13. French Catholic Colonisation

EFFECTIVE MEANS OF COLONISATION : THE ARMY.

From 1908, Brother Charles de Jésus experienced a veritable resurrection, the source of an overflowing intellectual activity. If he failed in his home country, his success in the Sahara was complete. In the desert at any rate, he has a spiritual family: the Army! It is the French colonial officers who best understood him. Not that they wanted to convert him to their ways. Having given himself to Jesus and to the poor, the enjoyed the protection of the army in order to disappear even deeper into the desert, journeying to Tamanrasset and even as far as Assekrem. Having attained the most humble position, that of serving the «poor negroes» of the Sahara and the poor Touaregs, he works for the salvation of their souls.

He who wanted to count for nothing finds that by himself he cannot suffice for such a task. But he can count on the officers. They are the only ones who share his concern, near him, like him and with him. They are his true friends, his true family, his fellow workers for the Kingdom of God, his apostles in a certain way. A little unstructured perhaps and even largely unconscious! Some of them, however, are perfectly aware of it... And they are admirable. The desert makes a selection and fashions them by compelling them to live a meritorious ascetic life. With one or two exceptions, these men are absolutely remarkable.

On the 4^th December 1909, he writes to his cousin, Marie de Bondy: «The good God has permitted that from the beginning of the conquest of the Targui country, there should be incomparable officers, as good and gentle with the natives as the sisters of charity, whilst possessing the necessary firmness Colonel Laperrine and Captain Nieger do immense good through their kindness towards all. At the same time, they are excellent friends for me. » (Lettres à Madame de Bondy, p. 187)

The previous October, he had written to Bishop Guérin:

«The work of the officers is everything could want to ensure the best: it opens paths, establishes contact, guarantees security and gives a good opinion of us, for Colonel Laperrine, Captain Nieger, Monsieur de Saint-Léger and the others are incomparably good with the natives.» (Gorée, Sur les traces du Père de Foucauld, p. 261)

It is “politics first” in all its fullness, all aimed at the conversion of souls. Between politics and religion, there is perfect harmony. With his Parisian correspondents, the Father retains a certain reserve, because, in the eyes of the administration, he remains a clandestine figure and because they are not in a position to understand the demands of the situation. But to the officers with local responsibilities, he expounds his political principles and solutions openly. He writes to them daily with a view to effective action for the immediate good. These long letters are small treatises on colonial politics inspired by his immense charity.

He writes to Raymond de Blic on the 15^th August 1909 :

«Politically, everything is going well in this country. At the moment, the political and the spiritual are closely linked. I am trying to tame, to befriend and to civilise; I would like to spread instruction and education, as the necessary foundation for what is the highest and the best, that which alone is really high and good: the one thing necessary. In this preparatory work, I find Laperrine’s gentle, paternal, friendly administration of the natives a continual and powerful help. Everything is going well as far as the Touaregs are concerned, and I am very happy. At present, the spiritual and the political are linked for them.»

«The political» is reflected on and put into action by a man of unequalled knowledge of Saharan problems, a perfectly disinterested man, imbued with a supernatural wisdom, truly guided in all things by the Spirit of God... The result is an integral doctrine of colonisation.

This “political summa” can be found in Father Gorée’s two volume book: Les amitiés sahariennes du Père de Foucauld. It is a book that is rarely quoted, often avoided, except for drawing wrong-headed conclusions. The book was first published in 1941 under the National Revolution: the first edition was dedicated to Maréchal Pétain with a preface by Admiral Abrial, commander of the fleet at Toulon in those days, and by Raymond Lehuraux, a former officer of the Tidikelt at the time when Father de Foucauld was there. In the 1946 edition, the dedication to the Maréchal and the Admiral’s preface have been suppressed, to yield to the tyranny of the moment.

The first volume contains twenty eight letters to Captain Duclos alone, Laperrine’s successor in 1915 and 1916: a veritable treatise of civilization and colonisation. It is a masterpiece... One can also read the Lettres à Laperrine, from 1914 to 1916, published by La Colombe.

