Voting, Welfare and Registration: The Strange Fate of the État-Civil in French Africa, 1945-1960

In 1946, the French constitution made colonial subjects in Africa into citizens. Having been content to rule 'tribes' via their 'chiefs', at that point it had to track individuals entitled to vote and receive social benefits. The new citizens retained their personal status - regulating marriage, filiation, and inheritance - under Islamic law or local 'customs' rather than through the civil code. That posed a dilemma for French officials, for the état-civil did not just record life events, but symbolized the integration of all into a single body of citizens. French officials and legislators - including African representatives - could not agree on whether the multiple status regimes necessitated two états-civils or one. In the end, officials were too torn between their recognition of difference among peoples under French rule and their desire for singularity to put in place a consistent policy of identification, registration, and surveillance. They bequeathed the problem to their successors.