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French Interests in the Levant and Their Impact on French Immigrant Policy in West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Chris Bierwirth
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Extract

Prior to the Second World War, the French government had been highhanded in its administration of the Levantine Mandates and severe in the treatment of Levantine immigrants in its West African colonies. This imperious behaviour would change abruptly in 1944. As part of their effort to rebuild French power, General Charles de Gaulle and the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationak (CFLN) sought to maintain France's longstanding position of diplomatic and cultural influence in the Levant, even after promising Lebanese and Syrian independence. With this in mind, French authorities grew more sensitive to the immigrant connection between Damascus and Dakar. In particular, the CFLN began to understand that complaints by Levantine immigrants in Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF) regarding their treatment by colonial officials had immediate repercussions on the French ‘mission’ in Syria and Lebanon. As a result, in the last year of the war – and at the direct instigation of the CFLN's representative in the Levant – sweeping policy changes were instituted to mitigate the treatment of Levantine immigrants in West Africa in order to restore France's prestige and position in the Middle East.

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Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 9 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2002

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References

Notes

1 ‘Sans doute, fallait-il sauvegarder les intérêts, économiques, diplomatiques, culturels, qui étaient le lot de la France au Levant de puis maintes générations. Mais cela semblait conciliable avec l'indépendence des États.’ (Beyond doubt the economic, diplomatic and cultural interests that had fallen to France's share in the Levant for many generations must be preserved. But that seemed reconcilable with the states' independence.) de Gaulle, Charles, Mémoires de guerre (texte intégral) (Paris 1954, 1956, 1959 & 1999) 291Google Scholar.

2 It should be noted, though, that the only black man attending this conference was its host, Félix Éboué, the Governor-General of the AEF, and himself of Guyanese, rather than African, origin.

3 ‘In Colonial France there are no peoples to free, no racial discriminations to abolish. There are populations who feel French and who wish to take a larger part in French life […] not wishing to know any other independence than that of France.’ René Pleven, opening address at Brazzaville, 30 January 1944, quoted in White, Dorothy Shipley, Black' Africa and De Gaulle: From the French Empire to Independence (Pennsylvania 1979) 121Google Scholar.

4 In 1928, Léopold Sédar Senghor went to Paris to study at the Lycée Louis le Grand, where he earned an advanced degree in 1931. A year later he was granted French citizenship, and now thoroughly assimilated to French culture, began describing himself as a ‘black-skinned Frenchman’. He may well have come to regret this, however, since this self-styled description would continue to cling to his person after he had become one of the leading proponents of the négritude movement and even after becoming the first president of independent Sénégal. Indeed, Senghor, though an African nationalist, could still be considered an évolué, he has often been lauded as one of the greatest poets in the French language, and, throughout his life, he retained a strong affection for France and French culture.

5 Summary statement of the Brazzaville Conference quoted in Chipman, John, French Power in Africa (Oxford 1989) 92Google Scholar.

6 ‘Dans les vastes étendues de l'Afrique, la France pouvait, en effet, se refaire une armée et une souveraineté.’ (In the vast spaces of Africa, France could in fact recreate for herself an army and a sovereignty.) De Gaulle, Mémoires de guerre, 105.

7 ‘Les Britanniques pourraient, d'aventure, être tentés par telle ou telle de nos possessions d'outre-mer.’ Ibid., 95.

8 ‘Mr. Roosevelt n'est pas favorable à l'idée que la France pourrait recouvrer intact l'Empire […]’ (Mr Roosevelt does not favour the idea that France will recover its Empire intact […]); ‘Mr. Roosevelt […] se refuse à envisager une restauration intégrale de l'Empire français sans garanties de nature à protéger la sécurité des États-Unis.’ (Mr Roosevelt […] refuses to consider a complete restoration of the French Empire without guarantees liable to protect the security of the United States.) Archives Nationales du Sénégal (Dakar) 17G413 (126); ‘extraits de presse américaine’ April-June 1944.

