Four Communes

The "Four Communes" (French: "quatre vieilles") of Senegal were the four oldest colonial towns in French controlled west Africa. In 1848, the French Second Republic extended the rights of full French citizenship to the inhabitants of Saint-Louis, Dakar, Goree, and Rufisque. While those who were born in these towns could technically enjoy all the rights of native French citizens, substantial legal and social barriers prevented the full exercise of these rights, especially by those seen by authorities as 'full blooded' Africans. Most of the African population of these towns were termed "originaires": those Africans born into the commune, but who retained recourse to African and/or Islamic law (the so called "personal status"). Those few Africans from the four communes who were able to pursue higher education and were willing to renounce their legal protections could 'rise' to be termed Évolué ('Evolved') and were nominally granted full French citizenship, including the vote. Despite this legal framework, Évolués still faced substantial discrimination in Africa and the Metropole alike.

It was only in 1916 that "originaires" were granted full voting rights while maintaining legal protections. Blaise Diagne, who was the prime advocate behind the change, became the first African deputy in the French National Assembly. Until independence, the deputies of the Four Communes were always African, and were at the forefront of the decolonisation struggle.

References

* [http://www.isop.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/sample09.asp Note 1, on African Series Sample Documents Volume IX: June 1921–December 1922. W. E. B. Du Bois to Charles Evans Hughes, June 23, 1921.]
* G. Wesley Johnson, Jr. The Emergence of Black Politics in Senegal: The Struggle for Power in the Four Communes, 1900–1920 (1972).
*James F. Searing. Senegal: Colonial Period: Four Communes: Dakar, Saint-Louis, Gorée, and Rufisque, in Kevin Shillington (editor), Encyclopedia of African History, (New York, 2005): 3 Volumes, 3, 1334–35.