Gouverneur p.i. Desanti, "Rapport politique, Année 1938" (Koulouba, April 1939) in ANFOM Affairs Politiques, Carton 603, Dossier 9
	Notes © 1999 by Jim Jones, Ph.D.

This long (120+ pages) document provides a wide variety of information about French Soudan on the eve of World War II.

The following table lists the population of each of the cercles of French Soudan in 1937 and 1938:

This table gives the population figures for principal towns, divided into many subcategories:

This table shows the origin of immigrants into each cercle during the course of 1938:

This table shows the destinations of emigrants from each cercle during the course of 1938:

Nearly all of the temporary emigrants to Senegal are navétanes. They come from Bamako (5,000-6,000), Bougouni (5,000), Kita (468), Kayes (1,670), Nioro (5,000) and Sikasso (221). The total is 19,166.

These numbers are based on the issue of cartes de navétanes and can only be considered approximate. For example, Bamako delivered no cartes de navétane during the year, but railroad statistics show of the roughly 10,000 navétanes who headed for Senegal, 5,000-6,000 came from Bamako. Administrators in Kita gave out 468 cartes de navétane and and administrators in Kayes gave out 975. Of the 5,000 navétanes from Nioro, 1,321 got their cards at Kayes and 2,500 got their cards in Nioro. The rest went on foot.

The black Bellahs (former slaves) in the Cercle de Goundam are not entirely free of their nomad masters, despite French policy.

Catholics are organized into three vicariat apostoliques based in Bamako, Bobo Diuolasso and Ouagadougou. The following table shows the number of Catholic and Protestant Africans in the Soudan, by cercle:

This table shows the distribution of weapons by cercle and ethnicity:

This table shows the number of Africans in each cercle who were forced to carry loads for the French administration, the number of days they were employed in transport, and the amount that they were paid:

This report contains a description of the progress made on constructing a road from Bamako-Ségou-Douna in the area around San and Koutiala. The report mentions material used, including a 5-ton steam roller and a 3.5-ton Citroen truck and a 4-ton Renault truck. The construction also relied on the use of the narrow-gauge railroad from Ségou to the Bani River to haul material for the section Segou-Douna.

This table contains information on the sentences handed out by the native justice system (Indigenat):

There was a lot of work done on constructing roads across the Sahara Desert (Pistes Transahariennes). The route from Timbuktu to Tindouf was marked as far as Chegga in southern Morocco in February 1938, a water well was dug at Teghazza, 400 kilometers north of Timbuktu, and the piste opened to automobiles in November 1938. The route from Gao to Raggan (Reggane, in Algeria) was improved with road markings around Bourem, Anefis and Gao.

1,428 tons of salt were transported from Taoudenni to Timbuktu in 1938. Everything had to be brought through the deesert to supply Taoudenni, and the prices of all goods in Taoudeenni were calculated in salt. The following table gives some of the prices in 1939:

The French intended to reestablish the salt caravan (azala‹) from the Sebkha de Tinioulig in 1939. It has not operated since 1903 after the last one was entirely wiped out by a raid by the Regneibats.