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“Evolution Revolution” and the Journey from African Colonial Subject to French Citizen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2014

Lorelle D. Semley
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Soon after Marc Kojo Tovalou Houénou hurried from his tour of the United States to the French West African colony of Dahomey in 1925 to be at his dying father's side, the French governor there launched an inquiry to find out whether Houénou was the French citizen he claimed to be. Houénou had been born in Dahomey in 1887, but had spent most of his life studying and residing in France. Alhough he had only returned to Dahomey briefly in 1921, with his father's death in 1925, Houénou wanted to claim what he saw as his rightful position as chef de famille or head of his extended family in Dahomey. With this title, Houénou would have gained administrative control over his father's expansive wealth in land and property in several towns in Dahomey, and would have been the official representative for his family, especially in interactions with the French colonial government. However, Houénou was already emerging as a thorn in the side of French colonial authorities because of a series of critical articles he had written in Paris about French colonialism. Therefore, when Governor Gaston Fourn found that Houénou had, in 1915, obtained his French citizenship rights, literally permission “to enjoy (jouir) the rights of French citizen,” why was the governor relieved?

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Law and History Review , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , May 2014 , pp. 267 - 307
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Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2014 

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References

1. Dépêche Télégraphique, Lieutenant-Gouverneur à Gouverneur-Général Afrique Occidentale Française (hereafter AOF) (Telegram, Lieutenant Governor to Governor General of French West Africa), March 13, 1926. Dossier Marc Tovalou Quénum (Marc Tovalou Quénum File), 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer (hereafter ANOM) (National Overseas Archives). Governors of the French colonies officially held the title of “lieutenant-governor.” The head of the French West African federation of colonies (AOF) held the title of “Governor General.” French documents often referred to Houénou using the Portuguese-influenced spelling of this name, “Quénum,” despite his preference for “Houénou.” All translations are my own unless otherwise noted.

2. The chef de famille was a recognized figure in Dahomey customary “native” law. The French colonial administration would become involved when there were disputes over the succession. Coutumiers Juridiques de l'Afrique Occidentale Française: Mauritanie, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey, Guinée Française, Tome III [Customary Law of French West Africa: Mauritania, Niger, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, French Guinea, Volume III] (Paris: Larose, 1939)Google Scholar, 484, 500, 502. The disputed will of Houénou's father, Tovalou Quenum, outlined some of his land and property holdings. “Volonté de Tovalou Quenum exprimée à Me. Germain Crespin en janvier et février 1925 pour le cas de décès,” Fonds Ministerielles, Affaires Politiques (“Last will and testament of Tovalou Quenum, as expressed to attorney Germain Crespin in January and February 1925,” Ministerial Collection, Political Affairs) (hereafter FM AFFPOL) 575, ANOM.

3. “Décret No. 24217, Président de la République Française par l'application de l'article 1er de la loi du 25 mars 1915: Le Sieur Quénum dit Tovalou Quénum (Marc-Tovalou-Joseph), 11 juillet 1915,” (“Decree No. 24217, President of the French Republic by the application of the First Article of the law of March 25, 1915: Mr. Quenum, known as Tovalou Quenum (Marc-Tovalou-Joseph), July 11, 1915,”) Bulletin des Lois de la République Française, Partie Supplémentaire, Tome XV [Bulletin of Laws of the French Republic, Supplemental Section, Volume XV] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1916)Google Scholar, 147.

4. Lieutenant-Governor Fourn had used this tactic in the case of Jean Adjovi of the powerful and wealthy Adjovi family. Jean Adjovi served in the French military after having taken the title as chef de famille in 1913. After Adjovi obtained his French citizenship in 1918, Fourn reputedly forced him out of his position as chef de quartier, leader of one of the neighborhoods in Ouidah, a title that he had assumed when he became chef de famille. Patrick Manning and James S. Spiegler, “Kojo Tovalou-Houénou: Pan-African Patriot at Home and Abroad” (paper presented at the African Studies Faculty Seminar African Social History Workshop, Stanford University, 1991), 5. Adjovi originally began his application for citizenship in 1916 but suspended his application, notably before submitting his renunciation of personal status. He successfully reapplied in 1918, again with the formal renunciation of status still missing from his application. He only submitted that document on March 1, 1918 after having been awarded his citizenship rights in January 1918. The cable awarding citizenship in the file is dated January 20, 1918. “Décret No. 27892 Président de la République Française par l'application du décret de 25 mai 1912: Adjovi, Jean-Akanwanou, 30 janvier 1918,” (“Decree No. 27892 President of the French of Republic by the application of the decree of May 25, 1912: Adjovi, Jean-Akanwanou, January 30, 1918,”) Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1918)Google Scholar, 178.

5. Lieutenant-Gouverneur à Gouverneur-Général AOF au sujet de la succession de feu Joseph Tovalou Quénum (Lieutenant Governor to Governor General of French West Africa regarding the succession of the late Joseph Tovalou Quenum), February 26, 1927. Fourn referred to the Adjovi case in his letter to the Governor General, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM.

