Quatorze millions de Français dans la Fédération de l'Afrique occidentale française ?

Abstract

The adding together of the 70 million subjects of the colonial empire and the 40 million inhabitants of the motherland in order to obtain the largest possible figure of 110 million Frenchmen, is an argument that has been frequently put forward since 1930 to assuage the concern that exists over the underpopulation of France. To restrict the discussion to the most favorable example, that of French Western Africa, it might be asked to what extent the school system was busy changing 14 million habitants into real Frenchmen, as Biaise Diagne, Sénégal 's black représentative, has stated in the Chambre des députés. Research is based upon three types of évidence : that of two high-ranking British officials who, in 1935, -conducted a survey across French Western Africa on behalf of London University ; that bequeathed to us by the Africans themselvesin the press or the literature of the time and in the Cahiers William Ponty, written pièces of work by pupils who attended the famous school ; and finally the évidence found in the spoken answers given in 1972-1973 by 1 1 1 former «Pontins» to Mrs Peggy Sabatier, the school's American historian. From this évidence, it would seem to be the case that in the years leading up to the Second World War, in the sphère of French Western Africa, a process of gallicization was taking place, but only in so far as the Africans believed France to be a great power, or even the greatest in the world.