9 ‘Saladin, nous voici de retour!’ Quoted in Pipes, Daniel, Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition (Oxford 1990) 25Google Scholar.

10 At the San Remo Conference, when asked by Lord Hardinge what part of Syria his government intended to rule, and for how long, the French Premier Georges Leygues had replied, ‘The whole of it, and forever.’ Ibid., 28.

11 From January 1931 to June 1940 there were eighteen different French governments, the most durable of which, Éduard Daladier's third, lasted twenty-three months. Of course, while the British governments of the same era were much more stable, they had proven no more capable of dealing with Hitler.

12 From The Times, 2 July 1940; quoted in Hourani, Albert H., Syria and Lebanon: A Political Essay (London 1946) 232Google Scholar.

13 ‘Leur jeu, réglé à Londres […] soutenu par le Premier Ministre dont les promesses ambiguës et les émotions calculées donnaient le change sur les intentions, visait à instaurer, dans tout l'Orient, le leadership britannique. La politique anglaise allait dones' efforcer, tantôt sourdement et tantôt brutalement, de remplacer la France à Damas et à Beyrouth.’ De Gaulle, Mémoires de guerre, 167.

14 Hourani, Syria and Lebanon, 233–234.

15 Dentz, ‘a loyal Vichy supporter and conscientious defeatist’, had been sent to Beirut in December 1940 to replace the ‘tolerant’ and unreliable Gabriel Puaux, a Third Republic holdover. Longrigg, Stephen, Syria and Lebanon Under French Mandate (London 1958) 299Google Scholar.

16 ‘Habitants de Syrie et du Liban. Au moment où les forces de la France Libre, unies aux forces de l'Empire Britannique, son allié, pénètrent sur votre territoire, je déclare que j'assume les pouvoirs, les responsabilités et les devoirs de représentant de la France au Levant. […] En cette capacité, je viens mettre fin au régime du mandat et vous proclame libres et indépendent. Vous serez done désormais des peuples souverains et indépendents […]’ Catroux, 8 June 1941; quoted in Hourani, Syria and Lebanon, 371.

17 ‘Un seul régime pouvait, en doit et en fait être substitué au mandat, et c'était l'indépendence, la préséance historique et les intérêts de la France étant, toutefois, sauvegardés.’ (Only one regime could, de jure and de facto, be substituted for the mandate, and that was independence, historical precedence and the interests of France being, however, safeguarded.) De Gaulle, Mémoires de guerre, 167.

18 ‘Je télégraphiai à Cassin d'aller voir M. Eden et de lui dire, de ma part, “que l'immixtion de l'Angleterre [à Beyrouth et à Damas] nous conduisait aux complications les plus graves”.’ (I telegraphed Cassin to go see Mr Eden and tell him, from me, ‘that meddling by England [in Beirut and Damascus] was leading us to the gravest complications’.) Ibid., 181.

19 ‘[…] une politique anglaise d'empiétements sur notre domaine.’ Ibid., 182.

20 Quoted in Sachar, Howard M., Europe Leaves the Middle East, 1936–54 (New York 1972) 286Google Scholar.

21 ‘Qu'allaient faire, en dépit des accords condus, le général Wilson et son équipe d'arabisants?' De Gaulle, Mémoires de guerre, 177; ‘Je dois dire que les populations [du Liban et de la Syrie] marquaient, à notre égard, une chaleureuse approbation. Elles voyaient, dans la France Libre, quelque chose de courageux, d'étonnant, de chevaleresque, qui leur semblait répondre à ce qu'était a leurs yeux la personne idéale de la France.’ Ibid., 203.

22 On receiving the second British ultimatum, Catroux indignantly replied, ‘Nous voici revenu au temps de Fachoda!’ (We are back to the days of Fashoda!), referring to a confrontation in Africa that had brought Britain and France to the brink of war in 1898. Ibid., 470.