6. Ruth Dickens, “Defining French Citizenship Policy in West Africa, 1895–1956,” (PhD diss., Emory University, 2001), 21. Blevis, Laure, “Les avatars de la citoyenneté en Algérie coloniale ou les paradoxes d'une catégorisation,” [“The Avatars of Citizenship in Colonial Algeria or the Paradoxes of a Categorization”] Droit et Société 48 (2001): 567–69.Google Scholar

7. “Loi relative à l'acquisition de la qualité français par les sujets français, du 25 mars 1925,” (“Law relating to the acquisition of the quality French status by French subjects, from March 25, 1925,”) Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1915), 445–46Google Scholar. The declarations renouncing native status may have still been demanded from applicants using this law, as a matter of course. Fourn actually referred to the wrong statute when he claimed that Houénou forsook his indigenous status upon applying for French citizenship. Lieutenant-Gouverneur à Gouverneur-Général AOF (Lieutenant Governor to Governor General of French West Africa), April 1, 1927, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM.

8. For a short insightful commentary on the “dialectical relationship” between control, contest, and disinterest on the part of colonial authorities, see Engle, Sally Merry, “Colonial Law and Its Uncertainties,” Law and History Review 28 (2010): 1067–71Google Scholar.

9. On legal pluralism in colonial empire, see Benton, Lauren A., Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900 (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002)Google Scholar. On legal culture of empire in Africa specifically, see Mann, Kristin and Roberts, Richard, Law in Colonial Africa (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991)Google Scholar; Chanock, Martin, Law, Custom, and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985)Google Scholar; and Hay, Margaret Jean and Wright, Marcia, African Women and the Law: Historical Perspectives (Boston: Boston University, African Studies Center, 1982).Google Scholar

10. Tovalou-Houénou, Prince Kojo, Le Problème de la Race Noire [The Problem of Negroes in French Colonial Africa] (Paris: Editions de la Ligue Universelle pour la Défense de la Race Noire, 1924)Google Scholar, 9, 19.

11. The historiography on black citizenship and French empire has expanded greatly in recent years. For recent overview and edited volumes see, Blanchard, Pascal, ed. La France Noire: Trois Siecles de Presence [Black France: Three Centuries of Presence] (Paris: Editions La Découverte, 2011)Google Scholar; and Keaton, Trica Danielle, Sharpley–Whiting, T. Denean, and Stovall, Tyler Edward, Black France/France Noire: The History and Politics of Blackness (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).Google Scholar

12. Zinsou, Emile Derlin and Zouménou, Luc, Kojo Tovalou Houénou: Précurseur, 1887–1936: Pannégrisme et Modernité [Kojo Tovalou Houénou: Precursor, 1887–1936: Pan-Africanism and Modernity] (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2004), 57, 65–66.Google Scholar

13. “Marc Tovalou Quénum dit Kodjo Tovalou Houénou,” Extrait des Minutes du Greffe de la Cour d'Appel de l'Afrique Occidentale Française (“Marc Tovalou Quénum, known as Kodjo Tovalou Houénou,” Excerpt of the Minutes of the Clerk's Office of the Appeals Court of French West Africa”), December 14, 1927, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, (ANOM). “Tovalou,” Direction des Affaires Politiques,1er Bureau (“Tovalou,” Head of Political Affairs, First Office”), Paris, May 12, 1928, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM.

14. “Un prince dahoméen épouse à Paris une Américaine,” (“A Dahomean Prince marries an American in Paris”) Dépêche coloniale, October 9, 1932. Clipping in 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM. “Au sujet Tovalou,” Le Ministre des Colonies à M. le Gouverneur de l'AOF (“Regarding Tovalou,” Minister of Colonies to Governor of French West Africa), January 17, 1933.

15. The most complete biography of Houénou's life is Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou. The co-authored unpublished paper by Patrick Manning and James Spiegler also provides a thorough account of Houénou's life as a descendant of the African landowning elite in Dahomey. Manning and Spiegler, “Kojo Tovalou–Houénou: Pan-African Patriot at Home and Abroad,” 1–30. Also see Spiegler, “Aspects of Nationalist Thought Among French-Speaking West Africans, 1921–1939,” (PhD diss., Oxford University, 1968), 50–80.

16. Tovalou-Houénou, Le Problème, 11–12. Houénou's formulation was confusing as it seemed, on the one hand, to contrast assimilation, “home rule,” and autonomy but, on the other, presented the concepts as variations on a theme. Spiegler, “Aspects of Nationalist Thought,” 68–70. Similar debates occurred around the French Union. Cooper, Frederick, “From Imperial Inclusion to Republican Exclusion? France's Ambiguous Postwar Trajectory,” in Frenchness and the African Diaspora: Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France, ed. Tshimanga, Charles, Gondola, Didier, and Bloom, Peter J. (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2009), 91–119Google Scholar. The quote about “one France indivisible” was said to come from a speech during the 1928 electoral campaign in Senegal. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 202.

