Investing in "Civilized" Futures: Orphans and Colonial Caretaking in Saint-Louis, Senegal, 1930-49

For nearly a century, the Sœurs de Saint Joseph de Cluny operated the Ndar Toute orphanage for mixed-race (<i>métis</i>) and African girls in the city of Saint-Louis, Senegal. By the 1940s, colonial reforms, evolving conceptions of citizenship, and even changes in the social and political culture of Saint-Louis itself, sparked questions about the responsibility of Catholic missions and colonial authorities to care for orphaned girls. As the French colonial project gestured toward more expansive notions of citizenship and social welfare for adults, orphaned children remained an exceptional case, permitting an enduring role for the "civilizing" work of Catholic missions