Among these officers, the Father is like one of them, or rather, like their brother, their confidant, but also their counsellor, their political informer, At every moment, he is their comfort, calming quarrels and touchiness when glorious actions go unrewarded.

All that within the setting of his daily religious life. He runs everything at once. He is extraordinary!

In 1910, he built himself a hermitage at Assekrem, with a view to spending the summer of 1911 there. At an altitude of 2900 metres, in a more intense silence, amid a nature that draws from him cries of admiration, he works eight hours a day at his Tamacheq dictionary with Ba Hammou, an ill-tempered and unbearable Black of the tribe of the Dag Rali, Moussa ag Amastane’s secretary Originally from Ghât (Libya), he was an enemy, as Father de Foucauld had certainly understood.

For Christmas 1911, they went back to Tamanrasset, where the Father was bitten by a horned viper. He had no remedy, and when the Tuaregs found him he was already in a coma: they cauterised him with a red hot iron. He came out of that with a limp. But that did not prevent him immediately setting off on his second journey to France. What a man!

From 1912, he rejoices at the progress made in the Hoggar: the construction of Fort Motylinski, plans for a trans-Saharian railway, the establishment of radio relay posts, the building of roads. He wants these populations to be improved and instructed.

DOCTRINE OF COLONISATION.

What is colonisation? The way he practised it day after day, imbued with a charity that informs and expands every virtue, far removed from the false simplicity of pacifist goodness, it is primarily military pacification. Then it is the direct government of submissive populations. Finally, it is the enlightened, comprehensive and civilising administration of their everyday life.

First of all peace! And to have peace, it is necessary to conquer. Pursue the rezzous, therefore, and decimate them! This gentle man wants force to reign. It is through force that France will achieve the reign of peace. He rejoiced over the battle of Tit, and he pointed out that the Touaregs had applauded it. On another occasion, when Captain Sigonney had pursued a rezzou and crushed it, Father de Foucauld wrote to him on the 14^th December 1910 :

« I send you my congratulations on your splendid pursuit of Baba, son of Abidine, and the recapture of the stolen camels. I hastened to write and report this good news to the Colonel, who will be delighted by it, both for the public good and for you, for I know that he is very fond of you. Your pursuit has had the best effect on the whole of the Ahaggar. The news was brought by Émeri, anticipating the courier by several days. It was a pleasure to see the Touaregs glorying in the fact that it was their officer who had pursued and recaptured the camels, and not the officer from the Sudan. The state of mind has greatly changed in this part of the Ahaggar, and considerable progress has been made for some years. Four years ago, bonfires would have been lit, had Abidine been successful; today, they take pride in the fact that it is you who have succeeded against him.» (Les amitiés sahariennes, vol. II, p. 217)

Force pays. Even when the Touaregs are submissive, they must - it is the cavalryman who is speaking - be kept on a “ short leash ”. From 1914, he warns against any relaxation of the Administration, which would inevitably lead to a return to disorder, to violence and injustice. And when such betrayal or dissidence shows its head, he will call for a severe repression: that the dissidents be shot or expelled, or sent to the Fezzan where the Italians can sort them out!

 « Tamanrasset, 30 April 1916

« Two Harratins, bad subjects, tried to run away in order to reach Djanet and so go over to the enemy. Chased, captured and convicted of having wanted to go over to the enemy, Constant had them shot: this punishment, unanimously approved by the natives, has had an excellent effect.» (To Commandant Duclos, op. cit., vol. I, p. 242)

After pacifying the peoples, it is necessary to govern. His system is diametrically opposed to that of Lyautey : he does not a protectorate, but annexation.

He wrote to Commandant Brissaud on the 16^th January 1912:

Assekrem, par In Salah
via Biskra-Ouargla

16 January 1912

« Cher Monsieur,

« A thousand thanks for your kind letter and for Captain Yvart’s map; please hand him this little note enclosed... I understand you to be in Morocco and that you are enjoying yourself there! I hope that everything is going well and that we shall pass from the Protectorate to annexation. (The protectorate is better than nothing, but it is a false regime giving scope for enormous abuse and preventing the good due to those people subject to us from being done). I pray the good God to bless you, to give you every success and to allow you to do great good. If in instead limiting oneself to subduing and holding in subjection these almost entirely Berber populations, one were to make close contact with them, providing for their education, as parents bring up their children, gradually and gently bringing them up to our level, this splendid Morocco would become an extension of France. I have no doubt that you are entirely satisfied with your soldiers and making excellent service men of them: they are the brothers of our Kabyles.

