Frenchness and the African Diaspora: Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France (review)

In October and November 2005, France was rocked by mass protests in the wake of the electrocution of two youths of North African origin following a police chase in a suburb (banlieue) of Paris. The disturbances spread rapidly throughout immigrant neighborhoods all across France, calling into question the very stability of the state itself. On 8 November 2008, the government invoked a law dating to the Algerian war for independence in the 1950s to proclaim a state of emergency during which hundreds of immigrant youths were arrested and the banlieues were occupied as if in a war zone. Charles Tshimanga, Didier Gondola, and Peter J. Bloom have assembled a diverse set of essays that address the question of immigrant life, culture, and identity in France. In addition, some essays also interrogate the meaning of “riots” and the root causes of the explosive developments that occurred during the autumn of 2005. Divided into three parts, the compilation offers a wide perspective on the history and contemporary reality of French immigrant life and the prospects for future race relations in France.

A common refrain among the authors, reflecting a long-established consensus among scholars across disciplines, is that the disturbances of 2005 marked the return of France’s colonial legacy to the postcolonial metropole (Mbembe 49, Cooper 91, Gondola 147). Probing deeper into the immediate causes of the outbreak of rioting in October 2005 and seeking to explain why this event sparked a quick spread and escalation of conflict across France, some essays point to a marked shift to the right and a pronounced acceleration of anti-immigrant policy and discourse dating at least to the early 2000s. Pierre Tévanian, for example, argues that a “conservative revolution” took place in the first decade of the twenty-first century that included a reassessment and valorization of France’s colonial past and a shift to restrict access to citizenship within France (188). Moreover, France’s response to the events of 2005, described by Didier Lapeyronnie as amounting to only “repression and silence,” does not augur well for the future of race relations (21). Others (Bloom and Tshimanga) point to developments among immigrant communities in film and music that suggest a response from below that may open avenues for a new French consensus predicated on multiculturalism and cultural métissage. Overall, the essays provide important insights into the background and root causes of the autumn 2005 events. One drawback is the seeming ideological cul-de-sac that Mbembe’s essay presents in calling for the initiative of “the capitalist class” and registering to vote (among immigrant communities) as the way out of France’s racial impasse (67, 69). In light of the continued march to the right among France’s political class and the global economic crisis brought about by the actions of that very capitalist class, we can only hope that there are better answers to a more harmonious and egalitarian future. Despite such limitations, the edited volume will be an important source of information on a pivotal moment in recent French history.