Dissertation Information for Ruth H. L. DickensNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: Defining French citizenship policy in West Africa, 1895--1956 Abstract: My dissertation is a cultural, political, and legal inquiry into the process by which Africans from the French colonies in West Africa became citizens of France. Between the mid-1890s--almost two decades before the first decree to establish guidelines for French naturalization was promulgated in West Africa--and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1956, hundreds of Africans applied for French citizenship. Some of these applicants resided in France, but most had no intention of leaving the colonies; they typically sought citizenship to gain access to French courts or positions in the colonial administration, likely also to avoid forced labor requirements and arbitrary prison terms. Their requests, therefore, were of concern to both metropolitan and colonial authorities, a matter of governmental policy both at home and overseas. French officials denied citizenship to the majority of applicants, citing various reasons for both granting and refusing requests in their correspondence with other government authorities. This correspondence, along with naturalization files, parliamentary debates, citizenship legislation, newspapers, and records of court cases, all highlight the interest that authorities and scholars in both France and West Africa had in the issue of citizenship for French subjects. |
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