A book by Dr. Tamba M’Bayo

Book Report

The jury is not out because the verdict is clear. Colonialism was bad for Africa. Studies after studies point fingers at the corruption, low economic productivity, and violence which engulfed Africa after independence, to have directly emanated from the colonial and geopolitical system. The legacy of colonialism is disruption. Its cut into cultures like a knife in a cake, with imaginary lines, was devastating.

Racism, political repression, and economic exploitation are enough reasons to damn colonialism.

The crux here, however, is the knowledge and power in the lower and middle Senegal River valley wielded by Muslim mediators in the colonial period between 1850 and 1920, that is under examination.
Tamba M’Bayo has not merely glossed over the roles of these translators because they run the gamut. They were “cultural brokers, emissaries, diplomatic hosts, military and expedition guides, treaty negotiators,” and not mere translators.

He contends that the interpreters “occupied a vantage point as transactional go-betweens to manage information between the French authorities and Africans.” He disputes erroneous claims of disloyalty, dishonesty and untrustworthy behavior, attributed to them.
Those who work for foreign entities have often been viewed as traitors, sellouts or collaborators, for which there is a price to be paid. Their safe seats were contingent upon the extent of their role, nuanced by the understanding that they wisen-up to any scheme therein.

“For the Muslim interpreters, the situation posed a serious dilemma to the extent that supporting the aspirations of their community and simultaneously fulfilling their obligations to their French employers had the potential of conflict of interest,” argues M’Bayo.
He admits upfront, the absence of women in this study, because there were none in the roles in question, in the region of study. No surprise here.

The quality of this enormous account is only eclipsed by the standard of presentation, which takes a complex and controversial topic and makes it easier to grasp. There are five chapters in this book, each with a conclusion and some notes. He provides ten pages of epilogues, five in appendices, ten in bibliographies, seven in indices and a ten-page preface.

Do not cheat yourself by reading the conclusion of each chapter only and conclude you have read this work because each page is not only informative but very educative.

M’Bayo is a US Fulbright scholar, a polyglot who has worked, traveled extensively in West Africa and an associate professor of history at West Virginia University.His current research is on factors that influence disease eruptions in Sierra Leone.

Disclosure: Tamba(Tams) is a very dear friend