Page "History of Ivory Coast" Paragraph 16

France's imposition of a head tax in 1900, aimed at enabling the colony to undertake a public works program, provoked a number of revolts.

The public works programs undertaken by the Ivoirian colonial government and the exploitation of natural resources required massive commitments of labor.

The French therefore imposed a system of forced labor under which each male adult Ivoirian was required to work for ten days each year without compensation as part of his obligation to the state.

The system was subject to extreme misuse and was the most hated aspect of French colonial rule.

Because the population of Côte d ' Ivoire was insufficient to meet the labor demand on French plantations and forests, which were among the greatest users of labor in French West Africa, the French recruited large numbers of workers from Upper Volta to work in Côte d ' Ivoire.

This source of labor was so important to the economic life of Côte d ' Ivoire that in 1932 the AOF annexed a large part of Upper Volta to Côte d ' Ivoire and administered it as a single colony.

Ivoirians viewed the tax as a violation of the terms of the protectorate treaties because it seemed that France was now demanding the equivalent of a coutume from the local kings rather than the reverse.

Much of the population, especially in the interior, also considered the tax a humiliating symbol of submission.