“There’s still not much literature on blackness in contemporary France and much is still focused on the colonial era. Only from about 2007/8 do we start to see some work on the making of a black identity in post-colonial France. My research is a dialogue with those studies. I’m not satisfied with the available literature, there are limitations in the quality, and I believe I can contribute to the scholarship,” said Abdoulaye Gueye of the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies at the University of Ottawa. Gueye was presenting the first seminar of the second semester of 2024 on his book project analysing the making of a black identity in 21st century France.
He explained that for most of the post-World War II period work on racial identity was monopolised by US and British scholars, focusing on the social dynamics in those countries. Only more recently did continental Europe, and specifically France, become a research field for students of race.
Describing his own positionality as Senegalese, French speaking, and having studied and worked in France and Canada, he noted that “the idea that knowledge is objective or disconnected to your worldview is a myth. My trajectory is linked to the research I’m conducting.” He also pointed to being influenced as a young graduate by the experiences of and conversations with other scholars of African descent which left him questioning how he could make sense of racial difference in France.
“My post-doc experience in Canada was bliss but I realised that North America is obsessed with race – race is pervasive. It was not the same in France – there was silence. I asked myself is it true that people of African descent in France are not interested in race and don’t talk about it? Is race an issue among people of African descent in France? And, how could some of my colleagues believe there was no such thing as race in France?”
“I pondered these ideas for several years,” he continued. “And eventually decided it was due to socialisation, the Republican ideology, The vision of France as a universal society, with open citizenship and social inclusion, where anyone can belong despite their background.”
“This ideal is the basis of the foundation of the French Republic. It’s inclusive nationality, a contract between individuals who agree to the same culture and norms. My training meant that race didn’t exist until my detour to North America.”
He explained that the legal-political vision summed up as ‘French universalism’ translates into the denial of race, and the rejection of any race-based differentiation among members of French society. National and territorial designations such as Congolese or Africans instead of racial denominations are used in official documents and public discourse.
Gueye questions the premise of this body of knowledge that still subscribes to this race-blind ideology and discards the relevance of studying racial differentiation in France.
“In the early 21st century France has changed into the theatre of a new kind of sociopolitical mobilisation aiming at the recognition of racial categories, and particularly of a black French identity. The two major questions I will address are: How was such mobilisation made possible? And, to what extent does the recognition of a black racial identity manifest in the current French public sphere?”
He noted the work of sociologist Richard Jenkins in the 1990s on rethinking social identity which pointed to identity as being based on dialogue – “It’s about converting the other to one’s own belief and conviction – I say I’m black and you acknowledge, and I become black.”
He also highlighted the 2008 publication La Condition Noire by historian Pap Ndiaye which pointed to blackness as a result of discrimination by the white majority society. “It positions black as an identity by default. Black becomes black by external action with no black agency. I believe it’s shortsighted to say discrimination has produced blackness. It says people have no agency to decide what they are or what they want to be. I’m trying to move beyond this and show the limitations.”
“I believe instead that black identity is a result of the mobilisation of skills and tools of people of African descent who forced the idea that there exists racial difference and a black identity group in France.”
Mobilising identity
He is therefore focusing on several organisations founded by French citizens of African descent – including Collective Egalité founded in 1998 and the Promotion of Diversity Organisation founded in 2005, to unveil the mechanisms by which these collectives of activists delineate the racial boundaries confronting the African-descended population and strive to convince French authorities to recognise the legitimacy of racial self-identification as black.
His work has shown that these organisations deploy parallel strategies – targetting media and politics. On the one hand, they built a propagandist movement that seeks to persuade people of the benefits of identifying as black French instead of ‘French of African immigrant origin’. On the other hand, they pressure state authorities, sometimes using court cases, to implement an affirmative action-like programme in which racial categories are institutionalised, and black as well as white, Arab, etc. are recognised as legitimate group identities in French society.
Gueye explained that this mobilisation of demographic change was influenced by politics and economic realities. With colonial independence in the 1960s many Africans lost their citizenship and the numbers of African elite in France dwindled. With economic struggles across most of Europe in the 1970s, France experienced declining employment opportunities resulting in policies to limit immigration other than for educational purposes or family reunification. But Gueye pointed out that huge numbers of Africans still came to France increasing from just over 20 000 in 1962 to over half a million by 2004. The education level of these immigrants also increased – in 1970 less than 2% had high-school qualifications but by 1999 34% had university degrees – contrasting with only 27% in the general population. However, in the job market, the African share in white-collar jobs was small compared to other immigrants at only 3.3%. (Italians, for example, were at 5.5% even though only 16% had university degrees.)
“This became a source of mobilisation. They used their critical skills to understand their own experience and mobilised the discrimination to form a black identity. The articulation between discrimination and life experience equalled black identity,” explained Gueye.
“Highly educated people formed these associations with education providing the means to understand the working of discrimination in French society and to mobilise within their own communities – saying race is a reality and black people should mobilise based on race.”
“I believe that by subscribing to the idea of classification, such organisations managed to bring race to the fore and produce a black French racial identity,” he added.
“Of course, discrimination plays a role but alone cannot lead to the making of black identity. To understand the process fully, you must consider the agency of black African people and understand the skills and tools at their disposal.”
Michelle Galloway: Part-time media officer at STIAS
Photograph: Noloyiso Mtembu