Former higher education institution in Paris, France
The Colonial School (
French: École coloniale, also known colloquially as la Colo) was a French public higher education institution or
grande école, created in Paris in 1889 to provide training for public servants and administrators of the
French colonial empire. It also was a center for research in
geography,
anthropology,
ethnology and other scientific endeavors with a focus on French-administered territories.[1]
As France's overseas possessions changed and shrank, the school was restructured and renamed on several occasions: in 1934 as École nationale de la France d'outre-mer (ENFOM, "National School of Overseas France"), in 1959 as Institut des hautes études d'Outre-Mer (IHEOM, "Institute of Higher Overseas Studies"), and in 1966 as Institut international d’administration publique (IIAP, "International Institute of Public Administration"). It had students from both
Metropolitan France and its
overseas possessions and colonies. Its latest incarnation, the IIAP, was sometimes referred to as "the foreigners' ENA" with reference to France's
École nationale d'administration,[2] and was eventually merged into ENA in 2002.
Background
In 1885, explorer and administrator
Auguste Pavie created a training program for native employees of the
telegraph service in
French Cambodia, which took the name of mission cambodgienne ("Cambodian mission"). This was succeeded in 1889 by the Colonial School as a fully-fledged establishment for the professional education of colonial services staff. Its creation, supported by
State CouncillorPaul Dislère [
fr], was the first successful effort to create a permanent establishment specifically for the training of French civil servants, thus prefiguring both ENA and the
French National School for the Judiciary.[3]: 273
African students were admitted from 1892 alongside the Cambodian class, and soon later, students from Metropolitan France as well.[3]
The school's building in
Paris, on 2 avenue de l'Observatoire near the
Jardin du Luxembourg, was designed by architect
Maurice Yvon [
de] and built from 1895 to 1911.[4] The Colonial School moved there in 1896 after having been located during its first few years on rue Jacob.[3]: 272
The building was successively the seat of ENFOM, IHEOM, and IIAP including after the latter's absorption by ENA in 2002. Some of the building's decoration evoking colonial glories was deemed inappropriate and removed in the 1970s.[2]
In 2007,
Sciences Po acquired ENA's Parisian campus on the
rue de l'Université, and ENA made the Colonial School building its sole Parisian location at the end of that year. On 1 January 2022, ENA was in turn replaced by the
Institut national du service public, which kept the Colonial School building as its Paris campus.
Main portal on avenue de l'Observatoire
Ceramic detail displaying the date 1889 as reference to the school's creation
Corner with rue Auguste Comte, with adjacent
Lycée Montaigne in the background
Main courtyard
Library with painted ceiling by Claude Bourgonnier
^Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, Jacob Tatsitsa, François Gèze, Ambroise Kom, Achille Mbembe et Odile Tobner (4 October 2011).
"La guerre coloniale du Cameroun a bien eu lieu". Le Monde. Retrieved 6 October 2011.{{
cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)