Although a precedent for such as- similation existed in the oldest French colony of the federation, the Four Communes of Senegal, the judicial, educational, and emancipa- tionist policies enacted by Dakar make clear that the new Govern- ment General rejected the notion that part of its civilizing mission was to make Africans into Frenchmen. Instead, these policies show, the French felt they were duty-bound to respect "traditional" West African customs and to encourage the peoples of the federation to evolve within their own African cultures, with one exception. This exception was if the custom in question was deemed to conflict with the principles of civilization as defined by the Third Republic.

Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The …, loc. 253