23 ‘II était claire qu'un tour de force constamment renouvelé ne pourrait se répéter toujours. […] Rien, d'ailleurs, ne démontrait, plus dairement et plus tristement, qu'hier la chute de la France, aujourd'hui le parti pris de trois autres grandes puissances de la tenir à l'écart hypothéqueaient gravement, demain, la paix qui se préparait.’ ([…] Nothing, moreover, demonstrated more clearly and more sadly how the fall of France yesterday and the prejudice of three great powers keeping her at a distance today seriously mortgaged the peace in preparation for tomorrow.) Ibid., 471.

24 Longrigg, Syria and Lebanon Under French Mandate, 333.

25 Desbordes, Jean-Gabriel, L'Immigration Libano-Syrienne en Afrique Occidental Française (Thèse de Doctorat en Droit, Université de Poitiers 1938) 17–18Google Scholar.

26 Archives Nationales de Côte d Ivoire (Abidjan) (ANCI), dossier 2894 (XIV–38–3), no. 39C, Laniray, Administrateur p.i. du Cercle de Daloa to Bourgine, 23 September 1931; and dossier 2990 (Vl–37–103), Lavigne to President de la Chambre de Commerce, 20 February 1932; Sao to Président de la Chambre de Commerce, 1 March, 1932.

27 ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), Boyer, Chef du Service des Contributions Directes to Latrille, Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire, 9 March 1945; Radia Fakhry Taleb, Abidjan-Treichville, 1 September 1992. The opening of these overseas export routes to Sénégal appears to have been the primary Levantine contribution to the kola trade.

28 ‘[…] du sel, des poissons sees, fumés & des moutons.’ ANCI, dossier 2990 (VI–37–103), Sao to Bourgine, 24 December 1931.

29 ANCI, dossier 2990 (VI–37–103), Lavigne to Président of the Chambre de Commerce, 20 February 1932; and Sao to Président of the Chambre de Commerce, 1 March 1932.

30 ‘Le Libanais n'hésite pas à prospecter lui même, sans personne interposée, les villages de brousse les plus reculés, il marchande tout comme le dioula.’ ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), H. Boy, Commandant du Cercle de Bouaké, to Latrille, 13 March 1945.

31 Early Lebanese immigrants also tried their hand at other activities, some earning livings as planters, foresters and even as hunters. Omar Sahyoun told me that when his father, Joseph, first arrived in Côte d'Ivoire in 1927, he had only 20 f, which he used to purchase a rifle, and that he had hunted ivory with another Levantine immigrant who was eventually killed by an elephant; Omar Sahyoun, Abidjan-Plateau, 10 September 1992. ‘En outré SAHYOUNE possede dans la subdivision de Gagnoa une plantation de cacaoyers et de cafeiers.’ ANCI, dossier 2894 (XIV–38–3), Jacquier to Bourgine, 4 December 1931.

32 ANCI, dossier 2894 (XIV–38–3), Laniray to Bourgine, 23 September 1931; no. 534, Jacquier, Inspecteur des Affaires Administratives to Bourgine, 4 December, 1931; and ANCI, dossier 2990 (VI–37–103), Sao to Bourgine, 24 December 1931.

33 ‘[…] la diffusion du commerce dans les hinterlands où les grosse maisons ne pé'nétraient pas.’ Tirefort, Alain, ‘Le “baudet libanais” ou le mal-aimé, approche de la communauté lybano-syrienne [sic] en Basse-Côte d'Ivoire pendant l'entre-deux-guerres.’ Godo-Godo: Revue de l'Institut d'Histoire, d'Art et d'Archéologie Africains 7 (1981) 68Google Scholar.

34 ‘[…] capables de se plier à un standard de vie que seuls ils peuvent supporter, ils arrivent à éliminer peu à peu du commerce la presque totalité de nos nationaux les plus modestes.’ L'Acajou (Abidjan), 2 October 1936, 3.

