The Colonial Administration
In 1895 French Guinea became a part of a larger West African colonial administrative grouping, French West Africa, which was constituted that year by decree of the president of the French Republic. French West Africa was headed by a governor general, but the several colonies retained substantial autonomy, including their own fiscal systems and services. In 1904 a new federal structure was established, and defined powers and responsibilities were assigned to the federal government.
The colonial governments had separate budgets, but certain revenues and the provision of specified services were reserved to the federal government. The governor general and governors (lieutenant governors from 1902 to 1937) were appointed by the French president on the recommendation of the minister of the colonies, under whose jurisdiction French West Africa fell.
The Ministry of the Colonies was assisted by several councils. Of these, the Supreme Council for Overseas France (Conseil Supérieur de la France d'Outre-Mer), until 1937 known as the Supreme Council for the Colonies, was the most important for West Africa. The council was composed of a small number of parliamentary deputies from the colonies — including one from West Africa (from Senegal) — delegates elected by French citizens in the colonies, and a few representatives of African interests nominated by colonial governors.
Each colony had its own Council of Administration whose members, at first appointed, were elected after 1925. In French Guinea, the council consisted of two French citizens elected by the local chambers of agriculture and commerce and two subjects elected by an electoral college drawn from seven categories of Africans, such as civil servants, persons with prescribed property or educational qualifications, and those who had been officially cited for loyalty to France.
French Guinea, like other colonial components of French West Africa, was divided into administrative districts (cercies). The basic unit of territorial administration, the district was headed by a district commandant (commandant de cercie), a civil official with extensive powers, who was directly responsible to the governor. Some districts were divided into subdivisions headed by assistant administrators. The urban centers of Conakry, Kankan, and Kindia were given separate administrative status as communes in 1920. They were headed by appointed French mayors assisted by appointed councils, half of whose members were French citizens and half African subjects. French administrative officials belonged to a career colonial service made up of colonial administrators and a lower category of civil servants. The first were graduates of a special school in Paris; most colonial governors and district commandants came from this group. Below them were civil servants who were recruited, trained, and employed locally to serve as assistants and clerks; they could not rise higher than the post of chief of a subdivision. Educated Africans were admitted to this category.
The district and subdivision were the smallest units directly administered by French officials. Below them was the province under an African chief. The province in turn was divided into cantons and villages — each also under an African chief, all of whom had been reduced to adjuncts of the colonial administration. The provincial chief — the office was not everywhere present — nominally had authority over the chiefs of the, cantons in his province and, through them, over the village chiefs in the area. Some villages, however, were outside this pyramidal scheme, their chiefs being directly under the French authorities. The French apparently were not altogether satisfied with the office of provincial chief — reminiscent in rank of the once-powerful independent regional chieftainships — and sought to dispense with it whenever possible.
Chiefs were chosen from among those Africans believed to be loyal to the French. A traditional chief might be confirmed in office, but appointment frequently went to individuals who had been clerks or interpreters in the French service or to graduates of the School for the Sons of Chiefs and Interpreters at Saint-Louis, Senegal (founded in 1856 by General Louis Faidherbe, when governor of the colony). The main responsibilities of the chiefs were to collect taxes, to supply the French authorities with the labor required for public works and other activities, and to provide men for military service. Provincial and canton chiefs were paid a salary. Village chiefs were remunerated with a share of the taxes they collected. Their share was progressively reduced with delay in the collection of taxes, and the chief received nothing if taxes were not in by a certain date.
As agents of an alien authority, the chiefs were distrusted by the community and had no power beyond that derived from their French superiors. They were mainly distrusted, however, because of their reputation, which many of them deserved, for maladministration and corruption.
In 1919 councils of local notables (conseils de notables indigènes) were established in the districts to advise the commandants on such matters as taxation and labor conscription. The councils were intended to help create native understanding of government policies and support for them but, having only limited advisory power and being dominated by the French (district commandants were council presidents), the councils had little value as channels of African opinion.
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