[The colonial state and demographic knowledge in French West Africa, 1904-1960]

"Our lack of knowledge on the production of population estimates in France's colonial empire is in sharp contrast to the efforts of British authorities after 1940. To understand this ¿omission', we have to assess the numerous oppositions existing within the French colonial state.... After the first memoranda of 1904 and 1909, colonial census-taking activities were inexorably merged with everyday administrative tasks: taxation, justice, policing, etc. This shift clearly influenced the form and function of demographic knowledge in French West Africa (AOF).... We conclude with a mixed assessment of attempts to amass demographic knowledge and especially of the influence such knowledge actually had on decision-making." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)