Migrations as Revolt

The Example of the Ivory Coast and the Upper Volta before 1945

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8979641
AutoresA I Asiwaju (University of Lagos, autor de correspondencia)
Año1976
Volumen17
Número4
Páginas577-594
Fecha de publicación1976-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of African History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021853700015073
OpenAlexW2025014964
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas67
Referencias citadas12

This study is offered as a contribution to the literature on African protest movements during the era of colonial rule. Existing studies of migration emphasize the socio-economic aspects of motivation and have tended to gloss over or even omit migrations in which the dominant factor was disapproval of colonial policy. Existing studies of African protest movements focus on armed confrontations, perhaps because of their greater dramatic appeal. The case of the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta illustrates a phenomenon found in various parts of French West Africa and, indeed, in other colonies, particularly the Belgian and Portuguese territories. The causes of protest migrations were usually related to the same resentments which provoked revolt in localities where armed confrontation was the only option. These compelling factors included forced labour, burdensome taxation, conscription, requisitions and an attack on indigenous political institutions, notably chieftaincy. The use of repressive police measures, as manifested in the Native Penal and Indigénat Codes, exacerbated African discontent. Judging from the French reaction to the exodus from the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta, it is clear that migrations, as protests, proved far less costly to Africans and had much the same effect on the colonial authorities as did other more militant forms of protest and rebellion

Colonial rule · Colonialism · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Indirect rule · Militant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Portuguese · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African Studies and Ethnography · History · Law · North African History and Literature