17. The dissertation by Ruth Dickens refers to several elite Dahomeans and describes the community in Porto-Novo but is a more general study of citizenship throughout the twentieth century. Dickens, “Defining French Citizenship.” The comprehensive article by Catherine Coquéry-Vidrovitch on African accession to French citizenship provides background on the period before World War II but mostly focuses on the period after 1935 and on originaires from Senegal. Coquéry-Vidrovitch, Catherine, “Nationalité et citoyenneté en Afrique occidentale français: Originaires et citoyens dans le Sénégal colonial,” [“Nationality and Citizenship in French West Africa: Native Residents and Citizens in Colonial Senegal”] Journal of African History 42 (2001): 285–305.Google Scholar

18. The phrase “empire of law” comes from Saada, Emmanuelle, “The Empire of Law: Dignity, Prestige, and Domination in the ‘Colonial Situation’,” French Politics, Culture, and Society 20 (2002): 98–120Google Scholar. For a critical view on the concept of “colonial law,” see Mann, Gregory, “What Was the Indigénat? The ‘Empire of Law’ in French West Africa,” Journal of African History 50 (2009): 331–53.Google Scholar

19. The phrase “Black Atlantic” so associated with Paul Gilroy's important work, is used here as a shorthand. Gilroy, Paul, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993)Google Scholar. The phrase “Black Atlantic” was originally used by the Africanist art historian Robert Farris Thompson as part of his definition of a “black Atlantic visual tradition.” In Thompson's formulation of the Atlantic world, African practices and ideologies play an integral role. Thompson, Robert Farris, Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-Americans Art and Philosophy (New York: Vintage, 1984)Google Scholar, xiv. By contrast, Gilroy's conceptualization of the Atlantic world largely omits Africa. Among other critiques of Gilroy, see examples from a special issue of Research in African Literatures. Gakandi, Simon, “Introduction: Africa, Diaspora, and the Discourse of Modernity,” Research in African Literatures 27 (1996): 1–6Google Scholar; Dayan, Joan, “Paul Gilroy's Slaves, Ships, and Routes: The Middle Passage as Metaphor,” Research in African Literatures 27 (1996): 7–14Google Scholar; Masilela, Ntongela, “The ‘Black Atlantic’ And African Modernity in South Africa,” Research in African Literatures 27 (1996): 88–96Google Scholar. Also see, Chrisman, Laura, “Rethinking Black Atlanticism,” Black Scholar 30 (2000): 12–17Google Scholar; Piot, Charles, “Atlantic Aporias: Africa and Gilroy's Black Atantic,” South Atlantic Quarterly 100 (2001): 155–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe, “Rewriting the African Diaspora: Beyond the Black Atlantic,” African Affairs 104 (2005): 35–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The classic works on Black Paris, specifically, include Fabre, Michel, From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France, 1840–1980 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991)Google Scholar; and Stovall, Tyler Edward, Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996)Google Scholar. More recently, see Edwards, Brent Hayes, The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).Google Scholar

20. Benton, Lauren A., A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400–1900 (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010)Google Scholar. For an example of these types of rituals in South Asia during British colonial rule, see Sharafi, Mitra, “The Marital Patchwork of Colonial South Asia: Forum Shopping from Britain to Baroda,” Law and History Review 28 (2010): 979–1009.Google Scholar

21. For a recent thorough examination of shifts in legal meanings of citizenship and territory, see Spieler, Miranda Frances, Empire and Underworld: Captivity in French Guiana (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012).Google Scholar

22. On citizenship based on place of birth (jus soli) versus blood descent (jus sanguinis) in British colonial Africa, see Lee, Christopher J., “Jus Soli and Jus Sanguinis in the Colonies: The Interwar Politics of Race, Culture, and Multiracial Legal Status in British Africa,” Law and History Review 29 (2011): 497–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23. On the debates over the Civil Code, see Weil, Patrick (Porter, Catherine, trans.), How to Be French: Nationality in the Making since 1789, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), 19–29Google Scholar. Other key texts on French citizenship and immigration include Brubaker, Rogers, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; and Sahlins, Peter, Unnaturally French: Foreign Citizens in the Old Regime and After (Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell University Press, 2004)Google Scholar. The final article of the 1927 law stated that it applied to Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, and Algeria, except for most indigenous Algerians. Loi sur la nationalité suivie des décrets et instructions relatifs à l'application de la loi du 10 août 1927 [Nationality law followed by the decrees and instructions related to the application of the law of August 10, 1927] (Paris: Imprimerie Berger–Levrault, 1927)Google Scholar, 8.

24. For general overviews on race in France, see Peabody, Sue and Stovall, Tyler Edward, The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003)Google Scholar; and Chapman, Herrick and Frader, Laura L., eds., Race in France: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Difference (New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2004)Google Scholar. More specific case studies also try to move beyond triumphalist or accusatory narratives. For example, see Fogarty, Richard, Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914–1918 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)Google Scholar; and Boittin, Jennifer Anne, Colonial Metropolis: The Urban Grounds of Anti-imperialism and Feminism in Interwar Paris (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010).Google Scholar

25. Roberts, Richard, “The Case of Faama Mademba Sy and the Ambiguities of Legal Jurisdiction in Colonial French Sudan,” in Law in Colonial Africa, ed. Mann, Kristin and Roberts, Richard (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991)Google Scholar, 187.

