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Citizenship in Colonial Africa: an Overview of British and French Definition of Citizenship and Theoretical Citizenship in Colonial Framework Barbalet argues that citizenship Africa “defines those who are, and who are not, An Overview of British and members of a common society.”1 This infers French Repertoires. that citizenship is an exclusive concept. Waters further argues, “It allows one to Mark Sizwebanzi Mngomezulu participate in a community while enjoying certain rights and obligations.”2 ne of the leading characteristics of To be a citizen of a country entails an the British and French colonial individual’s recognition by the relevant Oexperience in Africa in the 20th authorities, as such. The status extends certain century—a period often referred to as late protections over the person granted colonialism—was the systematic imposition citizenship; be it social, political and economic of colonizing interests on the territory, and protections. In exchange for that, the citizen the institutionalized separation of master and must abide by the rules of the constituted colonial subject. This meant that the majority authority—the state3. The sharp distinction of of native Africans, under the auspices of the who belongs, also entails defining those who British and French empires, did not enjoy the do not belong to a particular state and these same rights to citizenship as European-born “outsiders may be defined and identified or African-born whites. This resulted in a informally through the use of tacit and form of bifurcated citizenship that confined internalized classification schemes” and also the majority of the population to second-class formally through specific documentation, as is citizenship. However, between the two the case in modern states4. empires, there are important differences of This understanding of citizenship has citizenship conceptualization that ultimately its genesis in Western Europe. It rose led to diverging local experiences between concomitantly, with the overarching theory of British and French Africa. popular sovereignty in the 17th Century— This paper aims to understand why challenging the unchecked rule of monarchs the French and British empires applied the and emperors, and advocating for the concept of citizenship differently in their African colonies. Scholars often argue that 1 Jack Barbalet (1988) cited in Ndegwa, S. most Africans were denied citizenship in the “Citizenship and Ethnicity. An Examination of French and British colonies for economic, Two Transition Movements in Kenyan Politics,” political and social reasons. This reasoning is American Political Science Review 91.3 (1997), 599. insufficient because the experiences within 2 each empire are different. I argue instead, that Waters (1989), 160, as cited in Stephen historical experience led to distinct ways of Ndegwa, “Citizenship and Ethnicity. An Examination of Two Transition Movements in understanding and deciding who was, or was Kenyan Politics,” 599. not a citizen—producing a unique result in 3 Crawford Young, “Nation, Ethnicity, and British and French African colonies. Chief Citizenship: Dilemmas of Democracy and Civil among these historical experiences was the Order in Africa,” in Making Nations, Creating French revolution of 1789 that purported to Strangers: States and Citizenship in Africa, ed. equalize the rights of people before the law, P. Nugent, et al. (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2007). and the lack of an experience of similar 4 pretensions in Britain. This and other Roger Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Boston: Harvard experiences had wider ramifications than University Press, 1992), 30. could have been anticipated. JPI: Fall 2015 Issue 4 inclusion of common people in decision- unique historical trajectory, from which they making. Burbank and Cooper assert that there are selected. It is through this framework—a was never a clean break between the rule of framework that privileges historical empires, and the ushering in of nation-states grounding— that the question of citizenship and popular sovereignty, with the latter’s in the former colonies of France and Britain attendant principles of citizenship being becomes clear. extended to the vast majority of people. Nation-states and popular sovereignty were COLONIALISM IN AFRICA competing ideas in a world that was ruled by Historians often describe European empires.5 colonization of the African continent in the These novel ideas brought to the fore late 19th and early 20th centuries as a “scramble certain questions. One of which, as Burbank for Africa”. Ushered in by the Berlin and Cooper note, was: “Would citizenship be Conference, a meeting in which ‘national’—focused on a people who representatives of western powers gathered in represented themselves as a single linguistic, Berlin to determine the colonial future of cultural, and territorial community—or would Africa, this era of colonialism was marked by it be “imperial,” embracing diverse peoples competition among the industrializing west who constituted the population of a state?”6 for land and resources. To accomplish their Such a question was important in colonial goal, western colonizers employed a regime of Africa, as the French and British empires tried domination over indigenous people. to assert their authority over vast expanses of Cooper7 cautions against assuming land on the continent. colonialism in Africa as the natural step that History was to determine some of the Western Europe had to take toward Africa. answers to these questions. Writing on the He argues that there were competing ideas of salience of history in politics Marx, in the how empires should extend their rule in Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, explains colonies. Colonialism became a favored “Men make their own history, but they do not option because it had support from well- make it as they please; they do not make it connected individuals in the metropolis. under self-selected circumstances, but under Powerful entities in the metropolis, such as circumstances existing already, given and private companies, saw virgin territory as a transmitted from the past. The tradition of all bastion of natural resources to be extracted dead generations weighs like a nightmare on and an abundance of cheap labor for the brains of the living.” This highlights that production. every nation calls upon a collective memory to For Mamdani, colonialism in Africa determine rules and norms. was concerned about the “native question”; The methods that colonial powers that is, “how can a tiny and foreign minority used in Africa to subdue populations were not rule over an indigenous majority?”8 Both new. They had been used previously, and in a empires looked into their repertoires for sense part of the repertoire of each empire, as suitable strategies of domination. At the core Burbank and Cooper note. But the of both became the de-humanization of the idiosyncrasies of British and French methods can each be traced back to a complex yet 7 Frederick Cooper, Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present (United Kingdom: Cambridge 5 Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires University Press, 2002). in World History: Power and the Politics of 8 Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and Subject. Difference (New Jersey: Princeton University Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Press, 2010). Colonialism (New Jersey: Princeton University 6 Ibid., 220. Press, 1996), 16. JPI: Fall 2015 Issue 5 African including the institutionalization of the rising voices of educated Africans negative racial stereotypes. criticizing the colonial system and its Cooper states that: institutionalization of citizenship based on skin-color. In their demand for equal rights, Colonial empires differed from other forms particularly in French Africa, native Africans of domination by their efforts to reproduce in the colonies would pull from ideas initially social and cultural difference. At some level, planted in each empire’s past, and seeking to conquest implied incorporation: the loser avoid past mistakes, imperial powers pursued had to be taught who the boss was and different appeasement techniques. behave accordingly. But colonial conquest emphasized that the conquered remain distinct; he or she might try to learn and CITIZENSHIP IN FRANCOPHONE master the ways of the conqueror but would AFRICA: ASSIMILATION never quite get there9. The French revolution of 1789 was a watershed in the French empire because the Here we see that order—as conceived by the assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights colonial power—was an important principle of Man and Citizen. This declaration “stressed in the colonies. And the distinction by skin equality before the law and representative color and ethnicity played a great role in both government.”12 French and British colonialism. However, it was unclear how far Both empires saw the goal of citizenship as equality of men, and by extension citizenship, the preservation of the status quo balance of should extend to colonial holdings, and the power that placed white European races on criteria that would be used to determine who top of the social order. As the case study qualified and who was not. The arguments section will show, native Africans were later ranged from theories of how citizenship did included, begrudgingly, as citizens—in a not apply to Africans and Asians, while others piecemeal strategy. The British, and to a took a more inclusive stance, arguing that greater extent the French, would eventually colonization was an indefensible practice13. open the door for Western-educated Africans,
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