Paying the Blood Tax: Military Conscription in French West Africa, 1914-1929

The Great War and the Warfare–Welfare Nexus in British and French West African Colonies

“…French military policy in their West African colonies can be dated back to 1857, when the first regiments of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais (Senegalese Rifles) were founded. Over time, Senegalese Rifles became “the generic term for Black African soldiers in the French colonial army” (Echenberg 1975: 174), and they were mainly established to extend France’s political control across West Africa (Echenberg 1975: 172; Ginio 2017: 3). For a standing specialized army of battalion strength, the Senegalese Rifles were very limited in size.…”

“…The decision to pass this decree and therefore to rely increasingly on Black troops was reinforced by the fear of French politicians and military officials of a shrinking population in the motherland, in light of decreasing birth rates in combination with the need for soldiers. French officials were afraid that Germany’s dominance and the depopulation of France might result in a military advantage for the German army (Dörr 2020; Echenberg, 1975: 179). Therefore, integrating Black soldiers into the French military was seen as an instrument both to save French soldiers’ lives and to realize military and demographic policy goals.…”

“…It is estimated that 200,000 Africans were eventually mobilized between 1912 and 1919 (Conklin 1997: 143). Even though there is still a debate among historians about the number of deaths of Africans during WWI, a conservative estimate of the death rate in relation to the mobilized is at least as high as for French soldiers from the metropole, that is, on average around 22% (Echenberg 1975: 364; Lunn 1999: 532). The death rate of African soldiers is reported to have been exceptionally high in the later periods of WWI, reaching as high as 39% in 1918 (Lunn 1999: 33).…”

“…Furthermore, in the British case, these servicemen were rarely trained for and did not directly engage in combat and were instead used as porters. The social exclusion of African servicemen from armed combat delegitimized their claims to the spoils of war (Echenberg 1975, 1991). In both cases, indigenous populations resisted forced recruitment practices, whether formal or informal, for example by migrating to British colonies after conscription was introduced in French West Africa and also through more explicit protests and uprisings (Killingray 1989; Koller 2008).…”

La mobilisation de la main-d'oeuvre burkinabé, 1900–1974: Une vision retrospective

“…Ce portrait de la mobilite burkinabe est confirme par les deux besoins de ! 'administration pendant les decennies marquant le debut de la colonisation: le besoin de main-d'oeuvre (soldats et manoeuvres) pendant laguerre 1914-1918 qui a amene beaucoupdeBurkinabeau Soudan (Maliactuel), au Senegal, et parfois en France (Echenberg 1975(Echenberg , 1980(Echenberg , 1987; le besoin de main-d'oeuvre pour la construction du chemin de fer reliant Thies a Kayes au Senegal, pre jet juge crucial pour le regime colonial franr;ais en Afrique de ! 'ouest.…”