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Contradictions of “Official Pilgrimage”: French Propaganda and Muslim Identity in the A.O.F., 1921-54

Barbara M. Cooper, Center for African Studies, Rutgers University, New Jersey
bacooper@rci.rutgers.edu

Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca presented the French colonial administration of the A.O.F. with a series of bureaucratic and political headaches: West African pilgrims often traveled without adequate funds only to find themselves stranded in Mecca; some traveled in ill health and died while away; others were kidnaped or enslaved in the Hijaz; finally many were exposed to tracts and teachings that challenged French authority in a variety of ways. The pilgrimage, therefore, was regarded as a danger both to French hegemony and to the safety of the individual pilgrim. The administration’s earliest response was to attempt to curtail the hajj and to watch the movements of pilgrims closely, suspecting them of potentially subversive activities. But as the number of incidents in which French subjects were victimized in the Hijaz seemed to grow, France entered into a more paternal mode, attempting instead to organize official state sponsored pilgrimage trips. The Official Hajj enabled the French administration to gain political capital by sponsoring one of the obligations of Muslim life, it enhanced the ability of the state to oversee the interactions of West Africans with Muslims from other parts of the world, and it provided the colonial state with the opportunity to launch counter-propaganda presenting France as a secular state working in the interests of its Muslim subjects. However this placed France in the peculiar position of advancing Islam, thwarting private enterprise, and appearing to “police” the hajj in territories well outside its jurisdiction. This paper will explore the complexities and contradictions of the “official pilgrimage” and Africans’ responses to it through materials collected from the records of the AOF, focusing on the period from 1921-1958.