical agents in the historiography on French colonial rule in West Africa, including themes such as the intersection of knowledge and power in a colonial context and Muslim identity formation and French assimilation.
List of contents
Introduction: Muslim African Interpreters in Colonial Senegal
Chapter 1: Interpreter Family Biographies: Biography as History
Chapter 2: Inconspicuous Interpreters
Chapter 3: The Creation of an Indigenous Interpreter Corps in Saint Louis
Chapter 4: French Expansion, Commerce, and Conquest, 1850s-1880s
Chapter 5: The Mauritanian Challenge: "Pacification" and African Mediators
Conclusion
About the author
By Tamba M'bayo
Summary
This book explores the intermediary functions of Muslim interpreters in Senegal to affirm their status as active historical agents in the historiography on French colonial rule in West Africa, including themes such as the intersection of knowledge and power in a colonial context and Muslim identity formation and French assimilation.
Additional text
Muslim Interpreters is a valuable and welcome addition to the literature on African intermediaries under colonial rule. Dr. Mbayo marshals a vast array of archival and oral sources to describe the role of Muslim interpreters as the French moved from their outpost of Saint-Louis to expand their domination along the Senegal River valley and the hinterland of Senegal. Moving beyond the simplistic resistance/collaboration binary the book highlights the role of interpreters not only as go-between between colonizers and colonized but also as producers of knowledge with significant influence in colonial decision making.