35 Interview with Édouard Wehbé, Korhogo, Côte d'Ivoire, 7 July 1992.

36 Serbando Zraik asserted that when he first came to Grand Bassam in 1938 the large trading firms would give ready credit to any merchant, without discriminating on the basis of race, so long as he was a ‘bon comerçant’; Interview with Serbando Zraik, Grand Bassam, 14 July 1992. In the 1945 survey of the Lebanese in Côte d'lvoire, many of them were reported to ‘travaille avec S.C.O.A. et Cie. F.A.O.’, and to have succeeded ‘grâce aux grandes maisons de commerce’; ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), no. 204RL, Latrille to Cournarie, Gouverneur Général de l'AOF, 9 April 1945; in his summary to the Ministry of Colonies, Cournarie wrote that the Lebanese merchants of Abidjan and other principal towns 'sont tous plus ou moins tributaires des grosses maisons de commerce Européennes'; Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer (Aix-en-Provence) (CAOM), carton 2303, dossier 5, ‘Rapport sur la situation des Libano-Syriens en Afrique Occidentale Française et au Togo’, 31 May 1945.

37 For example, in several of the market towns of southern Côte d'Ivoire, the jula population exceeded the Levantine population by ratios of 50:1 or better. CAOM, carton 395, dossier 10bis/8, ‘Recensement de la Côte d'Ivoire -1936’.

38 ANCI, dossier 2990 (VI–37–103), Sao Zacharia to Bourgine, 24 December 1931.

39 Bulletin de la Chambre de Commerce de la Côte d'lvoire (BCCCI), Procès-verbaux: 6 April 1912; 7 May 1912.

40 BCCCI, Procès-verbaux: 24 March 1924; 12 April 1931; ANCI, dossier 2990 (VI–37–103), Lavigne to Président of the Chambre de Commerce, 20 February 1932; ANCI, dossier 2990 (VI–30–158), no. 292, Agent Général de SCOA to Bourgine, 3 February 1932.

41 BCCCI, Procès-verbal 25 October 1936; ‘Vers une nouvelle orientation du problème libano-syrien’, La Lumiere de l'Ouest-africain, 9 July 1936 1–2; Pierre Ormoy, ‘Les Syriens en A.O.F., un problème colonial', Études (20 October 1938) 209–218.

42 ‘Un peu d'hygiene’, L'Avenir de la Côte d'Ivoire, 1/15 August 1936, 3.

43 ‘Il nous est possible, par l'application plus stricte des règlements dont nous disposons, de sélectionner cette immigration'; ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), circulaire no. 694DS, Boisson, Gouverneur-Général de l'AOF to Lieutenant-Gouverneurs des Colonies du Groupe, 2 December 1936.

44 ‘Il y a certainement lieu de regretter l'attitude de certaines sociétés, qui ont procédé à un embauchage massif d'étrangers. […] Mais les Syriens ne sont pas des Strangers [sic]. Ils sont protégés français.’ Archives de la Chambre de Commerce de Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan) (ACCCI), dossier 55.5, no. 36A, Sous-Directeur de Cie. Française de l'Afrique Occidentale (CFAO), Agence principale, Abidjan, to Président de la Chambre de Commerce de Dakar, 6 May 1939.

45 ‘N'entrent pas en compte dans le personnel pour le calcul des proportions fixées [des employés étrangers] […] les ressortissants de pays protégés ou administrés sous mandate français.’ Journal Officiel de l'Afrique Occidentale Française, 1940, arrêté no. 910A.P. ‘fixant les modalités d'application en Afrique occidentale française du décret du 11 mars 1939, réglementant l'emploi des étrangers’, 25 April 1940.

46 ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), Hubert-Jules Deschamps, Gouverneur de la Côte d'Ivoire, to P. Divay, Chef de la Sûreté, 12 January 1943, and Divay to Deschamps, 22 January 1943. Of course, the Boisson regime harried not only Levantines, but other foreigners too, as well as French Communists, Freemasons and Jews. Boisson threw in his lot with Admiral Darlan in December 1942, ‘welcoming’ Général de Gaulle's arrival in Algiers. Nonetheless, his sentiments, as well as those of his subordinates remained at best attentiste from late 1942 until his replacement by Pierre Cournarie in 1943.

