Rebel Soldiers on Trial: Military Agency and its Repression in Colonial Congo (1885-1960)

"Rebel Soldiers" uses the recently-discovered records of the court
martials (Conseils de Guerre) of colonial Congo (1885-1960) to study
the rebellions and mutinies of Congolese soldiers and their
repression. This project constitutes a ground-breaking enquiry on the
deployment of violence within the colonial armed forces of subSaharan Africa. It brings to the fore the complex and multifaceted
nature of indigenous military agency, and nuances current narratives
about the historical experience of Congolese soldiers as both
perpetrators and subjects of colonial repression. Furthermore, it
would be the very first study of court martials in African colonies.
This doctoral research unfolds around three cores. First, it delineates
the changes and continuities in the forms taken by military
insurgency in peace and wartime, in the barracks and on the
battlefronts, and from the onset of colonial conquest until post-war
"developmental colonialism". Second, it investigates the judicial
repression of Congolese soldiers' agency and its transformation
across time and space. Third, it brings to the fore the crucial role that
Congolese intermediaries, such as translators and bailiffs, played in
the Conseils de Guerre. "Rebel Soldiers" sheds light on how
indigenous armed forces were not only a tool of repression for
colonial authorities, but also a locus of anxiety, that they struggled to
keep in check