26. Lionnet, Françoise and Shih, Shu-mei, “Introduction: Thinking through the Minor, Transnationally,” in Minor Transnationalism, ed. Lionnet, Françoise and Shih, Shu-mei (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 1–23.Google Scholar

27. Coquéry-Vidrovitch, “Nationalité et citoyenneté,” 285–305; and Diouf, Mamadou, “The French Colonial Policy of Assimilation and the Civility of the Originaires of the Four Communes (Senegal): A Nineteenth Century Globalization Project,” Development and Change 29 (1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar: 685.

28. “No. 13504 – Sénatus-Consulte sur l'état des personnes et la naturalization en Algérie, 14 juillet 1865,” (“No. 13504 – Decree of the Senate regarding personal status and naturalization in Algeria, July 14, 1875” Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1865), 177–78Google Scholar. For a classic study of colonial Algeria, see Ageron, Charles Robert, Les Algériens Musulmans et la France (1871–1919) [Algerian Muslims and France], 2 vols. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1968)Google Scholar. Also see Blevis, “Avatars de la citoyenneté,” 557–80.

29. Diouf, “French Colonial Policy of Assimilation,” 686–93. The decree of 1870, named for French Jewish legislator Adolphe Cremieux, granted Jewish Algerians French nationality.

30. “Loi No. 10286 étendant aux descendants des originaires des communes de plein exercice du Sénégal les dispositions de la loi militaire du 19 octobre 1916,” (“Law No. 10286 extending to descendants of native residents of the fully-fledged communes of Senegal the provision of the military law of October 19, 1916”) Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1916)Google Scholar, 1650. Military duty was integral to the initial decree of mass emancipation in Saint-Domingue during the Revolution in 1793. But unlike the 1916 law on the originaires, emancipation was a “reward” for past military service to the French. See Semley, Lorelle D., “To Live and Die Free and French: Toussaint Louverture's 1801 Constitution and the Original Challenge of Black Citizenship,” Radical History Review 115 (2013)Google Scholar: 71. This type of reasoning was also at the heart of the 1918 citizenship law for veterans from French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa discussed in the pages that follow. Generally on military service and French citizenship see, Heuer, Jennifer Ngaire, The Family and the Nation: Gender and Citizenship in Revolutionary France, 1789–1803 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)Google Scholar. On the United States Civil War, see McCurry, Stephanie, “War, Gender, and Emancipation in the Civil War South,” in Lincoln's Proclamation: Emancipation Reconsidered, eds. Blair, William A. and Younger, Karen Fisher (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 121–50.Google Scholar

31. For example, on Algeria, see “Avis de M. Berthélemy, doyen de la faculté du droit sur la question de la representation des indigènes de l'Algérie au parlement français,” “Compte rendu de la séance du 30 mai 1923,” Commission Interministérielle des Affaires Musulmanes, Annexe à la séance du 22 février 1923 (“Opinion of M. Barthélemy, Dean of the law faculty on the question of the representation of native Algerians in the French parliament,” “Report of the session of May 20, 1923,” Interministerial Commission on Muslim Affairs, Supplement to the session of February 22, 1923”). On the Indian Ocean, see “Un Important Jugement: Les Saint-Mairiens ne sont pas indigènes,” [“An Important Judgment: Saint-Mairians are not natives”] La Dépêche coloniale, October 10, 1923. Clipping in 17G 47 versement 17, Archives Nationales du Senegal (National Archives of Senegal) (hereafter ANS).

32. Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997), 67–68, 165, 174–211.

33. Saada, Emmanuelle (Goldhammer, Arthur, trans.), Empire's Chidren: Race, Filiation, and Citizenship in the French Colonies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34. For example, the much earlier decrees for places such as Madagascar, Vietnam, and Tunisia, officially a protectorate, were similar, but, even then, the term “naturalization” was misused. “Décret No. 212 fixant les conditions d'accession des indigenes de Madagascar aux droits de citoyen français, le 3 mars 1909,” (“Decret No. 212 setting the conditions of accession to the rights of French citizenship by natives of Madagascar, March 3, 1909”) Bulletin de Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1909), 402–3Google Scholar. “Décret No. 10806 relatif à la naturalisation des Annamites, 25 mai 1881,” (“Decree No. 10806 relative to the naturalization of Annamites (Vietnamese), May 25, 1881”) Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris, 1881), 54–56Google Scholar. “Rapport et Décret No. 19504 relatif a la naturalisation en Tunisie, le 29 juillet 1887,” (“Report and Decree No. 19504 relative to naturalization in Tunisia, July 29, 1887”) Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1887), 1132–33.Google Scholar

35. Dickens, “Defining French Citizenship,” 132–34.

36. Manning and Spiegler, “Kojo Tovalou-Houenou: Pan-African Patriot,” 23. Mann, “What Was the Indigénat?,” 331–53. Mann argues that the infamous and inscrutable indigénat undermined the concept of rule of law in the colonies even as it was at the core of the exercise of power by local French officials or commandants.

