From the first colonial expeditions of the French empire of the sixteenth century up to the present day, construction of identity in the French Caribbean has constituted an ever-vigorous source of despair, determination, and debate. Although inherently contradictory in nature, the idea of constructing identity was, under the impetus of France's mission civilisatrice, brazenly practiced in one form or another for upwards of 300 years. It has continued to this day under the varying guises of independence, departmentalization, dictatorship, overseas collectivity, and occupation. As such, while the intent of forcing entire populations to subscribe to imposed, predetermined beliefs, behaviors, and value systems that were ostensibly not their own appears antithetical to the very notion of identity—what is broadly understood as the condition of being oneself, not another—this very objective has endorsed a centurieslong practice of institutionalized identity building that effectively divests colonized subjects of their linguistic, cultural, historical, and often geographical sense of self. Evoking what he refers to as the néantisation du colonisé, Albert Memmi therefore describes this systematic construction of identity in conversely devastating terms:

Under the colonial French empire, a totalizing ideology in the name of nation building thus produced over time a fractured and in many ways inauthentic perception of self for millions of individuals. And whereas the restructuring of identity which long endured under France's hegemonic policies has by and large come to be perceived as inhumane and uncivilized, constructing identity is—tragically—no less a reality today.