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Felix Eboue and the Chiefs: Perceptions of Power in Early Oubangui-Chari1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2012

Brian Weinstein
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Extract

Discussions about ‘direct’ administration and ‘indirect’ administration, with regard to French and British colonial policies, are less important than the question of who—local leaders or colonial administrators—had power over the lives of Africans. Monthly reports written by heads of subdivisions, the smallest French administrative units in a colony like Oubangui-Chari, are the most important written source of information for the day-to-day events of an area. They are also a source for the point of view of the administrator, often quite different from the point of view of chiefs and villagers. The European often sees himself as the central figure and colonial administrative problems as the central issues for everyone. African memories of the same period indicate that the European may have been considered less important by African peasants than their chief, whether the chief had a legitimate traditional basis or not, and that administrative issues were considered less important than certain local problems unknown to the European. This study of Félix Eboué and Raymond Sokambi, an administrator and a chief in Oubangui-Chari, shows that an attempt to examine perceptions of power—one basis for power—is a way to understand relations between the colonial administration and African society.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , January 1970 , pp. 107 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

2 Martin, A. Klein, Islam and Imperialism in Senegal: Sine-Saloum 1847–1914 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968);Google Scholar and Hubert, Deschamps, ‘Et Maintenant, Lord Lugard?’, Africa, XXXIII (1963), 293–306.Google Scholar

3 According to Gann, L. H. and Peter, Duignan, Burden of Empire (New York: Praeger, 1967), 218.Google Scholar

4 ‘Circulaire adressée par le Gouverneur Général du Congo FranÇais aux Lieutenants-Gouverneurs, au sujet de L'impôt franÇais’, 29 August 1909, and other circulars in Messimy, M., Rapport sur le Budget Général de L'Exercice 1910…, Chambre des Députés, 1909, annexe XXVI, pp. 521–4.Google Scholar

5 ‘Circulaire adressée par le Gouverneur Général du Congo FranÇais aux Lieutenants-Gouverneurs au sujet de l'occupation de la Colonie’, in Messimy, ibid., annexe XXV, p. 510.

6 Ibid. p. 511.

7 Archives Nationales, Guinée, Dossier, 2/D.124, ‘Extrait du Rapport Politique de l'Année 1916’, 25 August 1916.

8 Archives Nationales, République Centrafricaine, Circulaire no. 108, Lt Gouverneur à tous chefs de circonscription, 1910.

9 Archives Nationales de France, Annexe des Archives d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence (Arch. Nat. Aix), Archives de 1'Afrique Equatoriale FranÇaise, classification in process, Oubangui-Chari, ‘Rapport Annuel, 1916’, p. 4.

10 Arch. Nat. Aix, Oubangui-Chari, ‘Rapport Annuel, 1916’, table after page 60.

11 République Centrafricaine, Préfecture de la Ouaka, Sous-Préfecture de Kouango, ‘Chefs de Subdivision de Kouango’, List. Only one other person, a Monsieur Quer, worked almost as long as Eboué—about 32 months.

12 The reports and correspondence mentioned below come from Archives Nationales, République Centrafricaine, Section Kouango. I am grateful to the President of the Central African Republic for permission to examine these archives.

13 Arch. Nat. Aix., Oubangui-Chari, ‘Rapport d'Ensemble pour l'Année 1915’, no pagination.

14 Letter to Chef de Circonscription, no. 4, 20 12 1914.Google Scholar

15 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 30 03 1915.Google Scholar

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17 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 29 04 1915. All the information below concerning the tour comes from this letter.Google Scholar

18 It would be interesting to collect these stories and memories; circumstances prevented me from obtaining all but the most general information in interviews in the Central African Republic.