37. Coquery–Vidrovitch, “Nationalité et citoyenneté,” 297; Blevis, “Avatars de la citoyenneté,” 567.

38. “Rapport au Garde des Sceaux, Ministère de la Justice, Naturalisations aux Colonies et dans les Pays de Protectorat,” (“Report to Attorney General, Ministry of Justice, Naturalizations in the Colonies and in Protectorate Countries” Journal Officiel de la République française, Lois et décrets [Official Journal of the French Republic, Laws and Decrees] (hereafter JORF), April 25, 1921, 5429. gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France, October 20, 2013. “Rapport au Garde des Sceaux, Ministère de la Justice, Acquisition de la nationalité française,” (“Report to the Attorney General, Ministry of Justice, Acquisition of French Nationality”) JORF, May 7, 1925, 4377. For 1921 and 1922, there were 12 and 16 successful applicants respectively. “Rapport au Garde des Sceaux,” (“Report to the Attorney General”) JORF, June 3, 1922, 5816. “Rapport au Garde des Sceaux,” (“Report to the Attorney General”) JORF, June 15, 1923, 5649. gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France), October 9, 2013.

39. “Le Gouveneur Général de l'AOF à M. le Ministère des Colonies au sujet d'un statut des indigènes d'élite,” (“Governor General of French West Africa to Minister of Colonies regarding a statute for elite natives”) 17G 47 versement 17, ANS. “Accession des indigènes de l'Afrique occidentale française aux droits de citoyen français,” Ministère des Colonies, (“Accession to French rights of citizenship by natives of French West Africa,” Colonial Ministry”) JORF, August 25, 1932, 9291–92. gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France), October 9, 2013. Coquéry-Vidrovitch, “Nationalité et citoyenneté,” 294–95.

40. Coquéry-Vidrovitch, “Nationalité et citoyenneté,” 294–99. Coquéry-Vidrovitch counts naturalizations and accessions together for this period; naturalizations often referred to Europeans or others who were not African, who acquired French nationality while in French West Africa. For Dahomey specifically, for the late 1920s through the early 1950s, I did find approximately 150 applications for citizenship, mostly using the 1932 and 1937 statutes, but the outcomes for many case files were unclear. Many applications were “deferred” (ajournment) because they were “unlikely to be successful” (pas susceptible d'être accueillie). It is impossible to know if these were all of the applications submitted, given the incomplete nature of many of the files. However, if fifty-six Dahomeans plus nineteen women and children acceded to citizenship over the course of only 9 years between 1914 and 1923, the number of applications and successful decrees seems to have declined greatly by the 1930s and 1940s, given that more people would have had access to education, resources, and information about citizenship laws over time. “Naturalisations, Accessions, Dossiers Individuels,” (“Naturalizations, Accessions, and Individual Files”) 1F, especially 1F 54, Archives Nationales du Benin (National Archives of Benin) (hereafter ANB).

41. Raymond Buell counted eighty-eight applications for the period between 1914 and 1925, with fourteen former soldiers among them. My numbers are comparable at ninety, if the thirty named wives and children that Buell apparently did not count are removed. Of the 120 decrees I found, fifteen concerned former soldiers who were specifically tirailleurs sénégalais (infantry recruits from West and Central Africa), although there were a few others who were in the artillery or other regiments. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 167.

42. Lieutenant-Gouverneur du Dahomey à M. le Gouverneur-Général de l'AOF au sujet des demandes de naturalisation (Lieutenant Governor of Dahomey to Governor General of French West Africa regarding demands for naturalization), October 18, 1913, 23G 29, ANS.

43. Dickens, “Defining French Citizenship,” 162–71.

44. On French women's civil status, see Camiscioli, Elisa, Reproducing the French Race: Immigration, and Embodiment in the Early Twentieth Century (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 127–30Google Scholar. On the little-known ban on racial intermarriage in early nineteenth century France, see Heuer, Jennifer, “The One-Drop Rule in Reverse? Interracial Marriages in Napoleonic and Restoration France,” Law and History Review 27 (2009): 515–48Google Scholar. On the shift from approval to condemnation of what Owen White calls “temporary marriages” between French men and African women often described in regions of West Africa as marriage à la mode de pays (country-style marriages), see White, Owen, Children of the French Empire: Miscegenation and Colonial Society in French West Africa, 1895–1960 (Oxford, New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, 1999), 17–26Google Scholar. Also on interracial marriages, see Camiscioli, Reproducting the French Race, 147–50; and in Paris, in particular, see Boittin, Colonial Metropolis, 37–75.

45. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, 166–68.

46. For an overview of empires across history, including the role of elites, see Burbank, Jane and Cooper, Frederick, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010)Google Scholar. Also, see Engle, “Colonial Law,” 1067–71.

47. Langley, J. Ayodele, Pan-Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa, 1900–1945: A Study in Ideology and Social Classes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973)Google Scholar, 75; Manning and Spiegler, “Tovalou-Houénou: Pan-African,” 8; Christopher L. Miller, Nationalists and Nomads: Essays on Francophone African Literature and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 51; and Dewitte, Phillippe, Les Mouvements Nègres en France [Black Movements in France], 1919–1939 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1985)Google Scholar, 75.

48. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 104; and Miller, Nationalists and Nomads, 52. Manning and Spiegler declare the text “apolitical.” Manning and Spiegler, “Tovalou-Houénou: Pan-African,” 2, 6. Langley cites a few excerpts to argue that the text was a “plea for racial equality.” Langley, Pan-Africanism and Nationalism, 72–73.

