The imposition of French colonial rule in West Africa fundamentally transformed local labor regimes. In the first decades of the twentieth century, French settlers established cash-crop plantations, factories, and logging concessions across the region. The success of these enterprises depended on securing cheap labor. To secure an adequate supply of workers, the colonial administration devised a series of legal measures to coerce African men into work for the state and in state-affiliated industry. These measures included the establishment of pro-industry labor tribunals, which frequently punished workers for desertion or unfulfilled contracts, even in the face of horrific working conditions. This talk outlines how French officials developed the new contract labor system in colonial West Africa, with a particular focus on the colony of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) between 1890 and 1940. In doing so, it untangles the alliances forged between French capitalists and colonial authorities. It also highlights the dire social and environmental consequences of the shift to migratory contract labor in West African societies.

About the Speaker:

Wallace Teska is a Ph.D. candidate in African History at Stanford University and Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center. His research explores entangled histories of legal, religious, and environmental change in precolonial and colonial West Africa. Wallace’s doctoral work has been supported by, among others, the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, the American Society for Legal History, and the Fulbright-Hays Program. His writings have appeared or are forthcoming in multiple publications, including The Journal of African History, African Studies Review, and French Historical Studies.