Prison Architecture and Punishment in Colonial Senegal

359 Pages·2018·4.912 MB·English

by  Dior Konaté

Prison Architecture
and Punishment in
Colonial Senegal

Prison Architecture
and Punishment in
Colonial Senegal
Dior Konaté
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2018 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Is Available
ISBN 978-1-4985-6014-6 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4985-6015-3 (electronic)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Abbreviations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: African Prisons and History 1
PART I: PENAL POLITICS IN COLONIAL SENEGAL 31
1 Building the Colonial Prison in Senegal (1817–1950) 33
2 Prison Location: Controlling Men and Enforcing Labor 79
PART II: PRISON ARCHITECTURE AND PENAL
EXPERIENCE 121
3 The Architecture of Repression: Prison Buildings and Designs
in Senegal (1833–1946) 123
4 Prison Architecture and Patterns of Surveillance, Life,
and Discipline 175
5 Redesigning the Colonial Prison: African Responses
to Imprisonment 217
PART III: POST-COLONIAL PRISONS IN SENEGAL 257
6 Architectural Makeover: The Legacy of Colonial Prisons
in Senegal 259
v
vi Contents
Appendix: Prison Experiences and Narratives: The Power of Words 301
Bibliography 313
Index 337
About the Author 341
List of Figures
2.1 Site and location of Dakar civil prison (Plot # 191). 95
2.2 Prisoners on a road worksite. 107
3.1 A plan elevation of Gorée’s first prison in 1833. 130
3.2 A ground plan of Gorée’s second prison in 1886. 131
3.3 A ground plan of the Saint-Louis prison in 1872. 133
3.4 A ground plan of the Saint-Louis prison in 1886. 134
3.5 Façade of the Saint-Louis prison, 2013. 136
3.6 A side view of the Saint-Louis prison, 2013. 136
3.7 A ground plan of the Dakar prison in 1872. 137
3.8 A ground plan of the Dakar prison in 1915. 138
3.9 A ground plan of the Saint-Louis prison in 1917. 139
3.10 A ground plan of the proposed Thiès panoptical prison, 1906. 142
3.11 Ground and elevation plans of the European pavilion,
Thiès panoptical prison, 1906. 143
3.12 A ground plan of the women’s pavilion, Thiès panoptical
prison, 1906. 143
3.13 A ground plan of the cellular pavilion, Thiès panoptical
prison, 1906. 144
3.14 Front elevation of the cellular pavilion, Thiès panoptical
prison, 1906. 145
vii
viii List of Figures
3.15 Ground plan of the façade of the new Dakar prison, 1924. 147
3.16 Coupe elevation of the façade and ground plan of the home
of the warden in the new Dakar prison. 147
3.17 An updated façade of the Dakar prison, also known as the
Rebeuss prison. 148
3.18 A photo of the Médina neighborhood with the wall of the
new Dakar prison in the background, 1931. 149
3.19 A ground plan of the Rufisque prison built in 1942. 150
3.20 Coupe elevations and ground plan of the façade of the
Rufisque prison, 1942. 151
3.21 Extension plan of the Ziguinchor prison, 1938. 152
3.22 A ground plan of the extension of the Ziguinchor prison, 1940. 153
3.23 A ground plan of the “A” penal camp at Thiès, 1941. 155
3.24 A ground plan of the “C” penal camp at Kelle, 1941. 156
List of Tables
1.1 Misdemeanor and criminal cases in Senegal, 1925–1945 66
1.2 Misdemeanor and criminal cases in Senegal, 1945–1953 67
2.1 Number of inmates at the Dakar prison, 1927–1938 97
6.1 Evolution of criminality in Senegal, 1967–1979 266
6.2 Evolution of prison populations in Senegal, 1981–1997 276
ix