49. Houénou, Kojo Tovalou, L'involution des métamorphoses et des métempsychoses de l'univers [Involution of Metamorphoses and Metempsychosis of the Universe] (Paris: chez l'auteur, 1921)Google Scholar, 6.

50. Miller, Nationalists and Nomads, 91.

51. I am grateful to one of the anonymous reviewers for critiquing some of my initial interpretations, and for encouraging me to engage in a more rigorous analysis of Houénou's text.

52. Tovalou Houénou, L'involution des métamorphoses, 5–6.

53. Miller also analyzes the universalist tendencies in the text but sees universalism as denying difference rather that accepting it. Miller, Nationalists and Nomads, 52–54, 91.

54. Metempsychosis is associated with Greek religion and the philosopher Pythagoreas, but more importantly, transmigration appears in Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddhist teachings deny the existence of the permanent soul or self, and propose instead in the rebirth of the ever-changing character or “karma.”

55. Tovalou Houénou, L'involution des métamorphoses, 49–50.

56. Ibid., 62.

57. “Notes sur la propaganda revolutionnaire intéressant les pays d'outre mer,” Directeur Affaires Politiques au Ministère des Colonies aux M. les Gouverneurs des Colonies et Commissaires de Togo et Cameroun, May 31, 1924 (“Notes on the revolutionary propaganda involving overseas territories,” Director of Political Affairs in the Colonial Ministry to the Governors of the Colonies and the Commissioners of Togo and Cameroon). The author of this secret report explicitly stated that the editors of Les Continents were not Communists. S.A.R. Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou au Ministère de la Justice, September 1, 1926, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM. In this letter, Houénou denied rumors that he was a Communist.

58. For example, see Cohen, William B., The French Encounter with Africans: White Response to Blacks, 1530–1880 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Peabody, Sue, There are No Slaves in France: The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancien Regime (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)Google Scholar; Curran, Andrew S., The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).Google Scholar

59. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 107.

60. Spiegler, “Aspects of Nationalist Thought,” 17–22, 34–44, 49n1. Spiegler contrasts the themes of the African contributors to Le Messager with that of Antillean writers such as Guadeloupean Max Bloncourt. For more on Hunkanrin, see the volume, Hazoumé, Guy-Landry et al. , Le Vie et L'Œuvre de Louis Hunkanrin [The Life and Work of Louis Hunkanrin] (Cotonou, Benin: Librairie Renaissance, 1977).Google Scholar

61. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 118.

62. “Lettre Ouverte à Monsieur le Gouverneur Général,” (“Open Letter to the Governor General,”) Le Guide du Dahomey, 2:20 (April 23, 1921), 1–3.Google Scholar

63. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 120. From an article entitled “Etrennes d'un indigene à ses frères” [“New Year's Gift from an African to his brothers”], appearing in the Malagasy newspaper Le Libéré, probably in January 1923 or 1924 though Zinsou and Zouménou date it to January 1922; Jean Ralaimongo founded Le Libéré in 1923.

64. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 121.

65. Manning, Patrick, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640–1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 243–46Google Scholar.

66. Ballard, Jacques, “Les Incidents de 1923 à Porto-Novo: La Politique de l'époque coloniale,” [“The Incidents of 1923 in Porto-Novo: The Politics of the Colonial Era”] Etudes Dahoméennes New Series 5(1965): 69–87.Google Scholar

67. Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou, “Sur les incidents du Dahomey,” [“On the incidents in Dahomey”] Les Annales coloniales 23, 47 (March 20, 1923), 1.

68. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 132–36.

69. Manning and Spiegler, “Tovalou-Houénou: Pan-African,” 1. Houénou claimed the title through his mother, who was the granddaughter of a former king of the Dahomey kingdom.

70. Tovalou-Houénou, Le Problème, 7–8. Hunkanrin expressed similar views. Spiegler, “Aspects of Nationalist Thought,” 41–42.

71. Tovalou-Houénou, Le Problème, 8–9.

72. Similar debates characterized the French Union during the Fourth Republic. Cooper, “From Imperial Inclusion to Republican Exclusion,” 97–105.

73. Manning and Spiegler, “Tovalou-Houénou: Pan-African,” 18; Langley, J. Ayo, “Pan-Africanism in Paris,” Journal of Modern African Studies 7 (1969): 72–75Google Scholar; Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 139–41; and Stokes, Melvyn, “Kojo Tovalou Houénou: An Assessment,” Transatlantica 1(2009)Google Scholar: 5.

74. The Manifesto to the League of Nations drawn up after the Second Pan-African Congress on 1921, which took place in Britain, Belgium, and France, called for eventual self-government for “mandated areas.” Those mandated areas in Africa were just the few German colonies and territories, including Togo and Cameroon in West Africa. Fauset, Jessie, “Impressions of Second Pan-African Congress,” The Crisis 23 (1921)Google Scholar: 18.

75. Tovalou-Houénou, Le Problème, 13.

76. Bulletin d'Adhesion, Ligue Universelle pour la Défense de la Race Noire (Membership form, Universal League for the Defense of the Black Race), Les Continents 1, 1 (May 15, 1924): 4. With a committee composed of several men from West Africa, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana, and Haiti, the organization replicated its stated international vision of the African diaspora. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 142–44.

