The Colonial Elite in Dahomey

Abstract

The number, behavior, and attitudes of the Dahamean modern elite, of the 1930's have been outstanding among the French-speaking African elites and have earned for Dahomey fame as the Latin Quarter of West Africa. What does this complimentary title suggest? It suggests that Dahomey has a concentration of educated people as does the quarter in the environs of the Sorbonne and also, perhaps, that Dahomeans are generally intelligent and educated. It also seems to imply that Dahomeans are more intensely motivated to secure an education and acquire knowledge than other Africans. Some of these qualifications are beyond our capabilities to evaluate; others, such as the intellectual activities of this sizeable group are an historical fact. During the colonial period more than forty newspapers appeared in Dahomey written and published by Dahomeans, who were also active in the organization of schools and constantly attempted to influence the content of education. After the Second World War, when new political institutions were introduced into Dahomey, the writers and editors of the 1930's, practically without exception, either associated with them, participated in them, or founded them. From being the cultural elite of the 1930's they became a decade later the political elite in their country. It is interesting, then, to inquire into the composition of this elite and into their attitudes as they are expressed on the pages of their newspapers.