Willing Migrants: Soninke Labor Diasporas, 1848-1960 (Western African Studies)

*:1.; Foreword I ; In the spring of 1985, I received a letter from a graduate student at the Uni. '~ versity of California in Santa Barbara asking if I would read two chapters from his thesis. I agreed to do so, not only because I enjoy reading the work of young scholars, but because he was working on questions that had a bearing on the book I was writing on slavery and French colonial rule} The Soninke were important to my study as slave traders and as the architects of V a very harsh slave system. They also produced a large grain surplus in the i i. early twentieth century in spite of what looked to me like a hostile environment. Iwas struggling with several questions. I was trying to understand the l complex and very dynamic Senegal river trade system of the nineteenth cen, “ tury and why so many slaves stayed with their masters in the early nineteenth century during a period of a massive slave emigration in French West Africa, when perhaps a million returned to earlier homes. , The chapters Manchuelle sent me made an original argument on Soninke labor migration. The role of the Soninke in the river trade, as sailors in the French Heet, and as the first African migrants to France was well known, but, like many, I had assumed that the first to migrate were the poor, perhaps run» away slaves. In fact, Manchuelle argued that it was the nobles who migrated, and that they did so not because they wanted to leave, but because they wanted to reinforce their position within traditional society. Furthermore, * his documentation was solid. The most original part of Manchuelle’s argu` ment was why they did it. I was so fascinated that I asked to read the whole ` thesis and invited him to give a paper at a conference in Canada. The Soninke are a particularly interesting people. They founded the first . of the great empires of West Africa, Ghana. After the fall of Ghana in the thirteenth century, there were no large Soninke states, but a Soninke diaspora spread trading communities across much of West Africa. Known as r . Forthcoming from Cambridge University Press under the title Slavery and Cultmrkzl Rule zh , Franc}: Ms: Africa. ` I xi l

Marka or juula, these communities often assimilated local languages, but be- , . The small, weak Soninke politics were marked by intense competition, which cause of their involvement in commerce, maintained their distinctiveness i f provided an incentive for people to seek resources from outside. Thus, seaand their pride in Soninke origins. Manchuelle argues pereeprively that the * sonal migration for trade, the accumulation of slaves, and an eagerness for Soninke entrepreneurial tradition developed because of their role as com- V , wage labor on the river and the high seas were all linked. Manchuelle also rnercial arbiters between the desert and the savanna. The desert-side area L ,'_ moves clearly from one form of migration to others. He not only links the was commercially one of the most important areas in Africa. The Soninke · labor migrations in the Senegal River valley to earlier commercial migrawere in many Ways the product of this interaction, and certainly the people j tions, but also describes new migrations in the early colonial period, espebest equipped to exploit it. Nomads needed grain and cloth and could offer ii cially seasonal migration to the peanut fields and long-term migration to the livestock and salt. Those with entrepreneurial skills could use those goods to ' two Congos. He describes how maraboutic networks competed with the notrade further south for slaves, gold, kola nuts, and other commodities. ~ j bles and how former slaves moved into those networks. In recent years, the Soninke have been noted for another kind of migra- ’ ~ Manchuelle also answers the questionl first asked. Why did so many slaves tion. Although they are not very numerous, in the I9§OS and 196os the l remain within an exploitative social structure, and when they migrated, why Soninke made up the vast majority of an increasing African migration to ’ did so many return? The slaves who left were primarily those who rememFrance. Their origins, their collaboration, and their dormitory-style living , bered an earlier home. Those who remained were not necessarily passive. arrangements were frequently discussed in the French press during the 19605 , gi They were rooted in Soninke society and chose to struggle, sometimes inand attracted a great deal of scholarly interest. They lived frugally, shared ` efectively, within Soninke society. As in many parts of West Africa, there meals, helped each other find jobs, and faced common problems of illness V i' was astruggle for the control of the labor of those who remained, essentially and death. Few writers, however, traced the history of this migration or saw i i a process of renegotiating social and work relationships. Masters were most