77. Kojo Tovalou Houénou, “L'Esclavagisme colonial: nous ne sommes pas des enfants,” [“Colonial Slavery: We are not children”] Les Continents 1, 4 (July 1, 1924): 1.

78. S.A.R. Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou au Ministère de la Justice, (His Royal Highness Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou to the Minister of Justice) September 1, 1926, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 141–49. By December 1924, Houénou had traveled to the following cities, many of them with important black communities: New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, Gary (Indiana), Cleveland, and Chicago. “Notre Directeur en Amérique: De New York à Chicago,” [“Our Director in America: From New York to Chicago”] Les Continents 1, 15 (December 15, 1924): 1.

79. Houénou, “Paris, Cœur de la Race Noire,” [“Paris, Heart of the Black Race”] Les Continents 1, 10 (October 1, 1924): 1. Edwards, Practice of Diaspora, 100–2; Miller, Nationalists and Nomads, 50–51; and Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 149–50.

80. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 149–50; and Edwards, Practice of Diaspora,103–104. Another issue is the image of Houénou as just a “front-man” for Maran's projects. Conklin, Alice L., “Who Speaks for Africa?: The Rene Maran–Blaise Diagne Trial in 1920s France,” in The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France, ed. Peabody, Sue and Stovall, Tyler Edward (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 302–37.Google Scholar

81. Letter from Prince Kojo Tovalou Houenou to W.E.B. Du Bois, September 3, 1924. W.E.B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries (hereafter UMass SCUA), http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b026-i430 (October 9, 2013). Edwards interprets Houénou's statement as a reflection of his “ideological innocence.” Edwards, The Practice of Diaspora, 103.

82. Houénou to Du Bois, September 3, 1924, UMass SCUA.

83. Ibid.

84. Hill, Robert A., ed. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Volume VII (November 1927–August 1940) (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), 278–80Google Scholar; Joel Augustus Rogers, “Garvey Gets ‘Uproarious’ Reception in Paris, White Women Protest, Race Man Ejected,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 25, 1928 as reprinted in Hill, Robert A., ed. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers: Africa for the Africans, 1923–1945, Volume X (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 475–77Google Scholar. Edwards, Practice of Diaspora, 104. Edwards notes that Houénou also was reported to have been in attendance. Dewitte, Les Mouvements Nègres, 238.

85. Dewitte, Les Mouvements Nègres, 81–89; Spiegler, “Aspects of Nationalist Thought,” 78; Miller, Nationalists and Nomads, 29, 54; and Edwards, Practice of Diaspora, 7.

86. Kelley, Robin D.G., “‘But a Local Phase of a World Problem’: Black History's Global Vision, 1883–1950,” The Journal of American History 86 (1999): 1045–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Edwards, Practice of Diaspora, 7, 13–15.

87. Tovalou-Houénou, Le Problème, 11.

88. S.A.R. Prince Kojo Tovalou–Houénou à M. le Ministre des Colonies, (His Royal Highness Prince Kojo Tovalou-Houénou to the Minister of Colonies) April 17, 1926, FM AFFPOL 575, ANOM. Houénou included among other documents copies of cables he himself had forwarded to the minister, the Governor of Dahomey, the Governor General of French West Africa, and other local officials in Dahomey. For his part, Governor Fourn of Dahomey wrote several cables complaining about Houénou's direct correspondence with the Minister of Colonies and denied the charges that Houénou made. Copie de Cablogramme Officiel à Gouverneur Général, August 15, 1927, FM AFFPOL 575, ANOM.

89. For similar limits in what she calls “forum shopping,” see Sharafi, “Marital Patchwork of Colonial South Asia,” 979–1009.

90. Houénou had a medical degree from the University of Bordeaux but his citizenship decree described him as a medical student serving as a soldier in a nursing unit at Val-de-Grace military hospital. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 57, 65–66. Houénou's 1915 citizenship decree stated that he was a medical student serving as a nurse in Val de Grâce military hospital in Paris. “Décret No. 24217, Tovalou Quénum (Marc-Tovalou-Joseph), 11 juillet 1915,” (“Decree No. 24217, Tovalou Quénum (Marc-Tovalou-Joseph), July 11, 1915”) Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin des Lois], 147.

91. “Marc Tovalou Quénum,” Extrait des Minutes (“Marc Tovalou Quénum,” Excerpt from the Minutes”), December 14, 1927, 8G1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM. Manning and Spiegler, “Kojo Tovalou–Houénou: Pan-African Patriot,” 23.

92. “Au Sujet Succession Quénum,” Governor General AOF à Lieutenant Governor Dahomey (“Regarding the Quénum Succession,” Governor General of French West Africa to the Lieutenant Governor of Dahomey”), December 31, 1926, 8G 1 14 MIOM2146, ANOM.

93. Lieutenant-Gouverneur à Gouverneur-Général AOF (Lieutenant Governor to Governor General of French West Africa), April 1, 1927, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM. There is even a typographical error in the year, listed as “1922” rather than “1912.”

