Lamine Guèye was a Senegalese political leader who founded the Parti Socialiste Sénégalais in 1935. He criticised the contradiction between French colonial practices, including the corvée, and republican principles of liberty and equality presented in colonial education. His position exemplified the emergence of African political claims framed through the language of Western political thought.
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The Story
Lamine Guèye founded the Parti Socialiste Sénégalais in 1935. His political intervention belonged to a growing current among Western-educated African elites who questioned the European presence and the autocratic character of colonial government. Rather than rejecting political participation altogether, many such actors initially sought access to institutions imposed by colonial authorities.
Guèye focused on the contradiction between colonial practice and republican ideals. He considered it ironic that the same colonial power imposing the corvée on African subjects placed schoolbooks in the hands of their children proclaiming that the colonies formed an integral part of a republic founded on human freedom and committed to “Liberty-Equality-Fraternity.”
His position reflects a wider political transition before the Second World War. While many educated elites still regarded independence as a distant objective and demanded participation within colonial institutions, a minority in French North Africa was beginning to call openly for early and complete independence without constitutional association with France.
Lamine Guèye was a Senegalese political leader who founded the Parti Socialiste Sénégalais in 1935. He criticised the contradiction between French colonial practices, including the corvée, and republican principles of liberty and equality presented in colonial education. His position exemplified the emergence of African political claims framed through the language of Western political thought.
Continue exploring
The Story
Lamine Guèye founded the Parti Socialiste Sénégalais in 1935. His political intervention belonged to a growing current among Western-educated African elites who questioned the European presence and the autocratic character of colonial government. Rather than rejecting political participation altogether, many such actors initially sought access to institutions imposed by colonial authorities.
Guèye focused on the contradiction between colonial practice and republican ideals. He considered it ironic that the same colonial power imposing the corvée on African subjects placed schoolbooks in the hands of their children proclaiming that the colonies formed an integral part of a republic founded on human freedom and committed to “Liberty-Equality-Fraternity.”
His position reflects a wider political transition before the Second World War. While many educated elites still regarded independence as a distant objective and demanded participation within colonial institutions, a minority in French North Africa was beginning to call openly for early and complete independence without constitutional association with France.