« Le délit d'abandon de domicile conjugal » ou l'invasion du pénal colonial dans les jugements des « tribunaux indigènes » au Soudan français, 1900-1947

Abstract

This article aims to examine the interplay between customary law, colonial law, and French law through the study of court cases of female desertion in the region of Kayes in French Sudan (now known as Mali) for the period 1900-1947. In 1903, a new colonial legal system was decreed in French West Africa. The new legislation guaranteed that the colonial courts would enforce African customs for African subjects. In order to facilitate control over colonial courts and the application of customary laws, the colonial administration was eager to formalize and unify the content of customary laws. This formalization relied on what the "traditional power," the jurisprudence of colonial courts, and the colonial administration viewed as customary law. This process ultimately led to a kind of "invention of tradition" pertaining to family law, which with the help of "traditional power" entailed the penalization of female desertion. The colonial and local considerations of power control in the region entailed increasing restrictions over women's mobility. From 1910 onward, wives accused of desertion were increasingly forced by the colonial courts to return to their husbands. If they refused, from 1914, the court started sending them to prison. Both "traditional power" and the colonial administration had agreed to declare female desertion as being henceforth a "customary offence."