Un mode policé en terre ivoirienne: le cercle toubabou, 1904-1939
Un mode policé en terre ivoirienne: le cercle toubabou, 1904-1939
A "civilized" world in Ivory Coast: the Tubabu club, 1904-1939.- Before the actual achievement of penetration and control, a tendency toward association manifested itself among the settlers. In full growth during the twenties, this trend fulfils a need for intensifying "after work" relationships between individuals. As a focus for entertainment generating a feeling of security, the Tubabu club marks the strong beat in the settlers' daily life. At the same time, it presents the natives with a model of "civilized" society. Nevertheless, its role as a means of social control among the colonists' group provides a glimpse of the internal divisions which seem to increase in the thirties. On the eve of World War II, the associative trend has spread into the native population, as a socio-economic answer to urban insecurity in a disrupted society rather than a mere mimetism. Among the White settlers' community it is indicative of a mutation: the group as a whole has become less well-off, less homogeneous and less easy to penetrate than it was at the beginning of the century. Male-dominated and more and more restricted to "real Whitemen", the Tubabu club typifies the "White power" in the Lower Ivory Coast, its limits and its evolution toward a double confinement.
CITATION: Tirefort, Alain. Un mode policé en terre ivoirienne: le cercle toubabou, 1904-1939 . : Editions de l’EHESS , . Cahiers D'Études Africaines, Vol. XXIII (1-2), Number 89-90, pp. 97-119, 1983 - Available at: https://library.au.int/un-mode-policé-en-terre-ivoirienne-le-cercle-toubabou-1904-1939-2