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Assimilation in Eighteenth-Century Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John D. Hargreaves
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Extract

This preliminary discussion of the process of assimilation in eighteenth-century Senegal considers how Africans were drawn into the French colonial community through employment; trade; marriage and concubinage; and also through the Portuguese Creole communities to the south of Cape Verde. The extent of their assimilation is discussed with reference to religion; participation in civic institutions; and the acceptance of certain European values. Finally the question of how deeply the colonial community was influenced by African values is briefly raised.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1965 , pp. 177 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

1 Boilat, P. D., Esquisses Sénégalaises (Paris, 1853), 1, 209–12.Google Scholar

2 Director-General David quoted in André Delcourt, La France et les Etablissements francais au Sénégal entre 1713 et 1763 (Mémoires de l'I.F.A.N, No. 17) (Dakar, 1952), 112.

3 Cultru, Prosper (ed.), Premier Voyage du Sieur de la Courbe fait à la Coste d'Afrique en 1685 (Paris, 1913), 101 ff.Google Scholar

4 The personnel of the Compagnie des Indes is analysed in Delcourt, op. cit., 106–38, 400–4.

5 Voyages to the Coast of Africa by Messrs. Saugnier and Brisson (London, 1792), 286–9.

6 One of the earliest definitions of this Senegalese term is that of Durand, Jean B. L., Voyage au Séégal (Paris, An.X, 1802)—but based on residence in the 1780s: ‘lon appelle signares lea femmes de qualité, celles qui sont mariées avec des blancs, et les mulâtresses’ (I, 216).Google Scholar

7 de Magnieu, E. and Prat, H. (ed.), Correspondance Inédite de la Comtesse de Sabran et du Chevalier de Boufflers (Paris, 1875), 474.Google Scholar

8 Demanet, Abbé, Nouvelle Histoire de l'Afrique Française (Paris, 1767), I, III.Google Scholar

9 Senghor, Léopold Sédar: ‘Latinité et Négritude’, Présence Africaine, LII, 1964, 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Saugnier and Brisson, Voyages, 180.

11 Two detailed population counts for St Louis may be found in MacNamara to O'Hara, 26 Jan. 1776 (Public Record Office, London. C.O. 267/1)–total 4732: and in Labarthe, Pierre, Voyage au Sénégal (Paris, An. X, 1802), 177 n.—total 3018, for July 1779.Google Scholar The latter figure may be low partly because of the recent British evacuation, but probably chiefly because of absences on the annual trading voyage. Cultru, Prosper, Histoire du Sénégal (Paris, 1910), 219–21 quotes figures for Goree, 1776, totalling 1689. Later estimates may be found in the works by Durand, Golberry and Saugnier.Google Scholar

12 Boilat, op. cit., I, 9–10.

13 Act of Capitulation, 1 May 1758, in P.R.O.: C.O. 267/12.

14 C.O. 267/I, McNamara to Dartmouth (copy), 26 Jan. 1776.

15 Durand, op. Cit., I, 224.

16 Adanson, Michel, ‘A Voyage to Senegal’ in Pinkerton's Voyages (London, 1814), XVI, 662–4.Google Scholar

17 Dominique Harcourt Lamiral, L'Affrique et le peuple Affriquain (Paris, 1789), 43.

18 C.O. 267/12, Mason to Pitt, 3 May 1758, end, diary of Capt. Walker.

19 C.O. 267/12, Worge to Egremont, 11 Jan. 1762.

20 C.O. 389/31, Board of Trade to George III, ax Feb. 1765. See note 23 below.

21 Durand, op. Cit., I, 406–16 summarizes the accounts of the colony for 1787.

22 Schefer, Christian, Instructions Générales, I, 70–1,Google Scholar Instructions pour M. le Duc de Lauzun, 20 Nov. 1778.

23 Durand, op. cit., I, 218–20.

24 For the articles of capitulation, see note 19 above. C.O. 267/12, petition by Thevenot and others, received by Mason 11 April 1759. C.O. 267/1, McNamara to Dartmouth, 29 Jan. 1776: Petition by Thevenot and others, I Feb. 1776.

25 Schefer, C., op. cit.; compare p. 81 (to Dumontet, I April 1782) with p. 121 (to Repentigny, 18 Nov. 1783). cf. Lamiral, op. Cit., 2–4, 74–6.Google Scholar

26 ‘Tres-Humbles Doléances et Remonstrances des Habitants du Sénégal aux Citoyens Français tenant les Etats-Généraux.’ Lamiral, op. cit., 1–40.

27 Cultru, op. Cit., 287–9: Schefer, op. Cit., 1, 205–7, Mémoire pour Pinoteau, 15 Sept. 1808.

28 Boilat, op. Cit., II, 5–7.

29 Delcourt, op Cit., 124; C.O. 267/12, Newton to Pitt, 10 Feb. 1750.

30 This paper is adapted from my forthcoming book on French-Speaking Countries of West Africa, to be published by Messrs. Prentice-Hall in their series ‘Modern Nations in Historical Perspective’.