Federal authorities now insisted that their subjects had institutions, such as the chieftaincy, which were not nearly so exploitative as the French had once thought and therefore deserved to be respected. These images sug- gested that the postwar governors general were becoming genuinely interested in understanding the different cultures of West Africa, and were now prepared to preserve them for their own sake. In fact, Da- kar's reassessment was motivated more by a desire to contain the evolues in particular, and to reestablish "discipline" among their subjects in general, than by any intrinsic interest in either African civilizations or democratization.

Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The …, loc. 607