«I thank you with all my heart for inviting me to Morocco. I do not say no; it would be a great joy for me to see Captain Yvart; a profound joy to see the French flag flying over that country. Shall I have that joy? I do not know; at the moment, I am held here because of all my work... but I do not give up hope of coming to Morocco, nor of seeing Morocco becoming French to my great joy, nor of seeing you here... It is an “au revoir” that I say to you, cher Monsieur, assuring you of my profound, respectful and most affectionate devotion in the Heart of Jesus,

« Brother Charles de Foucauld. »
(op. cit., vol. II, p. 305)

For annexation to be definitive, one must not play diplomacy with the sultans: they administer only one sixth of the territory, and one should see how! France should take control of Morocco and quite simply make a French country of it. A letter to the same correspondent expresses this lesson of organising empiricism, in which there appears not an ounce of metaphysical ideology. Let us read the letter, mindful that at the same time, in France, the rich bourgeoisie, radical-socialist and anticlerical, refused to provide instruction for the workers, refused to allow them to be organised in trade unions and kept the people from bettering themselves, in order to maintain its power over them. Father de Foucauld rediscovered, and applied to the Hoggar, the great French tradition, where the King stood up for the peasants against the great nobles. Thus, in the 19^th century, the impoverished workers should have received justice against liberal capitalism.

 Assekrem, par In Salah
via Biskra-Ouaragla

15 August 1912

« Cher Monsieur,

« I have received your kind and most interesting letter of the 2^nd July, and I hasten to express my full gratitude. I too am fascinated by Morocco and I cannot thank you enough for the very precise details you have given me.

« As you tell me, there is a lot to do. Taking possession of Morocco will transform our African Empire by bringing in this Berber population, full of vigour and capable of rapid progress. Morocco will soon head our magnificent North-West African empire, which is unified from the Mediterranean to Chad. May it be possible to do what you say in your letter and eliminate the main native chiefs who are pressurising the country and remove it from the European fishers in troubled waters. The main native chiefs are one of Algeria’s evils: they siphon off every benefit for their own profit and lay the charge on those they govern, burdening and pressurising them; they are like a wall between the people and us, perpetuating abuse and preventing all contact between their people and the French, for fear that they might lose their influence. In an underhand manner, they oppose all progress because ignorance and barbarism are favourable to their retention of power. They want old abuses, a regime of injustice, ignorance and barbarity, to be maintained. Which means that they must be eliminated everywhere.

«But at the same time, numerous officers must be stationed among the peoples and stay long enough in the same place to make close contact with the people, getting to know them well, and to be known by them, not just holding the people in submission, but doing everything for their progress, gaining influence over their minds and working fruitfully to make Frenchmen of them. The Berbers, as nearly all the Moroccans are, will be likely to make rapid progress; if they fail to do so for us - that is to say by becoming French in keeping with their education - they will do so against us and will take the lead in a national party, Muslim and anti-French, and will quickly be joined by associates in Algeria, Tunisia and the Sudan, and the danger will be great... In order to do what has to be done, we need many officers: please God, may the government understand this necessity and send the personnel that are needed!

« Alas! the submission of Morocco was dearly paid for: poor M. Rossini! poor M. Renahy who took me to see Béchar! poor M. Lesparda! I pray for them as best I can. They died doing their duty; the good God has, I hope, received them in His mercy.

« I shall spend next winter here. In the summer of 1913, I may go to France for a few weeks. I hope that we shall meet some day: whether it be here, in Morocco or in France, it will be a feast for me.

« Au revoir, cher Monsieur. I assure you of my profound and fraternal devotion.

