The French Left (and France itself) has long been associated with policies of assimilation, and yet, this widely held view fails to take account of important moments in France’s history, when countervailing policies gained ascendance. I have argued elsewhere that, during the period 1930-1944, educational and cultural policies in the West African colonies were designed to reinforce regional and racial differences, which were then seen as fundamental to a redefined colonial project. If discourses about differences were worked out largely by the political and intellectual Right, they eventually seeped into the thinking of the Left. In this paper, I will take a fresh look at two critical junctures, when the Left-wing governments were in power: the Popular Front (1936-1938) and the first years of the Fourth Republic (1946-1947). During both of these moments, the Left was in a position to shape cultural and educational polices overseas. And yet, these two governments adopted different views of culture and education and how they should be promoted in the colonies. Whereas the Popular Front government defined progress largely in terms of increased local autonomy, the governments of the young Fourth Republic were convinced that progress, centralization, and unity went hand in hand. My paper will investigate these important divergences, which are often overlooked.

A similar divergence can be found among African elites, who had come through colonial or metropolitan schools, and who broadly identified with the political and intellectual Left. During the Popular Front years, a growing fringe of African elites began to push for greater cultural and educational autonomy. This group was led by the very influential Léopold Senghor, who returned home to Senegal to launch his new Négritude movement in 1937, when the Popular Front was at its apogee. By the early Fourth Republic, this avant-garde had reversed its position, and had begun to campaign for institutional integration into the structures of the French Republic. Senghor would become a chief proponent of the plan to bring schools throughout French West Africa under the direct control of the very centralized Education Ministry.

Thus, on both the French and the African sides, there was a very real shift away from autonomy and towards integration. This shift took place despite some obvious continuities. The team that controlled the Colonial Ministry during the Popular Front resurfaced and assumed leading positions in the postwar colonial establishment. The most obvious example was Marius Moutet, who served as Colonial Minister in 1936-1937 and then again in 1946-1947. Less obvious, but also important, was the continuity of Léopold Senghor’s influence. During the Popular Front, Senghor emerged as the leading intellectual figure from French West Africa, who advised Socialist officials on cultural and educational policy in the African colonies. In 1946, Senghor was propelled to the National Assembly, where he became an influential member of the Socialist Party in matters relating to “Overseas France.”

Explanations for these reversals in cultural and educational policy need to reach beyond the cataclysm of World War Two. It is insufficient to argue that the ideologies were reconfigured by the experiences of defeat, Vichy, occupation, resistance and liberation. Why was the Popular Front government tempted by a reform program which promoted local autonomy and the development of indigenous institutions and cultures? What were the consequences of this reform program and how was it viewed by postwar reformers? Why did the first governments of the Fourth Republic self-consciously chart a very different course from that which had been adumbrated by the Popular Front? And why did the African avant-garde all but cease to push for cultural and educational autonomy, now that its members finally held positions in local and national assemblies?