47 Winder, R. Bayly, ‘The Lebanese in West Africa’, Comparative Studies in Society and History IV (1962) 297Google Scholar.

48 CAOM, carton 2303, dossier 5, circulaire no. 395 AP/2, Cournarie to Gouverneurs, 6 July 1944.

49 Sacher, Europe Leaves the Middle East, 312.

50 Nor was Beynet the first French official posted to Beirut to realise that the harassment of Levantines in West Africa undermined French influence in the Middle East. Shortly after his repatriation to France, General Dentz had pointed out that the ‘bullying and vexations’ suffered by Lebanese residents in AOF could be exploited for foreign propaganda purposes. CAOM, carton 1432, dossier 1, no. 241/SS, Dentz to l'Amiral Darlan, Vice-Président du Conseil-Cabinet, 20 November 1941.

51 CAOM, carton 2303, dossier 1, Paul Beynet to René Massigli, 23 March 1944.

52 The full text of this letter can be found in Appendix A.

53 CAOM, carton 2303, dossier 1, no. 6820, René Pleven, Commissaire aux Colonies, to Pierre Cournarie, Gouvemeur-Général d'AOF, 6 June 1944 (referencing his letter no. 6768 of 1 June ‘sur la conduite à suivre par votre Gouvernment à l'égard des libanosyriens’).

54 Ibid.; the full text of this letter can be found in Appendix B.

55 Ibid.

56 ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), circulaire no. 369/CAB.4, Cournarie to Gouverneurs des Colonies du Groupe, 20 June 1944, ‘a/s attitude à prendre à l'égard des Libano-Syriens’.

57 ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), arrêté no. 16, Cournarie to Gouverneurs des Colonies du Groupe, ‘a/s situation des Libano-Syriens de l'AOF’.

58 CAOM, carton 2303, dossier 5, Gougal-Dakar to Mincol-Paris [Ministère des Colonies], 30 May 1945, ‘Rapport sur la situation des Libano-Syriens en Afrique Occidentale Française et au Togo’.

59 ‘La grande majorité des Libano-Syriens nous est très attachée et comprend que leur intérêt est le maintien de leur pays dans l'orbit de la France.’ ANCI, dossier 1729 (XVII–4–16), Latrille to Cournarie, 9 April 1945; also no. 15/C, E. Guiot, Commissaire de Police, to l'Administrateur-Maire de la Ville d'Abidjan, 12 March 1945; H. Boy, Commandant du Cercle de Bouaké, to Latrille, 13 March 1945; Luquet, Commandant du Cercle de Grand Bassam, to Latrille, 28 February 1945.

60 ‘From its very inception, the vocation of France and the purpose of France have been a humane vocation and a humane purpose.’ Charles de Gaulle, speech in Dakar, Sénégal, 31 December 1959; quoted in Betts, Raymond F., France and Decolonisation 1900–1960 (London 1991) 67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Note again Pleven's speech at Brazzaville: ‘In Colonial France there are no peoples to free […] there are populations who feel French and who wish to take a larger part in French life […]'

62 ‘Parmi l'ambitions nationales qui s'enrobaient dans le conflit mondial, il y avait celles des Britanniques, visant à dominer l'Orient.’ (Among the national ambitions cloaked by the world conflict were those of the British aspiring to dominate the Middle East.) De Gaulle, Mémoires de guerre, 781.

63 ‘Inaugural Address of General de Gaulle as President of the Republic and of the Community at the Elysée Palace on January 8, 1959’ in: Major Addresses, Statements and Press Conferences of General Charles de Gaulle, May 19, 1958–January 31, 1964 (New York 1964)Google Scholar.