French colonial Dakar: The morphogenesis of an African regional capital

232 Pages·2016·21.2 MB·English

by  Liora Bigon

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General editor: Andrew S. Thompson
Founding editor: John M. MacKenzie
When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded
by Professor John M. MacKenzie more than thirty
years ago, emphasis was laid upon the conviction that
‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as significant
an effect on the dominant as on the subordinate societies’.
With well over a hundred titles now published, this remains
the prime concern of the series. Cross-disciplinary work
has indeed appeared covering the full spectrum of cultural
phenomena, as well as examining aspects of gender and sex,
frontiers and law, science and the environment, language
and literature, migration and patriotic societies, and much
else. Moreover, the series has always wished to present
comparative work on European and American imperialism,
and particularly welcomes the submission of books in these
areas. The fascination with imperialism, in all its aspects,
shows no sign of abating, and this series will continue to
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in its development, always seeking to be at the cutting edge,
responding to the latest interests of scholars and the needs
of this ever-expanding area of scholarship.
French colonial Dakar
SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES
WRITING IMPERIAL HISTORIES
ed. Andrew S. Thompson
MUSEUMS AND EMPIRE
Natural history, human cultures and colonial identities
John M. MacKenzie
MISSIONARY FAMILIES
Race, gender and generation on the spiritual frontier
Emily J. Manktelow
THE COLONISATION OF TIME
Ritual, routine and resistance in the British Empire
Giordano Nanni
BRITISH CULTURE AND THE END OF EMPIRE
ed. Stuart Ward
SCIENCE, RACE RELATIONS AND RESISTANCE
Britain, 1870–1914
Douglas A. Lorimer
GENTEEL WOMEN
Empire and domestic material culture, 1840−1910
Dianne Lawrence
EUROPEAN EMPIRES AND THE PEOPLE
Popular responses to imperialism in France, Britain, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany and Italy
ed. John M. MacKenzie
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
ed. Saul Dubow
French colonial

Dakar
THE MORPHOGENESIS OF
AN AFRICAN REGIONAL CAPITAL
Liora Bigon
MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © Liora Bigon 2016
The right of Liora Bigon to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 9935 9 hardback
First published 2016
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and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
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CONTENTS

List of figures—vi
Foreword by Xavier Ricou—x
Acknowledgements—xii
List of abbreviations—xiii
1 Introduction: French colonial Dakar: the morphogenesis
of an African regional capital 1
2 Planting the flag and military planning in imperial
Dakar: asymmetries, uncertainties, illusions 20
3 Street naming, infectious diseases and planning in early
colonial Dakar: segregationist insights 79
4 The quest for architectural style for French West Africa:
invented traditions and ideologies in colonial Dakar 128
5 Afterword: Dakar’s ‘old city’ and beyond 175
Appendix. Key events in colonial Dakar, 1850s–1930s—186
Bibliography—189
Index—209
[ v ]
FIGURES

