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Popular Unrest and the Press Campaign Against the Capitation Tax in Dahomey, 1929–1935

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2013

Laurent Manière
Laurent Manière*
Affiliation:
Université Paris VII (France)
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 385 - 403
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Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

Notes

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10. Journal Officiel du Dahomey (JOD) (1899): 2.

11. For a long time, men and women perceived the amount of the capitation tax differently. I have based my comparison on the amount due by men in the southern cercles of the colony.

12. JOD (1929): 522–26.

13. Anouma, “L’impôt de capitation,” 202.

14. Decree, 30 September 1887, Moniteur du Sénégal (1887); bill of 12 October 1888, Journal Officiel du Sénégal et dépendances (1888). See Laurent Manière, “Le code de l’indigénat.”

15. Michel, Marc, Les Africains et la grande guerre: L’appel à l’Afrique (1914–1918) (Paris, 2003).Google Scholar

16. See Anignikin, “Les origines du mouvement national,” and Ballard, John A., “Les incidents de 1923 à Porto-Novo: La politique à l’époque coloniale,” Études dahoméennes (1965): 69–87.Google Scholar

17. The Ligue des Droits de l’Homme was a French association created in 1898 to defend human rights.

18. Archives Nationales du Bénin (ANB), political reports (see Anignikin, “Les origines du mouvement national,” 278).

19. In 1936, French Governor Bourgine estimated that the “évolués” or “semi-évolués” numbered about two thousand people.

20. The decree of 30 May 1925 reorganized this institution, which had its headquarters by the governors of the colonies.

21. La Voix du Dahomey, May 1928.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Archives Nationales du Sénégal (ANS), 2G30/13, 1930 annual political report, Gouvernor Reste.

25. The amount of these deductions was decided as follows: 5 percent for the collections perceived during the first two months of the year, 4 percent for those of March and April, 3 percent in May and June, and 2 percent during the second semester of the year.

26. The decree of 19 December 1930, reorganizing the Native commandment, described the duties and task of the Native chiefs. Henceforth, the chiefs were divided into three categories: the village and neighborhood chiefs, the chefs de canton, and the superior chiefs.

27. On 31 December 1931, the outstanding amount of the capitation tax was 1,165,910 francs.

28. ANB, 1931 Mono political report.

29. This explains their involvement in the 1923 Porto-Novo events, where it was they who gave the watchword for boycotting the markets.

30. In the context of sub-Saharan Africa, there were naturally famous “market women” of littoral cities of the Gulf of Guinea. Many of them were dynamic entrepreneurs, became rich during the interwar period, and made a commitment to political action.

31. The amount of their taxation thus went from 10 to 18 francs a year.

32. Governor Blacher arrived in the colony on 7 January and was welcomed in Grand-Popo by fifteen hundred women.

33. Anignikin, “Les origines du mouvement national,” 376.

34. JOD (1932).

35. ANS, 8G7, Director of Political Affairs, Dakar, 8 June 1934.

36. ANS, 8G58, General Secretary Aujas, 29 July 1933.

37. Ibid.

38. ANS, 2G33/12, 1933 annual political report.

39. ANS, 8G59, Messan Houngbedji Case, 1 October 1933.

40. ANS, 2G33/12, 1933 annual political report.

41. ANS, 8G7, Governor de Coppet to Governor General, 1 June 1934.

42. Ibid.

43. ANS, 8G59, Governor of Dahomey to Governor General, 17 March 1934.

44. ANS, 8G59, Confidential report about the political situation, Aujas, 28 July 1933.

45. La Voix du Dahomey (1927), Le Phare du Dahomey (1929), La Presse porto-novienne (1931), L’Eveil togo-dahoméen (1931), Le Courrier du Golfe du Bénin (1932), L’Etoile du Dahomey (1932), L’Echo du Dahomey (1933), Les Cloches du Dahomey (1934), La Tribune sociale du Dahomey (1934), Vers la Suprême Sagesse (1934), and Le Cœur du Dahomey (1934).

46. ANS, 2G32/15, 1932 annual political report.

47. ANS, 2G33/12, 1933 annual political report.

48. Ibid.

49. Codo, “La Presse dahoméenne face aux aspirations des ‘évolués,’” 225.

50. La Presse porto-novienne, 31 May 1933.

51. La Voix du Dahomey, January–February 1933.

52. La Voix du Dahomey, May–June 1933.

53. L’Etoile du Dahomey, July–August 1933.

54. Le Courrier du Golfe du Bénin, no. 66, 1 September 1934.

55. ANS, 2G33/12, 1933 annual political report.

56. La Voix du Dahomey, 15 February 1928.

57. ANS, 8G59, Subdivision Chief to Commandant de Cercle of Porto-Novo, 2 November 1933.

58. ANS, 8G58, François Sadji Kpôton to Commandant de cercle of Porto-Novo, 18 October 1933.

59. ANS, 8G24, La Presse porto-novienne, October 1933.

60. ANS, 8G59, Blaise Kuassi to Commandant de cercle of Porto-Novo, 27 October 1933.

61. ANS, 8G58, Governor de Coppet to Governor General, 9 November 1933.

62. ANS, 8G59, Governor of Dahomey to Governor General, 17 March 1934.

63. Bill of 17 May 1932, JOD, 1 June 1932.

64. ANB, 1E3/4, Allada cercle, first and second 1932 quarterly reports.

65. This figure is obtained by subtracting children from the total population, and from there on the women as well, who were all exempted from the sanctions under the indigénat. See Manière, “Le code de l’indigénat en Afrique occidentale française,” 345.

66. Mondougou, “L’impôt de capitation et les prestations en Oubangui-Chari,” 408.

67. ANS, 8G59, Governor of Dahomey to Governor General, 9 November 1933.

68. Ibid.

69. La Voix du Dahomey, October–November 1933.

70. It is well known that Blaise Kuassi, the leader of the Courrier du Golfe du Bénin had close relations with Togo, the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast, and Nigeria, ANS, 8G58, report on the political situation in Dahomey.

71. ANS, 8G13, “Au Dahomey: Le recouvrement des impôts par la force armée,” La Défense, 5 January 1934.

72. La Voix du Dahomey, 15 January 1934.

73. Written question nos. 6855, 6857, 6858, 6865, and 6867, Journal Officiel de la République française, Débats parlementaires, 12 January 1934, 348.

74. ANS, 8G59, Governor General to Governors of French West Africa, 25 January 1934.

75. ANS, 8G7, Governor General to Governor of Dahomey, May 1934.

76. Decree on the press regime in French West Africa, 4 August 1921, modified by a 27 March 1928 decree.

77. ANS, 8G13, bill of 28 September 1933.

78. ANS, 8G13, L’Etoile du Dahomey, September–October 1933; Le Courrier du Golfe du Bénin, November 1933; La Presse porto-novienne, November 1933.

79. ANS, 8G7, Director of Political Affairs, Dakar, 8 June 1934.

80. ANS, 8G7, Governor of Dahomey to Governor General, 1 June 1934.

81. ANS, 8G7, Governor of Dahomey to Governor General, 14 September 1934.

82. ANS, 8G7, Governor of Dahomey to Governor General, 1 June 1934.

83. The judgment in the La Voix du Dahomey case went on until 1936 and ended up with the 19 June 1936 sentence given by the Cotonou court house: nine fines for attacks against French authority.

84. ANS, 2G35/12, 1935 annual political report.

85. JOD, 1 November 1935.

86. JOD, 1 December 1934.

87. ANS, 8G7, 28 December 1934.

88. The press campaign led to many successful prosecutions against the chefs de canton. See ANS, 2G36/13.