Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T08:12:56.392Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Migrations as Revolt: The Example of the Ivory Coast and the Upper Volta before 1945*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

A. I. Asiwaju
A. I. Asiwaju
Affiliation:
University of Lagos
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This study is offered as a contribution to the literature on African protest movements during the era of colonial rule. Existing studies of migration emphasize the socio-economic aspects of motivation and have tended to gloss over or even omit migrations in which the dominant factor was disapproval of colonial policy. Existing studies of African protest movements focus on armed confrontations, perhaps because of their greater dramatic appeal.

The case of the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta illustrates a phenomenon found in various parts of French West Africa and, indeed, in other colonies, particularly the Belgian and Portuguese territories. The causes of protest migrations were usually related to the same resentments which provoked revolt in localities where armed confrontation was the only option. These compelling factors included forced labour, burdensome taxation, conscription, requisitions and an attack on indigenous political institutions, notably chieftaincy. The use of repressive police measures, as manifested in the Native Penal and Indigénat Codes, exacerbated African discontent. Judging from the French reaction to the exodus from the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta, it is clear that migrations, as protests, proved far less costly to Africans and had much the same effect on the colonial authorities as did other more militant forms of protest and rebellion.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 1976 , pp. 577 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Vollenhoven, J. V., Governor-General of French West Africa, Dakar, to the Lt.-Governor of the Ivory Coast, 20 Oct. 1917Google Scholar. Archives nationales, Abidjan (Depôt Historique à la Pyramide), hereafter A.N.A. (H): 1 Mi 25 (Microfilm of Fond Ancien A.O.F. Dakar Serie 3F9), M. Le Gouverneur-Général de l'A.O.F. à M. Le Lieutenant-Governeur de la Côte d'Ivoire, Dakar, 20 Oct. 1917, a.s. Exodes en Gold Coast-Reclamations d'Indigènes, p. 7.

2 See Rotberg, R. I. and Mazrui, Ali (eds.), Protest and Power in Black Africa (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar, particularly sections II to IV.

3 Protest or politically motivated migrations are easily distinguished from migrations based on socio-economic motivation. In the case of migrations from the Upper Volta to the Gold Coast, the latter aspects have been well covered in several studies, including Rouch's, Jean ‘Migrations au Gold Coast’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xxvi, 1956Google Scholar, and Skinner, E. P.'s ‘Labour Migration and Its Relationship to Socio-Cultural Change in Mossi Society’ Africa, xxx (1960)Google Scholar, but the former still have to be subjected to systematic enquiry.

4 See, e.g. Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre-Mer, Paris (hereafter A.N.S.O.), Carton 517, dossier 4, ‘Affaires diplomatiques. Tentatives des puissances étrangères africaines pour empêcher l'exode des populations frontières.…’

5 For references to the subject, see Crowder, Michael, West Africa Under Colonial Rule (London, 1968), 338Google Scholar, and Suret-Canale, J., Afrique Noire Occidental et Centrale, L'Ére Coloniale, 1900–1945 (Paris, 1961), 314–15.Google Scholar

6 Among the Yoruba, the Edo, the Fon and a host of other African peoples, there are abundant traditions of migrations motivated by socio-political considerations. In Benin, e.g., the reign of Oba Ewuare, usually placed somewhere in the mid-fifteenth century, was said to be so unpopular that it generated waves of protest migrations which ostensibly led to the foundation of many communities of closely related groups like the Urhobo, the Western Ijaw, the Western Igbo and the Onitsha Igbo.

7 Asiwaju, A. I., Western Yorubaland Under European Rule, 1889–1945: A Comparative Analysis of French and British Colonialism (London, 1976), chs. 5 and 6.Google Scholar

8 Archives nationales, Abidjan (Direction)—hereafter A.N.A.(D): Serie IV—46/11–3304, Rapport de M. L' Administrates en Chef Itier, Inspecteur des Affaires Administratives sur les exodes en Gold Coast, Rapport No. 87 du ier août 1936, (hereafter Rapport Itier), p. 16.Google Scholar

