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Based on the combination of colonial archives and the analysis of several complaints published in Senegalese newspapers, this article sheds light on the daily compulsory reality experienced by local populations with regards to forced labor in colonial Senegal (1920s–1940s). In contrast to analyses approaching forced labor systems through the study of colonial bureaucratic routines, this article studies the reactions of local populations and the consequences for colonial labor policies. I introduce the notion of resilience in order to overcome the pitfalls of the resistance paradigm and bring new insight into attitudes of distance, refusal, and adaptation used by local populations as methods to “absorb the shock” of everyday colonial coercion. More broadly, this analysis leads us to interrogate the limits and fragility of the colonial enterprise, recalling that the colonial state was not an almighty administration and that it was, above all, based on abiding adaptations and empirical decisions.

En prenant le cadre de la formulation du service civique national au Sénégal, et plus précisément d’un chantier militaire organisé dans la vallée du fleuve Sénégal par le chef d’état-major Jean-Alfred Diallo, cet article analyse comment l’armée est intervenue, non pas en tant que force de maintien de l’ordre, mais en tant qu’acteur économique et social dans le développement du pays. Plus largement, le rôle joué par l’armée dans l’organisation du service civique caractérise la relation particulière qu’entretient l’institution militaire sénégalaise avec le pouvoir politique.

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