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Between 1908 and 1918, women associated with tirailleurs sénégalais1 migrated to regional West African training centers and distant North African battlefields in order to support West African infantrymen serving in the French colonial army. In 1908, the French colonial army deployed two regiments of West African troops in Casablanca, Morocco. West African women, referred to as mesdames tirailleurs in the North African context, were an essential element of that fighting force. French military officials, particularly Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Mangin, envisioned North Africa as a training ground for the tirailleurs sénégalais,2 who would then provide defense for France if eminent war with Germany became a reality. The deployment of West African troops in North Africa signaled a new development in French colonial military policy- the deployment of tirailleurs sénégalais outside of sub-Saharan Africa Sanctioning and providing for West African soldiers' female companions in Morocco was also exceptional to French military policy. By the twentieth century, civilians no longer accompanied French infantrymen into battle.
In 1914, Germany's declaration of war prompted the French to deploy tirailleurs sénégalais in mainland France, but conspicuously without mesdames tirailleurs. The outbreak of World War I engendered a shift in how the military viewed tirailleurs sénégalais' female companions, as well as how West African women fit into France's broader effort to modernize its colonial army. Mesdames tirailleurs' participation in the Moroccan campaign was seen as necessary for military success in the campaign to "pacify" Morocco. During World War I, migrant West African women's presence on the periphery of West African military bases inspired the French colonial state to narrow the definition of wife in order to nudge these women from the state's visibility and marginalize them from its protection. Women accompanying tirailleurs sénégalais to Morocco were implicitly recognized as wives. After the onset of World War I, women following recruits to military camps were explicitly not recognized as wives. Few women won official recognition as wives of tirailleurs sénégalais, but those who did often requested and received varying forms of assistance from the army. West African women could manipulate their connections through tirailleurs sénégalais with the French colonial military to achieve personal goals.
The uncontested inclusion of West African women in France's conquest of Morocco, and the greater scrutiny on their marital status...