9 For brief references, see Wauters, J., Le Congo au Travail, p. 98Google Scholar cited in Gonidec, P. F., Droit du Travail des Territoires d'Outre-Mer (Paris, 1958), 31Google Scholar; Duffy, James, ‘Portuguese Africa’, in Gann, L. H. and Duignan, P. (eds.), Colonialism in Africa (Cambridge, 1970), II, 171–95.Google Scholar

10 For a case study, see Akpan, M. B., ‘The African Policy of the Liberian Settlers, 1841–1932: A study of the “Native” Policy of a Non-Colonial Power in Africa’ (unpub Ibadan Ph.D. thesis, 1968).Google Scholar

11 One of the evils of the Native House Rule of 1912 in the Central and Eastern Provinces of Southern Nigeria was desertion by some Nigerians who escaped into the neighbouring Spanish colony of Fernando Po. See Tamuno, T. N., The Evolution of the Nigerian State (London, 1972), 329Google Scholar. Similarly, the king of Yashikera and many of his people migrated from British to French Borgu in 1904 in protest against the centralizing influences of British administration in the area. See Crowder, M., Revolt in Borgu (London, 1974).Google Scholar

12 Ekanza, S. P., ‘L'Emigration des Populations du Sanwi en Gold Coast, 1900–1919’, paper presented at the Kumasi Colloquium, Jan. 1975.Google Scholar

13 A.N.A.(H), 1 Mi 25, Gouv.-Gen. au Lt. Gouv., already cited; Cercle d'Assinie No. 452—Aboisso le 23 juillet 1917, L'Administrateur Commandant le Cercle (IBRU) a M. le Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire à Bingerville a.s. des exodes en Gold Coast, hereafter Rapport IBRU, A.N.A.(D), Rapport Itier, and ‘Rapport de M. L'Administrateur en Chef Pieussergues, Inspecteur des Affaires Administratives sur L'exodes en Gold Coast, Rapport 55 du 10 December 1935’, hereafter Rapport Pieussergues.

14 This terminology is borrowed from Kuper (ed), Urbanization …, and Dollot, Louis, Les Migrations Humaines (Paris, 1970).Google Scholar

15 As in n. 1 above.

16 See, e.g., Rouch, Jean, ‘Migrations au Gold Coast’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xxvi (1956)Google Scholar, abridged as ‘Migrations from French Territories into Ghana’, Africa, xxviii (1958), 156–9Google Scholar; Skinner, E. P., ‘Labour Migration and its Relationship to Socio-Cultural Change in Mossi Society,’ Africa, xxx (1960)Google Scholar; and Deniel, Raymond, ‘Mesures gouvermentales et/ou intérêts divergents des pays exportateurs de main d'oeuvre et des pays hôtes: Haute Volta et Côte d'Ivoire’, in Amin, Samir (ed), Modern Migrations in Western Africa (Oxford, 1974).Google Scholar

17 Rouch, , ‘Migrations from the French Territories …’, 157.Google Scholar

18 A.N.A. (H)—Mi 25: Assinie, le 28 fevrier 1917, L'Administrateur Commandant du Cercle d'Assinie à M. le Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire, Bingerville.

19 Lauer, J. J., ‘Economic Innovations Among the Idoo of Western Ivory Coast, 1900–1960’, unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Wisconsin, 1973, 96 and 126.Google Scholar

20 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25, Bingerville le 6 Dec. 1917 No. 1125 G.P. a.s. de Reclamations d' Indigenes à M. le Gouverneur-General de l'A.O.F. (Services Administratives et Civiles) Dakar, , p. 8Google Scholar; A.N.A.(D): Rapport Pieussergues and Rapport Itier.

21 In 1929 the Governor of the Gold Coast was reported to have made the exodus from the Ivory Coast one of his keynote addresses at the opening session of the Legislative Council. See A.N.A. (D): IV-46/11–3304, Abidjan le 26 Septembre 1936–No. 446 BPA/1 Le Gouverneur des Colonies p. i Lamy, Lt.-Gouv. de la Côte d'lvoire à M. Le Gouv.-Gen. de 1'A.O.F. (Direction des Affaires Politiques et Administratives), a.s. Immigration en Gold Coast, p. 15.