« Yours very affectionately, in the Heart of Jesus

  « Brother Charles de Foucauld. » (op. cit., vol. II, p. 306-307)

Father de Foucauld’s commentators express their indignation to see him hoping for this union between France and her Empire to last for a hundred, two hundred, even a thousand years. But the oppression of the Berbers by the Arabs lasted for a thousand years ! A disastrous oppression. So, why should not France’s civilising work also last for a thousand years, for the good of all! Father de Foucauld is against the Arabs, and firstly against their language, the vehicle of Islamisation. He knows that Islam is a perpetual incitement among these peoples to rebel against the “roumis”, the Christians, against France. In a letter to Sigonney of the 3^rd November 1911, in the middle of the Italo-Turkish war, he warns this officer against the influence of the marabouts :

«I see things exactly as you do; it is just that I think there is good reason to keep a more than usual watch on the marabouts. Not those of the country, but those who could come amongst us from Tripolitania. The Turks, like all weak powers, readily resort to sending low-level emissaries to sow false news in an attempt to stir up the peoples.» (Ibid., vol. II, p. 234-235)

A prophetic view, which events in 1916 will tragically seal.

His thinking is perfectly clear. Just as he writes to his cousin, Louis de Foucauld, urging him to return to his country seat, so that his children might carry on the tradition, be known by the country people and have a good moralising and spiritual influence over them, so he writes to the officers whom he dreams of seeing permanently installed, remaining there and becoming attached, like a new feudality, to the populations for whom they are responsible. The comparison is so obvious that he writes about it in a letter to his nephew Charles:

«It is like being in the twelfth century in France, here.»

It expresses exactly his dream of the great Christian feudality, for the restoration and extension of civilisation. For the moment, this patriarchal government is a precarious hope whilst the officers are rotated too frequently.

Finally, after pacification and government, there is administration. It has to be started again from A to Z. Father de Foucauld took it upon himself to be the advocate of his “parishioners’” against a blind and harsh administration. He protests when he notices that the Touaregs are supplied with cartridges without detonators, that contracts are not respected or that requisitioned camels are not taken care of. And, beyond this defence of the poor, he works for their way of life to be transformed. As long as they are nomadic, these peoples will never have instruction, morals or justice. They must be made to settle and be taught agriculture. They will thus be forced to work and there will be no further need to go raiding.

How to put them to work? Father de Foucauld shows Captain Duclos a very simple way to get them to begin:

«You have had ten loads of dates sent to Motylinski, which is perfect. With the money you will still manage to have, I advise you not to have dates sent and then send them off, nor to distribute grain for the spring and autumn sowing, but to establish a permanent and free brick making work centre where the bricks would be bought by the baïlik at a very reasonable price, but enough to enable the workers to live (a hundred bricks made and transported to the office gate, a half litre of wheat, rye, bechna, dates or sfouf, according to the baïlik’s choice), the baïlik accepting all the well made bricks brought to him and providing those who ask for work with no more than a mesha [the “mesha” is a spade like tool] and a mould. This workshop would enable anyone without work, and who is not lazy, to live until he could find other work. A reserve of bricks would be built up at the baïlik, which could always find a use and would have cost little. It would not be a great expense, for unfortunately, it is often sufficient to offer a beggar work for him to go off and never be seen again. If I were in your place, that is how I would use any available money. Everyone lives easily in the Ahaggar from April to November. From November to March, when the caravans are in Aïr, there is an awkward moment when there is no milk, for each one holds on to what he has, in case the caravans arrive late.

«It would be of great economic help to the Ahaggar if you were to recommend your non-commissioned officers not to requisition the camels sent by the Kel Ahaggar to the Tidikelt to fetch dates. They wait for these camels and when they fail to return at the right time, there is despair. The people are discouraged from sending to the Tidikelt and they fear for the future. The caïds of the Tidikelt, headed by Bilon, are first class at sending the passing Touaregs’ camels instead of their own, when requested for camels by the office.