1.1 Colonial West Africa (map drawn by the author). 6
1.2 Senegal, including the former Four Communes
(map drawn by the author). 8
1.3 An old renovated façade of an eighteenth-century house
of a European merchant/métis in Saint-Louis, Senegal
(author’s photo). 11
2.1 Pre-colonial Senegal and the Wolof empire (map drawn
by the author). 24
2.2 Pre-colonial Ndakaru, map drawn by Faidherbe in 1853
and titled ‘The village of Dakar’ (courtesy of the
Archives Nationales du Sénégal). 26
2.3 Drawing made by a French visitor to Ndakaru in 1839,
entitled ‘Hut of the village chief in Dakar’ (redrawn by
the author according to the original held at the Archives
Nationales du Sénégal). 27
2.4 Engraving made by a French visitor to Dakar in 1862,
entitled ‘View of the Mission of Dakar’ (private collection). 28
2.5 Dakar in 1876 showing the town’s demarcated empty
lots (redrawn by the author according to the original at
Cambridge University Library, Map Collection, Maps
723.01.3481). 31
2.6 Typical French fortresses in Senegal and French Sudan
(Mali), the 1850s (composed by the author). 40
2.7 Residential house in Djenné, the 1960s, exemplifying the
‘Sudanese’ architectural style (courtesy of Marli Shamir). 41
2.8 Tata in Tiong (drawn by the author according to an
engraving from the late nineteenth century, contained in
Thierno Mouctar Ba, Architecture militaire traditionnelle
et poliorcétique dans le Soudan occidental du XVIIe à
la fin du XIXe siècle (Yaoundé: Editions Clé, 1985), p. 163). 42
2.9 Plan of Hann’s agronomic station, established in January
1870 by the French Corps of Engineers (courtesy of the
Archives Nationales du Sénégal). 53
2.10 The historical promenades in Gorée (baobab trees) and
Saint-Louis (coconut trees) (photos by the author). 54
[ vi ]
LIST OF FIGURES
2.11 Street scene on Dakar’s Plateau: historical postcard
(private collection) and a recent photo (by the author). 54
2.12 Médine, showing the French fortress to the right of the
indigenous settlement on the bank of the Upper Senegal
River, 1864 (courtesy of the Archives Nationales du Sénégal). 55
2.13 Late-nineteenth-century casern located in Dakar’s city
centre (photo by the author). 60
2.14 Part of a plan showing the floors of the casern illustrated
in Figure 2.13, drawn in 1901 (courtesy of the Archives
Nationales du Sénégal). 61
2.15 Drawing of the façade of one of the straw barracks erected
in the military camp of N’dar Tout, Saint-Louis (courtesy
of the Archives Nationales du Sénégal). 63
2.16 Pinet-Laprade’s master plan for Dakar, 1862
(private collection). 66
2.17 Dakar’s major public works projects of the 1890s, centred
on the waterworks, the railroad, and the military and
commercial ports (private collection). 70
3.1 The three main quarters and street names in early colonial
Dakar, in the 1910s (by the author). 84
3.2 Recent photo of rue du Docteur Roux, Dakar. Most of
the colonial street names in the city centre were
preserved following independence (photo by the author). 85
3.3 Plan of Dakar in 1915, lacking the newly established
Médina quarter of 1914 (courtesy of the Archives
Nationales du Sénégal). 89
3.4 Lebu huts in Dakar in the 1910s. Fortier’s postcard
(private collection). 94
3.5 House in Dakar’s Médina on the crossroads of streets
5 and 8. The address is handwritten on the wall by the
occupant to promote his business (photo by the author). 97
3.6 Extracts based on Plan of Saint-Louis, 1884, showing
the separation in the status of the built areas for the
purpose of taxation and expropriation (map redrawn by
the author according to the original at The National
Archives, Kew, CO 700/West Africa 24). 102
3.7 The displacement of the Lebu quarters from Dakar’s city
centre by the early twentieth century (map drawn by
the author based on Assane Seck, Dakar: Métropole
ouest-africaine (Dakar: IFAN, 1970), p. 129). 103
[ vii ]
LIST OF FIGURES
3.8 The inauguration of the wide, tree-lined avenue Gambetta
in Dakar, 1912, as part of the assainissement projects
(courtesy of the Archives Nationales du Sénégal). 104
3.9 One of the first residences of the newly established Médina,
1915. Notice the opening words of the Quranic sura
al-Fatihah on the Gable (courtesy of the Archives
Nationales du Sénégal). 106
3.10 Part of a map showing the Médina’s orthogonal plan,
1916 (courtesy of the Archives Nationales du Sénégal). 108
3.11 Intersection of streets in the Médina (photo by the author). 109
3.12 One of Lebu’s original households, still existing today,
on Dakar’s Plateau (photo by the author). 110
3.13 The 1937 art deco monumental façade of Institut
Pasteur, Dakar (photo by the author). 115
4.1 Plan of Kermel’s original structure, 1865 (courtesy of the
Archives Nationales du Sénégal). 133
4.2 French postcard from the 1930s showing the neo-classical
Municipal Theatre in Algiers, built for the French expatriates
in 1853 on place de la République (author’s collection). 137
4.3 French postcard from 1928 showing Dakar’s Palais du
Gouverneur Général, 1908 (author’s collection). 138
4.4 Senegal’s Presidential Palace in Dakar, today (photo
by the author). 139
4.5 Dakar’s Chamber of Commerce (bulit 1910), today (photo
by the author). 140
4.6 A present-day photo of Dakar’s Court of Justice in the
1910s, now Senegal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(photo by the author). 141
4.7 Dakar’s town hall (built 1914), today (photo by the author). 141
4.8 Monument Thérèse Nars on Dakar’s Plateau, today
(photo by the author). 144
4.9 Monument to Van Vollenhoven in Dakar (erected 1921),
today (photo by the author). 145
4.10 French postcard from the 1940s showing neo-Moorish
colonial architecture in Algiers: the main post office,
1910 (author’s collection). 146
4.11 Postcard showing marché Kermel in Dakar in the 1910s
(author’s collection). 147
[ viii ]