22 A.N.A. (H): Mi 25—Extrait du Rapport Politique de la Côte d'Ivoire—ier Trimestre de l'Année 1918.

23 Labouret, , Paysans de l'Afrique Occidentale (Paris, 1941)Google Scholar cited in Crowder, , West Africa Under Colonial Rule, 338.Google Scholar

24 For a recent synthesis, see Smith, R. S., The Kingdoms of the Yorubas (London, 1969).Google Scholar

25 Compare with the position of Imeko (in the Yoruba kingdom of Ketu) prior to and during the period of British rule discussed in Asiwaju, A. I., ‘The Alaketu of Ketu and the Onimeko of Meko: The Changing Status of Two Yoruba Rulers Under French and British Rule’, in Crowder, M. and Ikime, O. (eds.), West African Chiefs (New York, 1970).Google Scholar

26 A.N.A. (H), Mi 26—Incidents de frontière, 1905–11 and Mi 25—Government House, Accra to Governor-General of French West Africa in Dakar, 15 Feb. 1917.

27 Parrinder, E. G., The Story of Ketu (Ibadan, 1956), 41.Google Scholar

28 See Crowder, , West Africa Under Colonial RuleGoogle Scholar, and Asiwaju, Western Yorubaland Under European RuleGoogle Scholar. However, the difficulties of pushing this comparison beyond the frontiers of West Africa have been hinted in both the Introduction and concluding chapters of Asiwaju, , Western YorubalandGoogle Scholar, and with some exaggeration in Kiwanuka, S., ‘Colonial Policies and Administrations in Africa: The Myth of the Contrasts’, in African Historical Studies, iii (1970), 295–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 For a lucid analysis of this mercantilist approach, see Oloruntimehin, B. O., ‘The Economy of French West Africa Between the Two World Wars’, paper presented at a Seminar on Sociology and History, University of Ife, Nigeria, Mar. 1975.Google Scholar

30 See Anouma, R.-P., ‘L'Impôt de Capitation, le Systemèe des Prestations et des Corvées en Côte d'Ivoire de 1901–1930 (Rôle dans la mise en valeur et l'evolution économique et social)’, Thèse de doctorat de 3ème Cycle, Aix-en-Provence, 1973, vol. 1— TexteGoogle Scholar, and Zemibi, Z. ‘La Politique Coloniale des Travaux Publics En Côte d'lvoire, 1900–1940’, Thèse de doctorat de 3ème Cycle, Paris, VII, 1973.Google Scholar

31 In the particular case of the Gold Coast, forced labour as a regular practice did not last beyond 1927. See Thomas, Roger, ‘Forced Labour in the Northern Territory of the Gold Coast’, J. Afr. Hist, xiv (1973), 102–3.Google Scholar

32 See Busia, K. A., The Position of the Chiefs in the Modern Political System of Ashanti (London, 1968).Google Scholar

33 Anouma, , ‘L'Impôt de Capitation …’, 7.Google Scholar

34 For references on the Indigénat, see Buell, R. L., The Native Problem in Africa (New York, 1928), vol. 1, 2nd ed. 1965, 1016–20.Google Scholar

35 See A.N.A. (H)—Mi 25: Assinie, le 28 Fevrier 1917, L'Administrateur Com mandant du Cercle d'Assinie a M. Le Gouv. de la Cote d'lvoire, Bingerville.

36 Anouma, , L'Impôt de Capitation …, 7, 95–118.Google Scholar

37 Crowder, , West Africa Under Colonial Rule, 207Google Scholar. The late introduction of capitation tax to the Gold Coast compared with the practice in Southern Nigeria where the obligation was introduced to most parts of the Western Provinces only in the 1920s and the Eastern Provinces only in 1928.