«I am happy that Moussa was given no decoration. I hope he will be given no garden at Djanet. You have to hold the purse strings yourself and not entrust them to him, - give him nothing fixed, but make him a present from time to time when there is reason for it. Right now, there is none. The habit of giving will only make him more mendicant than he already is. He receives an enormous amount from the Iforas and makes his own people give a lot too, in a kindly way but one that is effective nevertheless.» (Extract from the Letter to Commandant Duclos, 24 November 1915, Les amitiés sahariennes, vol. I, p. 190-193)

He then demands that justice be done even against the French soldiers who have behaved badly. He encourages Commandant Duclos to be energetic in the fight against theft: «I believe severe repression to be necessary.» Prison or hard labour depending on the gravity of the burglary.

He recommends the officers of Fort Motylinski to open a hospice for the old, where they will have a little work in keeping with their ability and food will be guaranteed. He applauds the motor track and the trans-Saharian project.

He also writes to Colonel Voinot, on the 21^st July 1914:

«There is nothing much new here; the Ahagggar, for long the haunt of bandits, has become a land of great peace and of great calm. The Nobles, who were the bandits, are impoverished, annihilated, and their already reduced number goes on decreasing; they are beginning to join the Company, which means that they have something better to do; as for the Imrad, that is to say the plebeians, they are generally good people, peaceful and hard-working: they go on increasing their crops daily and they are tending to settle: that is the beginning of civilisation. When you saw Tamanrasset, there were only two houses, the rest were huts; now there are only two huts, the rest are houses. » (Les amitiés sahariennes, vol. II, p. 136)

A letter to Commandant Duclos of the 4^th March 1916 stipulates, even for us today, a policy that is applicable to our North African immigrants; it is the policy advocated by Father de Nantes, when he proposes that they should be allowed to administer themselves, with their own laws, their own police and justice, their leaders being answerable to the French state:

«I am convinced that what we must seek for the natives of our colonies is not rapid assimilation. That is impossible, for assimilation takes generations after generations. Nor should we go for simple association, which by itself is not suitable for effecting the progress of those we administer, nor their sincere union. Progress will be very unequal and will have to be sought by very often different means in our varied colonies. But that must be the constant aim for as many centuries as our colonies belong to us.

«If progress is to be intellectual, moral and material, it can only be achieved by a purely French administration, to which natives can be admitted only when they have acquired not just French nationality and instruction, but also the French mentality.» (Les amitiés sahariennes, vol. I, p. 217)

He wanted to save these people through love. To save them from Islam by quickly outstripping islamisation and arabisation, which go together. Whence his effort to study languages and customs, and to establish a Tamacheq dictionary. It is not even a question of making them French, after the manner of the Republicans and Jacobins; that will be the fatal error of the 13^th May 1958. Father de Nantes said to us: «If it had been suggested to him that they should be taught French instead of Arabic, he would have said: No. Leave them, they are a people! In that, he showed himself to be a magnificent colonising genius.»

Let us read this other letter of the 13^th January 1912:

«If France fulfils her duty towards her barbarian Empire, that is to say, if she behaves towards these people as a mother and not an exploiter, doing to others as she would have done to herself, and applying the principle: “Love your neighbour as yourself” and the principle of that fraternity written on every wall, that is to say, if she works for the education of these peoples, she will have an admirable empire which will be another France, with double its present population in half a century. If France fails to fulfil this duty, the mass of the population will of necessity remain distant from us, with no attachment to us and different from us in every way. The population will come under the sole influence of the local aristocracy. And they being the middle class, the local squires and marabouts, will gain instruction in our schools but without loving us. From their instruction and ease of communication, there will be born a patriotic union among the instructed and distinguished people of all Barbary from Fez to Tunis - all with the same inspiration, that of throwing us out.

«The peoples of North Africa must be raised not by laws giving them, with a stroke of the pen, the same duties and the same rights as we have, in which they differ so thoroughly from us. We must work to give them material ease, a special instruction and an appropriate mentality. It is not the work of one day, but it can be done, because it is philosophically plain that it is our duty to do so and also because historical experience shows that it has been done many times before.» (Quoted in Afrique française, January 1917)

CCR n° 300, august 1997