Preliminary Fieldwork in Paris 1/3

African Immigrants’ Reparation Discourse and Practices in Postcolonial France

Paris, Viaduc de La Chapelle.

This ethnographic research project investigates how the discourse of reparation for colonialism is articulated by North and West African immigrants living in continental France, and how this discourse materializes into individual practices. It seeks to reckon with African migrants as fully conscious actors of a collective political undertaking of reparatory justice.

“We are not blinded by the moral reparation of national independence; nor are we fed by it. The wealth of the imperial countries is our wealth too.” Frantz Fanon wrote these words in 1961 in The Wretched of the Earth. Almost sixty years later, no financial reparations have yet been made by the French state to former colonized African territories. 

In France, the issue of reparations owed to African peoples has been silenced for decades, virtually absent from public discourse. In 2017, newly elected President Macron bluntly dismissed the mere possibility of a reparatory gesture, judging “totally ridiculous” for France to "recognize, or compensate" for colonialism. However, if to this day collective calls for reparations have been ignored, the need for justice is still very much alive. Actually, the undertaking might have taken a less official path, embedded in individual practices and discourses.  

Since the mid-fifties and the decolonization of the French empire, migration flows from North and West Africa to continental France have been steadily increasing, despite restrictive policies and a dominant anti-immigration political agenda. Within the aforementioned framework, migration can be interpreted as a claim for justice, a claim for a fair share of the spoils of colonialism. How then does migration as reparations materialize? How does it inform the discourse and practices of African immigrants living in France? At what point do individual practices become a collective endeavor? What would be the implications of such a perception for the African migrant’s political status in France’s public discourse, and in French society?

My research proposes to investigate these questions directly on the ground, with the actors of a fully conscious political intervention seeking to repair the irreparable. 

I have planned a series of events or “public conversations” each Saturday afternoon of June, hosted by a cultural center that has been serving the local population for more than fifteen years. Located in a very diverse neighborhood where islamic libraries stand alongside concert halls and typical Parisian cafés, the venue programs exhibitions and shows all year long. I think that a partnership with an established institution is needed to help introduce myself as a researcher and will also bring its regular audience to the events.

In addition to these scheduled events, I plan to go meet people in a more direct though casual way in the streets, settling with a folding table, a cardboard sign and some music on public squares and busy intersections. My goal is to talk to anyone is triggered by the topics of “colonial debt” and “reparations” in order to get a sense of the presence or absence of these ideas within French society.