Conquest and Resistance in West Africa

Murder, summary execution, and legal scandal in late 19th-century French colonial Senegal are vividly described from the conflicting perspectives of the French colonial administration, the French legal system, local politicians, and activist métis, as well as through the eyes of a young widow pursuing justice against impossible odds. In this book, Ruth Ginio expertly analyses key aspects of French colonial expansion along the Senegal River and the politico-legal machinations and distortions the colonial administration resorted to when confronted with a strong and legitimate legal challenge. The book is a micro-history centred on Ndiereby Bah, a young woman wrongfully widowed, whose dogged pursuit of justice led to harassment, intimidation, and the cynical distortion of French law and political process by an administration determined to assert its narrative. It also offers a fascinating account of how this story has remained and percolated through Senegalese cultural memory, remaining relevant more than a hundred years after these events took place.