Dead-End Scandal in M'Pésoba
Local Politics and Colonial Justice in French West Africa, 1913–18
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8977490 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wallace Teska (0000-0003-3970-2782, Stanford University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 384-399 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021853722000512 |
| OpenAlex | W4303980424 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
This article scrutinizes recent histories of colonial and international law that use metropolitan reactions to the ‘scandals of empire’ to project a reform-oriented version of European colonialism. In French West Africa, most scandals never reached the level of metropolitan debate; they hit dead ends in colonial bureaucracies. Analyzing one dead-end scandal, the M'Pésoba Affair, this article argues that colonial justice on the ground often adhered to a politics of expediency, not a reformist rule of law. To maintain their precarious grip on power, colonial administrators had to simultaneously appease their superiors, economic interests, and powerful African actors. Resolving the M'Pésoba Affair, for one, entailed navigating the complex entanglements of cotton production, chiefly disputes, Islamic policy, and interracial sexual relationships in a backwater of empire marked by anticolonial revolt and world war. Especially in moments of crisis, political constraints shaped the application of justice
British Empire · Bureaucracy · Colonialism · Economic history · Economic Justice · Empire · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · European Political History Analysis · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · North African History and Literature
A Jurisprudence of Power
Boundaries of the International
States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control
No Condition Is Permanent
Colonial Suspects
From International Law to Imperial Constitutions
West Africa Under Colonial Rule
Rage for Order
The Decivilizing Mission
State of Violence
Freedom and Authority in French West Africa
The Empire of Law
A Turn to Empire
Scandal of Colonial Rule
What Was Theindigénat? The 'Empire of Law' in French West Africa
The "Pacha Affair" Reconsidered
Along the Archival Grain
The formation of an 'Islamic sphere' in French Colonial West Africa
States of Marriage
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |