Native code (France)
[1] Under the term indigénat are often grouped other oppressive measures that were applied to the native population of the French empire, such as forced labor, requisitions, capitation (head tax), etc.
Upon request, they may be permitted to enjoy the rights of a French citizen; in this case, they are governed by the political and civil laws of France.
[clarification needed] Moreover, it was at Algeria's request for an 1889 Act restoring the droit du sol, French citizenship being awarded to anyone born in France, not being applied to Muslims.
The Indigénat was the method by which France ruled all its territories in Africa, Guiana, New Caledonia and Madagascar without having to extend the rights of Frenchmen to the people who lived there.
[9] The commandant de cercle was free to impose summary punishment under any of 34 (later 12) headings of infractions specified by the code, ranging from murder to 'disrespect' of France, its symbols, or functionaries.
Many major projects in French West Africa in this period were performed by forced labour, including work on roads and mines and in fields of private companies.
Even the most well-intentioned officials often believed in 'forced modernization' (supposing that 'progress' would result only from coercion), and French-created 'chiefs' also enjoyed tremendous coercive power.
[18] Forced agricultural production was common in Sub-Saharan Africa from the 19th century until the Second World War, mandated sometimes by the central French government (rubber until 1920, rice during the Second World War), sometimes for profit (the cotton plantations of Compagnie Française d'Afrique Occidentale and Unilever), and sometimes on the personal whim of the local commandant, such as one official's attempt to introduce cotton into the Guinean highlands.
[19] In addition, native sub-officials, such as the appointed local chiefs, made use of forced labour, compulsory crops and taxes in kind at their discretion.
It was only in 1924 that chefs du canton were exempted from the Indigénat, and if they showed insubordination or disloyalty, they could still, like all Africans, be imprisoned for as many as ten years for 'political offences' by French officials, subject to a signature of the Minister of Colonies.
After their creation by Governor-General Ernest Roume and Secretary General Martial Merlin in 1904, most legal matters were processed officially by the so-called customary courts.
They could be appealed to the tribunal criminal, where the administrator-judge was the local Commandant du cercle and was not bound to heed the advice of even his own appointed assistants.
[22] Beyond that, there was no functioning appeals process though in theory, the colonies' governor had to sign off on all decisions that imposed punishments greater than those allowed for summary sentences.
Historians examining the court records have found that governors were asked for approval after the fact and in all but a minuscule number of cases signed off on whatever their commandants decided.
The lack of an adversarial system (in French law, the judge is also the prosecutor[citation needed]) may have worked in France but was hardly trusted by educated Africans.
Rober Delavignette, a former colonial official, documented the mass movement of some 100,000 Mossi people from Upper Volta to Gold Coast to escape forced labor, while the investigative journalist Albert Londres claims that the figures were closer to 600,000 sujets fleeing to Gold Coast and 2 million fleeing to Nigeria.
In 1874, a list of infractions punishable by French justice is made on the Indigénat on matters such as an unauthorised meeting or disrespectful act.
The indigenous got a limited vote and participated notably in Muslim electoral colleges for municipal councils and had a minority of seats.
The French farming settlers have a full Gerry mentality, with the same theories on inferior races worth exploiting without mercy.
Duration and conditions varied, but as of 1926, all able-bodied men were required to work for no longer than eight days at a stint in Senegal, ten in Guinea and twelve in Soudan and Mauritania.
The journalism of André Gide and Albert Londres, the political pressure of the French left and groups like the League for Human Rights and Popular Aid put pressure on the colonial system, but it was the promises made at the Brazzaville Conference of 1944, the crucial role of the colonies for the Free French during the Second World War and the looming Indochina War and the Malagasy Uprising that all made the new Fourth Republic reorient France to decolonization.
The small political representation from the colonies after the war made ending the indigénat as a primary goal even though the men were drawn from the Évolué class of full French citizens.
The passage of the loi Lamine Guèye [fr] was the culmination of this process, and repealed the courts and labour laws of the Indigénat.
The ordinance of 7 May 1944 suppressed the summary punishment statutes, and offered citizenship to those who met certain criteria and would surrender their rights to native or Muslim courts.
Applied in fact only very slowly, the abrogation of the code de l'indigénat did not become real during 1962, when most of the colonies had become independent and French law adopted the notion of double jus soli.
