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30 CHAPTER 1Davidson rightly points out that the post-colonial state is essentially a reshapingof the colonial state by African servants of the colonial order, mostly by thosewho had been shaped through an educational system controlled by the colonialstate or its allies, the various Christian missionary organisations. 14 Writing onthe decolonisation of French West Africa, Tony Chafer stresses the dynamicsbetween the colonial administration both at the upper levels in France and at thelocal colonial levels, and the African political elites. The outcome of decolonisationin AOF, according to Chafer, was not so much shaped by dialecticaldiscourses and practices of resistance and control, but through close associationand the meeting of diverging interests in shared political arenas. AlthoughChafer stresses the unpredictability of the decolonizing process and the fact thatindependence was largely achieved against the grain, it was in the end transferredto an African elite which had proved itself stable and dominant within thecolony. 15 This political class, whether or not one endorses Basil Davidson’sclaim that it set out on a political course in divergence with African experienceprevious to colonisation, did stipulate that course by means of party politics ona vessel of state they had previously been helping to keep afloat.Contemporary observers to the decolonisation process in French West Africahave noted that its African participants fell into three groups: chiefs, teachersand soldiers. 16 According to this vision, before World War II, the traditionalchiefs dominated the African political field within the colonial system. Duringthe interbellum, the teachers, who stand as a profession for all French educatedcolonial civil servants and other colonial évolués, organised cultural associationsand literary clubs, which formed the breeding ground for the post-warparties. The soldiers were still absent, fighting for France in the various theatresof World War II, but on their return as veterans they would play an importantpart in winning rights for colonial subjects. In the post-war period, chiefs andteachers struggled for political supremacy in the new political institutions, abattle won by the teachers. The soldiers were absent, fighting colonial wars forFrance elsewhere in Madagascar, Algeria and Indochina. But again, on theirreturn as veterans, they would side with the teachers in the construction ofpolitical parties. Finally, not long after independence, the soldiers took overpolitical power in various coups d’état. This vision is of course strongly oversimplified.First, it neglects other important actors such as, but not limited to,the Dioula merchants and the small professional class of mechanics, truckdrivers, radio operators, veterinary assistants, nurses and other technical profes-141516Davidson, B. 1992.Chafer, T. 2002.Schachter-Morgenthau, R. 1964.