that there was a link between the entrepreneurial skills of the sharpest traders _` effective in maintaining control of persons where they controlled the land. in West Africa and the appearance of Soninke sanitation workers doing the j The Soninke areas were relatively dry regions with small areas of rich floodhumblest kinds of work in late-twentieth-century France. Labor migration V plain controlled by established families. Slaves won a certain degree of autonwas rooted in commercial migration and often contributed to new forms of _ omy but could not shake the domination of the noble class. When the master commercial activity The humble Soninke who sweeps the streets of Paris may ` could not provide land, a former slave could often get it from another mashave two taxis on the streets of Bamako, often driven by brothers or cousins, ~ ij ter, but he could not change his status. Many remained not only because they and when he retires, will probably farm with hired labor, He may also have could get land within the system, but, as Manchuelle explains, because they a cousin driving a truck in the Ivory Coast or trading precious stones in had access to migratory networks. Zaire. i I learned a lot from Francois and always enjoyed our exchanges. He did Manchuelle’s study makes several important arguments about migration. not bend easily to the ideas of others, but he was always gracious in debate, For one, migrants do not always come from poor areas, nor is it always the often gentle, and always eager to refine his argument and get the response of poorest who migrate. This is also clear for long-distance migration else- others. He was also very well informed. He wrote on awide variety of subwhere. Those who came to North America by steerage a century ago had to jects and read widely He assumed that there were regularities in the way be able to pay for their passage, and the same is true for those seeking a bet- human societies operate, and sought for parallels in literature on other parts ter life today in North America and Europe. Manchuelle also argues that mi- of the world. The ability to see migration in comparative context is one of the gration was not rooted in the impoverishment of the Soninke homeland and ` strengths of this manuscript. Perhaps the most important thing Manchuelle did not contribute to its impoverishment. The strength of Manchuelle’s ar- has done in this book is to prove how relevant history is to understanding a gument is that he seats it in an understanding of Soninke society and history. contemporary situation. By looking at how and why different sectors of romtworw , Fonewono [xii] , , [xiii ]

Soninke society have migrated over time, he contributes to our understanding of the Soninke. By constantly setting the Soninke in comparative con- _ ’ text, he contributes to our understanding of migration. He has written a Edltor S Preface book that is original, that challenges accepted ideas, and that will be much , debated. We can only regret that he will not be here to take part in the debate. Maru}: A. K/ein · X Uniymggl gf Tammy; Z, In Remembrance of Francois Manchuelle (195;-1996) j Francois Manchuelle died tragically on I7 ]uly 1996 in the explosion of ` TWA Flight 8oo off the coast of Long Island. This disaster cut short a vital . scholarly career. In addition to a stream of academic articles on the intellec` tual roots of nineteenth-century French colonization policy, the cultural dy. lla namics of precolonial West African labor migrations, the political emergence of Africans in Senegal, and the origins of cultural nationalism in French V Africa, Francois had just recently Finished Wlling Migranzs, was deeply eniii gaged in a large study of the intellectual origins of African cultural nation' alism that traced the linkages between intellectuals in the Caribbean, Europe, gg: and West Africa, and was in the process of editing a special issue of the Cahierr * dftudes Africainex, on whose editorial board he served. Francois died in the midst of making major contributions to the history of Africa and of Africans in diaspora. Frangois’s other métier was as an academic administrator. After completj l ing his doctoral degree at the University of California at Santa Barbara in f I987, Francois accepted a teaching post in the Department of History at Georgia Southern University, and while there found time to secure a major A institutional grant, ensuring the future of the Black Studies program. Later, · after a teaching stint at Bowdoin College, Francois accepted a position as as_ , sociate director of Africana Studies and the Institute for Afro-American , ~ Affairs at New York University. At NYU Francois devoted his time to _ strengthening the university institutions devoted to the study of Africa and _ ti; of Africans in diaspora, taught seminars in African history, and brought ` forth as executive editor the first issue of Black Renaissance/Renaissance ’ Nvire. 5 j With his death, Francois ManchueIle’s far—flung network of intellectual , and collegial relationships, maintained through careful correspondence and ` an ever—willingness to pick up the telephone, was ruptured. But at the age of SQ Foxawoxn _ [xiv] , [xv]

