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Based around the life of Mademba Sèye, an African born in the colonial town of Saint Louis du Sénégal in 1852, who transformed himself with the help of his French patrons from a telegraph clerk into an African king, this book examines Mademba's life and career to reveal how colonialism in French West Africa was articulated differently at different times and how Mademba survived these changes by periodically reinventing himself. Investigating Mademba's alleged abuses of power and crimes that pitted French colonial indirect rule policy with its foundations in patronage and loyalty against its stated commitment to the rule of law and the civilizing mission, Conflicts of Colonialism sheds light on conflicts between different forms of colonialism and the deep ambiguities of the rule of law in colonial societies, which, despite serious challenges to Mademba's rule, allowed him to remain king until his death in 1918.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. Mademba and the foundations of the bargains of collaboration, 1852-1888; 2. Conquest and construction of indirect rule in the French Soudan, 1886-1891; 3. 'A world of deception and defection': Misrule, rebellion, and indirect rule revisted, 1891-1895; 4. 'A curious and very engaging mixture of European and Native customs': Republican traditions and African kings, 1895-1899; 5. The coming storm, 1898-1899; 6. Rule of law and the bargains of collaboration: Mademba on trial, 1899-1900; 7: 'An unexpected and precious collaborator': Mademba's redemption, 1900-1906; 8: Remaking Mademba, 1906-1931; Conclusion.
About the author
Richard L. Roberts is the Frances and Charles Field Professor of History at Stanford University, where he has served as the Director for the Center for African Studies for over two decades. One of the leading social historians of French West Africa, his research has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has published numerous books and edited collections including Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (2016), Litigants and Households: African Disputes and Colonial Courts in the French Soudan, 1895-1912 (2005) and Two Worlds of Cotton: Colonialism and the Regional Economy in the French Soudan, 1800-1946 (1996).
