Book contents
- Colonial Internationalism and the Governmentality of Empire, 1893–1982
- Global and International History
- Colonial Internationalism and the Governmentality of Empire, 1893–1982
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 “More Beautiful than the Nationalist Thought”?
- 2 A Transcolonial Governmentality Sui Generis
- 3 Politics of Comparison
- 4 Cultivating the Myth of Transcolonial Progress
- 5 The Adatization of Islamic Law and Muslim Codes of Development
- 6 Creating an “Anti-Geneva Bloc” and the Question of Representivity
- 7 Inventing Fascist Eurafrica at the Volta Congress
- 8 False Authenticity
- 9 “That Has Been Our Program for Fifty Years”
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - False Authenticity
The Fokon’olona and the Cooperative World Commonwealth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2022
- Colonial Internationalism and the Governmentality of Empire, 1893–1982
- Global and International History
- Colonial Internationalism and the Governmentality of Empire, 1893–1982
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 “More Beautiful than the Nationalist Thought”?
- 2 A Transcolonial Governmentality Sui Generis
- 3 Politics of Comparison
- 4 Cultivating the Myth of Transcolonial Progress
- 5 The Adatization of Islamic Law and Muslim Codes of Development
- 6 Creating an “Anti-Geneva Bloc” and the Question of Representivity
- 7 Inventing Fascist Eurafrica at the Volta Congress
- 8 False Authenticity
- 9 “That Has Been Our Program for Fifty Years”
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Chapter 8, we see how ICI members promoted the idea of a colonial welfare state at a low cost, based on mutuality and self-help. While craft guilds provided for a welfare system in urban regions, agricultural cooperatives assumed this task in more rural colonies. In the 1930s, a colonial cooperative movement emerged that stretched from Senegal to Madagascar and from India to Italy. Cooperatives were mutual loan, production, and marketing societies that collectively provided help to members in need. These cooperatives became the central element of the ICI’s development scheme. Their grassroots character was a governmental alternative to the huge investment programs of the 1930s to develop the colonies. However, the chapter also shows how colonial administrations used cooperatives to perpetuate enforced labor, wage dumping, collective punishment, additional taxation, and expropriation of land. Nevertheless, development agencies and international organizations continued to regard cooperatives as a crucial tool for educating Africans about collective work in the 1950s and 1960s. The ICI’s development schemes inspired the work of the ILO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, UNESCO, and the Economic Commission for Africa of the UN.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022