19 That of a Langba, about 65 years old, who had fled from Kouango as a youth and who did not know Amba personally.

20 Oubangui-Chari, Kotto-Kouango, Subdivision de Kouango, ‘Rapport Mensuel’, Mar. 1915, Section ‘Situation Politique’.

21 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 2 05 1915.Google Scholar

22 Chef de Circonscription to Chef de Subdivision, 16 02 1916, and Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 10 07 1917.Google Scholar

23 Chef de Circonscription to Chef de Subdivision, 15 02 1916.Google Scholar

24 One of the youngest sons of Sokambi told me this version in French, Bangui, 19 Aug. 1967.

25 Told by Mme Clémentine Sokambi in the language of the Banziri to a Banziri school-teacher in Kouango, who translated it into French and wrote it down, 3 June 1968, Kouango.

26 His colleagues would have considered her a mistress, but the Banziri considered her Eboué's wife.

27 European informants have agreed with the Sokambi family on their friendship. As governor-general, Eboué travelled to Oubangui during the Second World War to see Sokambi, according to Mme E. Barat, Paris, 1 Apr. 1968.

28 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 29 04 1915.Google Scholar

29 Félix, Eboué, Les peuples de l'Oubangui-Chari (Paris: Comité de l'Afrique FranÇaise, 1933), 82.Google Scholar

30 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 29 04 1915.Google Scholar

31 ‘Rapport Mensuel’, Apr. 1915.

32 Ibid. May 1915.

33 Ibid. Aug. 1915.

34 Ibid. Nov. 1915.

35 ‘Rapport Mensuel’, Nov. 1915.

36 Ibid. Nov. 1916.

37 Ibid. Dec. 1916.

38 Chef de Subdivision to Administrateur-Maire de Bangui, 3 01 1916.Google Scholar

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40 ‘Rapport Mensuel’, 05 1917.

41 Ibid. Aug. 1916.

42 Ibid. Dec. 1915.

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45 Archives Nationales, Central African Republic, Section Kouango, Letter, Mobaye, 6 July 1918.

46 Ibid., Lt. Governor to M. le Chef de Circonscription de Ia Kotto-Kouango, Bangui, 15 Oct. 1918.

47 Archives Nationales (France), Section d'Outre-Mer, Affaires Politiques 338 (3), ‘Supplement au 4ème rapport trimestriel’, Bangui, 19 Mar. 1919, no pagination.

48 Arch. Nat. Aix, Oubangui-Chari, ‘Rapport Annuel, 1920’, p. 31.

49 Ibid. p. 4.

50 Archives Nationales, Central African Republic, Section Rafai, ‘Extrait: Rapport du ler trimestre 1937’.

51 Written by a former administrator, Pierre, Kalck, Réalités Oubanguiennes (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1959), 243.Google Scholar

52 As told by Mme Clémentine Sokambi, Kouango, 3 June 1968.

53 Told in French by another member of the Sokambi family and translated by the author.

54 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, no. 10, 29 04 1915.Google Scholar

55 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 26 03 1917.Google Scholar

56 Chef de Subdivision to Chef de Circonscription, 30 04 1917.Google Scholar

57 ‘Rapport Mensuel’, 08 1916.

58 I am grateful to Mme E. Barat for telling me about this, and for permitting me to read about it in her notes, ‘Musique Indigène’, from her personal archives.

59 I don't know what putting an account of the affair into Eboué's shoe means in version B, or the authorization finally given the Langba to go back to their own country, unless it means that Sokambi was no longer head of their canton.

60 A 65-year-old worker, referred to earlier. The memories of Amba were collected, it should be noted, under unfavourable circumstances and may not mean very much.

61 Eric, de Dampierre, Un Ancien Royaume du Haut-Oubangui (Paris: Plon, 1967), 465.Google Scholar

62 Klein, , Islam and Imperialism, 231–2.Google Scholar

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64 Archives Nationales, République Centrafricaine, Section Rafai, ‘Calendrier Historique’ and Interviews with Hetman's son, Mayor Fatrane, Rafai, 6 July 1968, Count Joseph Reste de Roca, ‘Mas Reste’, 18 Aug. 1968.