94. In the case of Pierre Maka, originally of Gabon, who was stationed in Guinée with the post and telegraph services, the governor general demanded a more formal letter renouncing his personal status as part of the application process for the 1915 statute. However, there was later some confusion about whether Maka was using the decree from 1912. But being born in Gabon in West Central (Equatorial) Africa, Maka could not use the 1912 statute because it only applied to those born in French West Africa. Governor-General AOF à Lieutenant-Governor of Guinée au sujet de demande de naturalisation Maka (Governor General of French West Africa to Lieutenant Governor of Guinea regarding the naturalization application of Maka), May 3, 1918.

95. I found two extraordinary exceptions. Louis-Alix-Hector do Sacromento, his wife, and three children were naturalized as French based on the February 7, 1897 citizenship decree. Sacromento is listed as having been born in Lagos, Nigeria of a British father. His wife Virginia Moreira Pinto was born in Porto-Novo. “Décret No. 30779 Président de la République Française par l'application du décret du 7 février 1897: Do Sacromento, Louis-Alix-Hector ayant trois enfants mineurs; Pinto, Virginia–Moreira, 9 août 1919,” (“Decree No. 30779 President of the French Republic by application of the decree of February 7, 1897: Do Sacromento, Louis-Alix-Hector having three minor children; Pinto, Virginia-Moreira, August 9, 1919) Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1919)Google Scholar, 661. The autobiography of a descendant of the Sacromento family suggests that Sacromento was a black Brazilian. Ange Miguel do Sacromento, Neither Black Nor White: An Unconventional Life (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2011)Google Scholar. Also see “Décret No. 30337 Président de la République Française par l'application du décret du 14 janvier 1918: Kaniba Diakite, femme Keita (Moriba),” (“Decree No. 30337 President of the French Republic in application of the decree of January 14, 1918: Kaniba Diakita, wife of Keita (Moriba)” Bulletin des Lois [Bulletin of Laws] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1919)Google Scholar, 1381. The decree stated that Diakite, the wife of Moriba Keita, who was also given citizenship rights with, presumably their two children, were to be able to “enjoy civil rights administered in the future under French law.” The unusual wording makes it seem as if she had acquired a status more akin to naturalization.

96. Generally, on the power of elders and women in this region of West Africa, see Semley, Lorelle D., Mother Is Gold, Father Is Glass: Gender and Colonialism in a Yoruba Town (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2011)Google Scholar. Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou à Dakpe Possy Berry, (Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou to Dakpe Possy Berry) January 11, 1926, FM AFFPOL 575/6, ANOM. Some members of the Tovalou Quénum family disavowed Houénou's actions, especially his antagonism of Governor Fourn. Dépêche Télégraphique “Famille Tovalou Quénum, (Telegram “Tovalou Quénum Family”) April 8, 1926, FM AFFPOL 575/6, ANOM.

97. Conklin, “Who Speaks for Africa?,” 302–37.

98. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 202.

99. “La veuve et la belle-fille de Behanzin parties civiles contre le prince Kaja (sic) Tovalou,” [“The widow and daughter-in-law of Behanzin in a civil suit against Prince Kaja (sic) Tovalou”] Les Annales coloniales 32, 121 (November 19, 1932): 2; “L'heritage de Behanzin et le prince avocat Kojo Tovalou,” [“The Heritage of Behanzin and the Prince Lawyer Kojo Tovalou”] Les Annales coloniales 32, 131 (December 13, 1932:2; and “Kojo Tovalou ira en prison,” [“Kojo Tovalou is going to prison”] La Dépêche coloniale et maritime, December 12–13, 1932, 2.

100. Information au sujet de Marc Codjo (sic) Tovalou Houénou, sans date et confidentiel (Information on Marc Codjo (sic) Tovalou Houénou, no date and confidential.). 1E 18 2/8, ANOM.

101. Lieutenant-Gouverneur Fourn à Gouverneur Général de l'Afrique Occidentale Française (Lieutenant Gouverneur Fourn to Governeur General of French West Africa), May 1, 1935, 8G 1, 14 MIOM 2146, ANOM; Manning and Spiegler, “Tovalou-Houénou: Pan-African,” 24.

102. Iyer, Pico, “Caryl Phillips: Lannan Literary Videos (1995),” in Conversations with Caryl Phillips, ed. Schatteman, Renée (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009), 39–40.Google Scholar

103. Rushdie, Salman, East, West: Stories (New York: Random House, 1994), 141Google Scholar.

104. Marc Kojo Tovalou Houénou à Germain Crespin (Marc Kojo Tovalou Houénou to Germain Crespin), February 8, 1926, FM AFFPOL 574/7, ANOM.

105. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 200.

106. Stokes, “Kojo Tovalou Houénou,” 6.

107. Zinsou and Zouménou, Kojo Tovalou Houénou, 10.

108. Melsan, Annick Thébia, “The Liberating Power of Words: An Interview with Poet Aimé Césaire,” Journal of Pan African Studies 2 (2008)Google Scholar: 5. Also, see Palcy, Euzhan, Aimé Césaire: Une Voix pour l'Histoire [Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History] (San Francisco: California Newsreel, 1994).Google Scholar