forty·three, his lifespirit had such trajectory and quiet force that his intellec- { mal legacy and his warm personal presence will continue to induence those · of us who were fortunate to know him. Colleagues in Europe, North Amer- 7 Select of Works ica, the Caribbean, and Africa all remember him with affection. ‘ I by Frangois Manchuelle james L. A. l$%£b,_/lr. 1 Coloy College ~ Fghuavl [gg; 1996 “The °Regeneration of Africa’: An Important and Ambiguous Concept in 18th ,7. and 19th Century French Thinking about Africa,” Cahiers a’Etudes Aficaines, vol. 144, no. XXXVI—4, 559-588. 1995 "Assimilés ou patriotes africains? Naissance du nationalisme culrurel en Afrique frangaise,” Caltiers dfmdes Aj?icaz}1es, vols. 138-139, no. XXXV—2-3, 222-2681% IQQZ “Le role des Antillais dans Papparition du nationalisme culturel en Afrique franc0phone,” Calder.: ¢z'Z'tu¢le.sAf}icair1e.r, vol. 12.7, no. XXXII—3, 375-408. ; j 1989 "Slavery, Emancipation, and Labor Migration in West Africa: The Case of the ~ S0ninke," journal of Ajiicun Hirzury, vol. 30, no. 1, 89-106. 1989 “The Patriarchal Ideal of Soninke Labor Migrants: From Slave Owners to Employers of Free Labor Migrants,” Canadian journal of African Szndieagvol. 23, ( no. 1, 106-125. 1988 “Origines républicaines de la politique d’expansi0n coloniale de jules Ferry, 1838—1865," Revue fanyazive ulilzirzoire 1ibz1rre—mer, vol. 75, no. 279, 185-206. V 1985 “Origines républicaines et philanthropiques de la politique d’expansion coloff,5. niale de ]ules Ferry (1838-1865)” Proceeding; of zlte French Colonial Hirzarical { ·$`0&`i8§}Q 198% I93—20$. ‘ , 1984 “Métis et colons: La famille Devés et Fémergence politique des Africains au fi Sénégal, 1881—1897,” Ca/tiers 11lZ`zuz{es Aficazhes, vol. 96, no. XXIV-4, 477-504. S @1 *} ¤ ew Ll 1;1>1·1·oR’s imrmcr 9 [xvi ] 7 I [ xvii ]

li ,° A ~ O S V V X 1 i. ·L ‘ ‘ I O E ` ‘ it ` N g , l Y , l l ‘ J, " O Gd 5 , S; . " U ~ cn *5 . . ; I y p y . p E >< Introduction ’r,IGI? ta. Q »-~. ,» ¤ ~ .4 ;; E · _ _, Q gz '* I it Til M ` ` rl € O _ l World migrants, the “Ara.b” (in fact, Arabo-Berber) North Africans, who , ` are among the most oppressed people in the country. The question of their E E ` integration into society has been a burning issue in French politics in the last V ••_°é° tg >" D 2 four decades. At the time when I began this study, however, this proletariat ` , -§ § E In Q E l l, had its own underworld: the Black Africans, who lived in the shabbiest hous§ Si, B Z 8 ing in the neighborhoods inhabited by North Africans and who took the jobs U D g ~ rejected by them. Any visitor to Paris in the 19605 and 19705 would have In 2 Q V;} noticed that most of the menial jobs in the French capital, in particular in ` ` — _»». sanitation, were carried out by Black Africans, often (incorrectly) called ° it “Senegalese.” Black Africans also worked (in fact, in greater numbers than ` l . in sanitation) as unskilled workers in automobile plants in the Parisian suburbs, such as Renault—Billancourt, Citroen—Aulnayg of Talbot—Poissy. ' I. 1 l

ag J} i The Black African community in France in the 1960s and 19705 was small Yi of the large Manda-speaking group, which also comprises the Bambara and in comparison with the North African community. Its concentration in the Mulinke peoples. Fi-eneh capital, however, gave it a certain visibility. Moreover, it was grow- p What made this information so interesting was the fact that the Soninke ing extremely rapidly. In 195;, the oflicial figure for African workers in . have lvng history of migration in Africa. In the nineteenth cent-ury, they France was z,¤oo. Ten years later, the oi·Hcia1 Figure stood at zo,ooo, while V were among the first mzvémne: (agricultural labor migrants to the peanut ¤ unofficial estimates ranged between ;o,¤o0 and 60,00::. Since this time, the ;· fields that are the mainstay of Senegal’s economy). During the colonial peBlack African community in France may have grown to 660,000, its size in- ` riod, the Soninke also mi rated to the Ivor Coast Cameroon and the ELI creasing by a {actor of ren during the last twenty years. This raises the re- Q Congo-Zaire basin. They lid a tradition of enzployment in the French me;ie mote but not unrealistic possibility that it may one day become as large as the j} chant marine, which eventually led some to settle in French harbor cities— North African community itself. judging from the severe problems posed the origin of their present migration to France. In Soninke villages, one can today by xenophobia feelings in French society, the integration of large j' m€€t {OFHIET sailors who have been to the United States, Mexico, India, numbers of Black Africans may