From Prince to Marabout and Traitor: Mamadou Kane

Mamadou Alioune Kane was born in Gorée, Senegal in 1895, a citizen of the French empire. He served in WWI and moved to Paris in the 1920s. Kane’s life took an unusual turn when, in the 1930s, he adopted the persona of prince and wizard, making a career telling fortunes. Kane became known as a charlatan among the Senegalese community and a petty criminal to the police. Kane’s life took another turn in 1940 when, after the defeat of France, Kane offered himself up as a marabout (Muslim leader) who could serve as chaplain to the thousands of French African troops imprisoned in camps. German and Vichy authorities praised him for his ministry, but Kane was soon arrested for engaging in black market activity. At the end of the war Kane was tried and convicted of treason for collaborating with the enemy. In my paper I explore the juncture of Kane’s life where he transitioned from supposed “marabout” to traitor in order to trace how Kane’s evolving identity reveals the limits of reinvention that he seemed to enjoy in previous episodes of his life. Just as Kane’s identity was being forcibly transformed, France was re-inventing itself in the wake of the end of the Second World War. The paper will draw on a variety of press and government sources including the treason trial of Kane in which over 60 people testified from African members of the resistance to Charles DeGaulle’s brother Xavier DeGaulle. Kane’s life provides an opportunity to probe an individual’s evolving identity in the French empire and France’s changing national identity as well.