Rivières du Sud

Rivières du Sud (English: Southern Rivers) was a French colonial division in West Africa, roughly corresponding to modern coastal sections of Guinea. While the designation was used from the 18th to 20th century, the administrative division only existed from 1882-1891.^[1]

Early usage

Since the 18th century, Portuguese, British and French traders had established small stations on the coast which was called Rivières du Sud by the French. The Portuguese had trading stations at

merchants who established markets in the interior, and transported it to the coastal stations.

Administrative expansion

The French colonial governor of

' of the Establissements francais de la Cote de l'Or et du Gabon.

By 1859, Faidherbe's campaigns of conquest on the riverine coast south of Gorée saw the region annexed to the colonial administration, under the arrondissement of Gorée. The Rivières du Sud now referred to the entire region from Sine-Salmon to the border of British Sierra Leone.

In 1865 the fort at Boké was built in the Rio Nunez area, expanding from the main French-controlled town of Conakry. Shortly after this, Bayol was taken as a 'protectorate' as well. The Rio Pongo area, nominally held by Germany, was traded to France for their 'rights' to Porto-Seguro and Petit Popo on the Togolese coast.^[2] The British formally recognised French control of the area, and the administrative division collecting these possessions was created under the name Rivières du Sud in 1882.

Pause

The background to these legalistic and administrative manoeuvres was the

European horse-trading followed the Berlin conference, in which foreign powers divided the African continent and attempted to consolidate their own possessions. Rivières du Sud was a formal division which, apart from the coast, had little relation to actual governance until the next decade.

Evolution of French administrative division

In 1891, Rivières du Sud was placed under the colonial lieutenant governor at Dakar, who had authority over the French coastal regions east to Porto-Novo (modern Benin).

Governor general

's forces, turned the colonial gaze to the Rivières du Sud in the late 1880s, marking a new phase in French expansion.

Between 1889 and 1894, Rivières du Sud, Côte d'Ivoire and Dahomey were each successively separated into 'independent' colonies, with Rivières du Sud being renamed the 'Colony of French Guinea'. In 1895 these colonies came under the authority of the governor general of French West Africa, and in 1904, this was formalised into the Afrique Occidentale Française. French Guinea, along with Senegal, Dahomey, Cote-d'Ivoire and Upper Senegal and Niger each were ruled by a lieutenant governor, under the Governor General in Dakar.

Futa Jallon opposition

The Rivières du Sud colony never extended far from the coast, as the French were unable to conquer the people of the

highlands, running from the south of modern Senegal though the interior of modern Guinea.

The

, dismantled the state and integrated it into their colony of French Guinea.

See also

• French West Africa

References