prove a formidable problem in the decades _ i Japan, and so 011. Today the Soninke live not only in France, but also in sierra to come. Leone, the Ivory Coast, Zaire, Congo, the Central African Republic, ZamWhen it began, roughly around 1960, Black African migration in France ` bia, Tanzania, Libya, Spain, Belgium, even Sweden, and there even appears presented all the characteristics of a lzzéor migration. This term must be ` E0 béatiny Soninke communi in New York Ci robabl established rio; defined: labor migration designates an economically motivated, temporary tothe Second World War. ty tyip y P {crm of migration. Labor migrants are generally young men from rural {E The “traditi0n" of migration among the Soninke actually goes back m areas, often unmarried. They have no plans to settle abroad but shuttle be- the precolonial period. The Soninke probably were the iii-srjula, or- itinerant tween their villages and places of employment (cities and more developed traders 0f West Africa. Their Mande—speaking descendants, the Marka, are agricultural areas), a movement often described as “re¤.1rn” Or “CirCular” ` f¤¤1’1d ifl HIOSI COII1mSrCi3l Centers of the Western Sudan. Today an impormigration. Labor migrants are an important proportion of the w0rld’s labor , ji tam proportion of the Soninke continue to be merchants. Soninke merchants {orce7 especially in developing areas, and more especially in sub-Saharan i _; fly to Hong Kong to buy the Japanese watches and pocket calculators that Africa;in1g6$, the economist Elliot ]. Berg estimated the number of migrant t Hood the marketplace of Bamako, Mali. Many have made fortunes without laborers in West Africa to be about one million, or fmfof its labor force} In ii having 21 formal education. In one interview, a Soninke merchant in Bamako {act, all of the main export producing regions of Africa—the “peanut basin" t Said: “I cannot read, but I can c0unt."’ And Soninke merchants indeed can of Senegal; the “coeoa belt" of Ghana, the Ivory Coast, and Nigeria; the i count, as Shown by the success of such businessmen as Adan Kébé, rumored "eoppe1· belt" of Zambia; and the mining regions of South Africa and 150 have bought two beachfront hotels in Dakar "for cash" and to have been Zaire—owe their economic success to the immigration of temporary labor- the private banker of the former President Mobutu of Zaire. ers. Black African migration to France was thus connected to a wider phe— ` From the beginning, therefore, my research had to resolve an interesting nomenon of labor migration in Africa. · ¤01’1fl'3¤liCii01'1. I WiSl'1€Cl tO ShOW that the migration of poor Black African In 19687 Souleymane Diarra published the Hrst scholarly Study of Black W0l‘k€l'S I0 France Was the result Of AffiC8,S exploitation by France, thus, in African labor migration to France} Its startling revelation was that 85 per- keeping with Marxist theoryq that it was the result of economic factors. How— Cem of the migrants came from a single region of West Africa, a triangle of ever, historical evidence pointed to the fact that Soninke migration predated $20 X 480 x 210 kilometers between the Mauritanian town of Boghé and the the domination of Western capitalism and may have been related to cultural Malian towns of Nioro and Bafoulabé, covering roughly equal amounts of { factors. But was premcdern mi ation connected to resent mi ration? I felt Senegalese, Mauritanian, and Malian soil (see map). Moreover, within this it it was necessary to address the history of Soninke mlilgrations ii order to anterritmy 85 percent of the migrants were members of a single ethnic group, swer this question. called in Senegal the Sarakole, but who call themselves the Soninke, a branch ` INTRODUCTION ` INTRODUCTION l 7- l 1 [ 2 l ~

gl ThBO1‘i€S of African Labor Mig1'ati0I1 ‘ Sociological and economic literature has made great progress in underE V g standing African labor migration but, at the same time, it has brought new 4 Early colonial explanations of labor migration in Africa often emphasized ` A questions: assuming that economic causes are determinant, what type of ECOI? the *7015 of ethnicity- Ethnic SYDUPS that migrated more than Others were · nomic causes provoke migration? Essentially, there are two answers to this yl d¤¤m¤d *0 have a ¤¤1¤¤¤i"pr¤1¤¤¤Sify to migrate}, Such 3 “PmP€“SitY” was . question. For some sch0lars—we may call ahem the “ne0classica1" school, never thecrized, but rather was part of a set of Western prejudices about the ` V Whose besbknown representative is Elliot ]_ B€1.g__€aCh migrant makes a § SUPPOSECHY Odd OY backwards economic behavicr Of Africans- The colonial personal choice, after balancing the advantages and disadvantages (economic {Q _ ubfighf lights th€°YY” held that Africans: PHHCUIZYIY the Young: migrated il and noneconomic) of staying at home or migrating.’ The neoclassical school ` because they were attracted by Lhc often fallacious promises of city life. The _` emphasizes job Oppormnides in the region at the receiving end of the migm_ M ? umrget Wmkern theory asserted that Africans sought Paid €mP1OYm€m tion, that is, the “puI1" factor of economic growth. The opposing "sch00l" S°1€lY in Order *0 r¤¤¤h SPECEC economic “m`g€t$”_buYi"g a biCYcl€¤ 3 _ (which is by far the most popular today) believes that migrants were " Sewing machine, and SO OIL Once the wargetsn were reached, it was said: the _ “pushed" away from their home region by adverse economic conditions anc1/ migrants Went h°m€» with the Pamdoxical result that higher Wages resulted , ii or various forms of coercion. According to a growing body of literature, in 3 higher mm°V€r and EVEMUZHY 3 lower SUPPIY Of l3b°"· what these ~ colonial taxes were the “trigger" :0 African labor migration, in particular be` “'¥h€°I`i€$” had in €¤mm°“¤ thcrefoma was the Suggestion that Africans were · cause they were imposed in money currency, which was available only in Lhe not, unlike modem Europeans, rational economical beings. ` coastal areas dominated by the cohmial Economy} Modem Sociological and economic studies have Proven these c°“°°Pti°“S _ From what precedes, it is clear that the debate has become increasingly Wrong- Although Afdcan migrants Value The excitement of city life: they ` historical in nature. In fact, history would appear as essential in the study of ¤1'€» i¤ {ML looking for Cash- Elliot J- Berg Showed that in Affi¤¤» as in the migrations, which are processes of social change that necessarily develop rest of the world, higher wages result in a larger labor supply. Berg attrib- _‘ Over a long Pm-{Od of dm€_ Yet even though a gl-Owing number Of studies uted the high rumover rates noticed by employers in the early days of ¢¤}0- Q use hismrical material and methods, African labor migration has been invesnization not Y0 high but IO 1¤Ww¤g¤S·‘A¤ economic and S¤¤i¤1¤gi¤lSr¤di¢S L_ tigated almost exclusively by sociologists and economists, and there is alhave progressed, scholars have increasingly emphasized the rational eco- I 1 most no major Study Of African labor migration by a trained histol-im_ nomic motivations of African labor migration. ]. Clyde Mitchell pointed out V The theory that African labor migration is the result Of economic dePd_ that m0$t migrants SWE an economic reason (Often the need *0 Pay taxes) {OY l vation and colonial violence is, as I mentioned, by far the most prevalent migrating and dm even when a ¤°¤€°°“°miC cause was invoked: the real I 9 today. However, there are very important differences between the migratory Cause was almost alWaY$ economic- For €XamP1€¤ migrants may d¢¤1¤r¤ that V behaviors of various African ethnic groups that economic factors do not they migrated because of disagreements with relatives, but in the majority of Q Seem to explain Among migrants to France, {01. example, although loca] pu_ cases, these disagreements have an economic basis} J. Van Velsen noted that . laapspeakers {mm the Upper Senegal River Valley in the region of Matam in the matter Of P€Fi0di€ returns *0 their home Villages: “$Ch°0l” (“W€$t€m‘ · E (called “Tukul0r" by colonial sch0lars)" do not exceed I4 percent of the izedji) migrants Of East L¤¤d¤¤, South Afri¤¤, behaved “° dii¥¤r¤¤dy than ` adult male p0pulati0n,"’ the Soninke comprise around 36 percent. These “R€d” (“¤?ib¤l”) migrants even ¤h¤¤gh their avriwdes toward the modem differential rates of migration to France are not the result of di(·Ferences in World $ha*'PlY diE€md· The PUYPOSE Of Periodic returns home was to mai"' j the economic conditions of the two ethnic groups, which are roughly simifain a Stake in family lands in the migrants, Villages- Village la-nds are the mi' ; lar. Particularly interesting in this respect is the fact that Soninke village enEmms) “P€¤$i‘m funds? and migrants must make certain that they are stm claves in the mainly Pulaar-speaking districts of Kanel and Ourcssogui have considered par; of their original communities in Order I0 retain 3€€€SS I0 q ` migration mtg; as high (36 Pe;-Cem;) as the predominantly Soninke-spealdng {hes? lands, Whi¤h are c°mm'mauY Owned OY °0mt°H€d·° EL` Bake] region upstream, in spize afclzefzcx r/uz: zlzese village.: are simazed in z/ze INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION ` [4} ‘~. r I 1

ei midg gf Pulqampgaking villager, which have at least ajfpur ;img; lower rate ~ 6 wlonial African economies indeed contained strong "redistributive” sectors, of migration m Fmnct-L" T there was no fundamental incompatibility between market and nonmarket Explanations of labor migration as the result of economic deprivation ~ Iystems. All precolonial societies, to one degree or another, had market and violence, although very popular among Africanist scholars, have been ¤l¤¤¢iruri¤ns, SU5€€pfibl€ of gl'0Wing into “Capitalism” whenever external criticized by recent Europeanist and Americanist labor migration historians. §¤0¤t¤