Réformer l’Empire: éducation de base et développement en Afrique coloniale française (1945–1956)

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ABSTRACT After the Second World War, the French colonial administration undertook about 15 experiments in fundamental education in several villages of West and Equatorial Africa. Carried out by small teams of experts, including Africans, their aims were to raise the living standards of rural and often isolated communities, to improve hygiene and nutrition conditions, and to promote new agricultural and farming techniques. From a political viewpoint, the objective was to re-legitimise the civilising mission of colonialism by showing the commitment of French authorities towards the “well-being” of native African populations. By the mid-1950s, however, all projects were interrupted, due to technical, financial, and political constraints. Drawing on national, colonial, and African archives, this article sheds light on this still little-known history. It first highlights the international context in which these projects took place, particularly the role of Unesco in forging the concept of fundamental education. Second, the article analyses the daily work provided by colonial experts in the field. Special attention is given to the wide range of activities that were carried out (literacy and medical campaigns, technical training sessions, farming experiments, etc.), the roles of African staff, and local populations’ reception. The article also examines the institutional machinery set up by colonial authorities, both in the metropole and overseas, in an attempt to define a “French paradigm” in fundamental education and to showcase their efforts within international fora. Third, problems that led the French administration to abandon those kinds of experiments in the mid-1950s are investigated in detail. Against the background of decolonisation, direct interventionism in overseas territories was indeed replaced by bilateral “development aid” programmes, which became part of a comprehensive strategy aimed at strengthening the geopolitical position of France in post-independence Africa. By highlighting post-war French attempts at reforming the empire through fundamental education, the article thus provides new and original insights into the history of development in Africa as well as into the interconnections between internationalism and empire in the late colonial period.