Academic Major: History, Psychology
Advisor: Libbie Freed
Title: French Colonial Legacies: Assimilatory Education and its Relevance in 21st-Century Race and Power Relations
My project is a comparative examination between the history of the French colonial education system in Morocco, Senegal, and Cameroon and what indigenous Africans are saying about the negative impacts that still exist today. I explain how educational policies put in place by the Federation of West Africa during the late-19th century to the mid-20th century, instill harmful French nationalism at the expense of Africans; how the policies put in place were meant to maintain social order among Africans; how the policies produced harmful racialized assumptions on entire peoples; and how these assimilatory policies were in direct contradiction with each other. Additionally, I incorporate the experience I encountered as a white researcher conducting interviews in Morocco from January 2020, and the relation I detected between race and power dynamics. My own racial literacy as an Africanist demanded their acknowledgement.