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Gregory Mann, Native Sons: West African Veterans and France in the Twentieth Century (Durham, N.C., and London: Duke University Press, 2006).
Review by Owen White, University of Delaware
Reciprocity may not be the first word that comes to people's minds when they think about colonialism. In Gregory Mann's fascinating Native Sons, however, the concept stands central to his analysis of the colonial and postindependence relationship between soldiers from Mali (the former French Soudan) and a variety of representatives of French authority. From about the time of the First World War, Mann argues, the development of a French-African "language of mutual if uneven obligation" (2) became the principal element in the definition of veterans' status, both in their places of origin and beyond.
The roots of this shared language, Mann suggests, lay in the paternalism of French officers, who indulged an honor-bound sense that those who had fought under French command were owed something more than the salary they received during their uniformed service. The manifestations of this sense of obligation, which in time spread beyond its military origins, could, however, vary widely. Veterans doubtless appreciated the commemorative monument unveiled in their honor in Bamako in 1924, but...