Making Room for a Black Memory in the French National Narrative

In the last decade, the French metropolitan territory has been the scene of debates, claims and political decision-makings pertaining to the memory of the relationship between France and its former black colonies. The sans-papiers' (i.e. undocumented immigrants) movement of 1996 onwards, as well as the denunciation by African and Caribbean intellectuals of the lack of memorials symbolizing Blacks' contribution to the making of the French society, in the late 1990s, partake in the few events forerunning the controversy dividing not only historians of French colonization, or French political leaders of different ideological affiliations, but also Black citizens and the national public opinion. My paper is intended to sketch a socio-historical analysis of the issue of memory and its recognition in postcolonial France. Among the main questions that guide my reflection and investigation are the following: What are the uses of the memory of the relationships between France among postcolonial Blacks of France? What has made the public claim of this memory by Blacks possible in the present time? To what extent French officials' recall of the colonial period serves this country?