Hostage schools

Hostage schools were educational institutions established by the French colonizer in Senegal and French Sudan where the sons of chiefs and notables were forcibly recruited to be monitored and trained to become auxiliaries of colonial power.

The second aspect is demographic: seeing the population increase significantly, explorers want to discover new lands to settle in.

It is intended for the sons of village chiefs and notables whom the governor has brought back from his military campaigns.

Their detention also allows the colonizers to maintain a certain order, as it dissuades the families of the "hostages" from rebelling.

It reflects the need to have an African elite educated in the European manner and capable of serving as an interface with the population.

This is reflected in the fact that parents enroll their children themselves in schools that are reproductions of the colonial system.

[citation needed] Moreover, the interpreters on-site were not able to facilitate communication, as they themselves did not master the Sudanese language,[which?]

The recommendations of Lieutenant Colonel Humbert prove this: "The future of French Sudan depends largely on how successfully we will have shaped the populations that inhabit it...".

It was only eight days later that everything returned to normal with the hypocritical cooperation of the parents,[neutrality is disputed] who were not very favorable but were forced to accept due to the advantages offered to their children, particularly in terms of health.

They were not allowed to speak in any language other than French, in order to improve their practice and to break the habit of using their mother tongue.

Louis Faidherbe encouraged officials and missionaries to first have a minimum command of local languages.

After the conquest, he sought to pacify and ease tensions with local traditional chiefs and to train interpreters who served as intermediaries between the two parties.

In order to attract children of Muslim religions, Faidherbe created a secular school in 1857.