38 For the incidence of indirect taxation in French West Africa see Buell, op. cit., 1035.

39 A.N.A. (D): Rapport Pieussergues, 1935.Google Scholar

40 Ibid.

41 Thomas, , ‘Forced Labour …’.Google Scholar

42 Both Thomas, Roger, ‘Military Recruitment in the Gold Coast During the First World War’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, lvii, 57–83Google Scholar, and Osuntokun, Jide, ‘Problems of Military Recruitment in Nigeria During the First World War’ (paper presented at the 21st Annual Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria)Google Scholar, indicate that conscription was not the policy of the British in West Africa. The contrast with the French colonies is clearly shown in Crowder, M., ‘West Africa and 1914– War’, Bull, de l'I.F.A.N., Série B, xxx (1968), 227–47.Google Scholar

43 A.N.A. (H): Mi 25—Rapport JBRU, and Gouverneur-General de L'A.O.F. au Lt.-Gouverneur de le Côte d'lvoire, 20 Oct. 1917, cited.Google Scholar

44 A.N.A. (D), Rapport Itier.

45 For a recent scholarly analysis of the problems posed by military conscription in French West Africa see Echenberg, Myron J., ‘Paying the Blood Tax: Military Conscription in French West Africa, 1914–1929’, Canadian Jour, of Afr. Stud. ix (1975), 171–92.Google Scholar

46 A.N.A. (H): Mi 25—Extract. Travelling Confidential No. Case 224A C.S.2. Provincial Commissioner's Office, Secondee, 9 Feb. 1917 to the Hon. The Acting Colonial Secretary, Victoriaburg, Accra—Enclosure in Dakar No. 19 of 15 Feb. 1917—para. 7. Signed John Maxwell, Commissioner Western Province.

47 Ibid.

48 A.N.A. (H), Série zee 12 (3)—Dossier relatif à l'Exode des Agnis en Gold Coast et aux événements de Half-Assinie 1917—Kodiale Kassy, roi du Royaume d'Assinie è M. le Gouverneur-General de l'A.O.F. è Grand Bassam, le 22 juin 1917.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 See A.N.A. (D), Dossier XII–29–25/92 (458), Contrô1e d'Indigénat dans les cercles de Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Dedougou, Gaoua, Batie, Kodougou, Kaya, Tenkodogo (Observations du Bureau Politique), 1928–32.

53 For example, in the course of the French ‘pacification’ of Assinie, Southern Baule, Northern Baule, Man, Guro, N'Zi—Comoe, Lahu and the Lagoon districts, over two hundred and twenty chiefs received punishment ranging from banishment in distant detention camps to imprisonment in local gaols. See Anouma, , ‘L'Impôt de Capitation …’, 119.Google Scholar

54 For more detailed discussions of this subject see the contributions by Suret-Canale, , Alexandre, Pierre, Lombard, Jacques, Skinner, Elliot and Asiwaju, in West African Chiefs, eds. Crowder and Ikime.Google Scholar

55 A.N.A. (H): Mi 25, Rapport IBRU and Gouverneur-General au Lt.-Gouveneur … 20 Oct. 1917.Google Scholar

56 Ibid.—Rapport IBRU.

57 For a detailed case study of British Indirect Rule in the Former Gold Coast Colony, see Busia, , The Position of the Chiefs ….Google Scholar

58 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25—Gouverneur-Gen. au Lt. Gouv. … 20 Oct. 1917.

59 In Dahomey, for example, relocation in more accessible neighbourhoods was an important aspect of French military conquest and suppression in Ohori-Ije, the Mono valley and the lagoon districts of the difficult Cercle de l'Atlantique de l'Ouest.

60 Lauer, J. J., ‘Economic Innovations Among the Idoo of Western Ivory Coast, 1900–1960’, unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Wisconsin, 1973, ch. 5.Google Scholar

61 Ibid. 145.

62 The inadvisability of emigration in this case was influenced by the fact that in Liberia, the nearest state into which willing Idoo could escape, the policy of the Liberian government was scarcely different from the pattern in French territory. Indeed, as happened in May 1919, the Grebos, the Bopos and some other Liberian indigenes reacted to the Americo-Liberian administration and migrated en masse into the adjacent Cercle de Cavally in south-western Ivory Coast. See A.N.A. (H), 2ee 12 (5): Cercle du Cavally Colonie de la Côte d'Ivoire No. 492, Tabou le 25 mai 1919, Note sur un mouvement d'immigration d'Indigènes Liberiens sur la rive gauche du Cavally pendant le mois de Mai 1919.

