Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Making men Citizens and subjectsA new humanity The Republican imaginary and the colonial imaginary The colonial imaginary renewed Portraits, points of view, and representation Portraits and subjectivities 2. Perception, apperception and disavowal André Gide and Marc Allégret in the CongoGide’s queer disposition Allégret’s apprenticeships Perceiving the African The heart of things Difference and differentiation Resistance and accommodation Allégret’s editions Missionary perceptions Civilisation, portraiture and contingency 13. Staging, actors and audiences The Exposition coloniale internationale in ParisLyautey’s project Time, portrait, patriarchy Structures of resistance and the limits of opposition ShameRoger Parry’s third space The burden of civilisation 4. Performance, appropriation and dispossession King Ibrahim Njoya and Mosé Yeyap in the Cameroon GrassfieldsExtraversion and representation Njoya’s appropriations The making of Yeyap The palace and the museum Exhibition, alienation and dispossession The uses of the image of Njoya Yeyap’s arts in France Epilogue Charles Atangana between Africa and FranceNotes Sources Illustration Credits IndexUnique study of portraiture in the colonial imaginaryFrench colonisers of the Third Republic claimed not to oppress but to liberate, imagining they were spreading republican ideals to the colonies to make a Greater France. In this book Simon Dell explores the various roles played by portraiture in this colonial imaginary.Anyone interested in the history of colonial Africa will have encountered innumerable portraits of African elites produced during the first half of the twentieth century, yet no book to date has focused on these ubiquitous images. Dell analyses the production and dissemination of such portraits and situates them in a complex and conflicted field of representations.Moving between European and African perspectives, The Colonial Imaginary blends history with art history to provide insights into the larger processes that were transforming the French metropole and colonies during the early twentieth century.French colonisers of the Third Republic claimed not to oppress but to liberate, imagining they were spreading republican ideals to the colonies to make a Greater France. In this book Simon Dell explores the various roles played by portraiture in this colonial imaginary.Anyone interested in the history of colonial Africa will have encountered innumerable portraits of African elites produced during the first half of the twentieth century, yet no book to date has focused on these ubiquitous images. Dell analyses the production and dissemination of such portraits and situates them in a complex and conflicted field of representations.Moving between European and African perspectives, The Colonial Imaginary blends history with art history to provide insights into the larger processes that were transforming the French metropole and colonies during the early twentieth century.