63 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25 Rapport IBRU …

64 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25—Gouv-Gen. au Lt.-Gouv. … 20 Oct. 1917.

65 Ibid.

66 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25—‘Extract. Travelling Confidential No. Case 224A … Accra … Enclosure in Dakar No. 19 of 15 Feb. 1917, already cited.

67 A.N.A. (H): Mi 25—Commandant de Cercle Assinie à M. le Gouverneur de la Côte d'lvoire à Bingerville, le 28 Fev. 1917.

68 A.N.A. (H), 2ee 12 (3), Kodiale Kassy, roi du Royaume d'Assinie à M. le Gouverneur-General … 22–6–17.

69 A.N.A. (D), IV-46/11–3304: Lt. Gouverneur p.i. à M. le Gouverneur-General à Dakar, , 26 Sept. 1936, 11.Google Scholar

70 In the Rapport Pieussergues, for example, the loss of population in certain districts as a result of the exodus of 1935 was indicated as follows:

71 Delavignette, R., Les Vrais Chefs …Google Scholar, cited in Suret-Canale, , Afrique Noire …, 315.Google Scholar

72 Archives nationales Section Outre-Mer, Paris (hereafter A.N.S.O.), Carton 517, d. 4, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (Direction des Affaires Politiques et Commerciales, Afrique) a.s. Critiques formules à l'égard de l'attitude des autorités locales des enclaves britanniques de l'A.O.F. (undated).

73 A.N.A. (H): Mi 25—Extrait du Rapport Politique de la Côte d'lvoire —ier Trimestre de l'Année 1918.

74 A.N.A. (D), Rapport Itier, 17.Google Scholar

75 A.N.S.O., Carton 517 d.4—1773—Gouverneur-Gen. de l'A.O.F. au Ministre des Colonies (Service de l'Afrique), 4 nov. 1918.

76 Asiwaju, , Western Yorubaland, Chs. 6–7.Google Scholar

77 Rapport Itier, 16.Google Scholar

78 Ibid.

79 See Asiwaju, , Western Yorubaland, ch. 6Google Scholar for other instances of the French argument regarding the 1905 Anglo-French entente.

80 A.N.A. (H) M: 25, Commandant Cercle d'Assinie à M. le Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire; also No. 38 Government House Accra 16/4/1917 to Governor of Ivory Coast; and A.N.S.O.: Carton 517, dos 4, No. 363, Mr Paul Cambon, Ambassadeur de la République française à Londres à Pichon, M. S., Ministre de Affaires Etrangàres, 13 juin 1919.Google Scholar

81 See A.N.A. (H), Mi 25—Government House Accra to Governor-General, Dakar, 15 Feb. 1917 for the British discussion of the problem of identification as related to the Sanwi refugees in the Aowin District of the Gold Coast.

82 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25—Extract—Travelling Confidential No. Case 224A—Provincial Commissioner's Office, Secondee … 9th Feb. 1917 … Para. 2.

83 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25—Lieutenant-Gouverneur de la Côte d'lvoire au Gouverneur-General à Dakar, , 6 Dec. 1917, p. 8Google Scholar. Also A.N.A. (D), Rapport Itier, 66.Google Scholar

84 A.N.A. (H), 2ee 12 (4): 349 B.M. Lt.-Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire à M. le Gouverneur-General à Dakar, , a.s. Rentree des gens d'Assinie, 8 Septembre 1918.Google Scholar

85 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25: Gouverneur-General de l'A.O.F. à M. le Lieutenant-Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire … 20 Octobre 1917, 8–10.Google Scholar

86 Ibid.

87 A.N.A. (H), Mi 25—L'Administrateur Commandant Cercle d'Assinie à M. le Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire à Bingerville, 28 Fev. 1917.

88 A.N.A. (D), IV–46/11–3304, Le Lt-Gouverneur à M. Le Gouverneur-General de l'A.O.F. (Direction des Affaires Politiques et Administratives, Dakar, , 26 Sept. 1936, 11–12).Google Scholar

89 Ibid. 12.

90 Ibid. 13.

91 Ibid. 13–14.

92 Ibid. 13–14.