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3 - “I Am French”

Multiraciality and Citizenship in FWA and FEA, ca. 1928–1938

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2023

Rachel Jean-Baptiste
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
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Summary

Chapter 3 investigates the French nationality decrees promulgated in 1930 and 1936, which recognized the claims métis people had been making for decades: they were French and entitled to French legal status. These new legal pathways to French citizenship and demarcations of parameters of belonging were tied to concepts of how race and multiracial identity mapped onto French legal status. The decrees codified multiracial people as a specific category in French colonial thought and society, but within the context of how multiracial people themselves claimed multiracial selfhoods. The claims of métis people who petitioned for citizenship deepened the debates about race and racial identity and changed the very idea of Frenchness. The burden of proof on petitioners hinged on questions of paternity and French cultural competency. However, maternal kin and African communities played an essential role in the legal process. Métis obtainment of French citizenship was consequential for hierarchies of status within African societies. At the same time, it both contested and created hierarchies of social and legal status and privilege based on changing racial thought.

Type
Chapter
Information
Multiracial Identities in Colonial French Africa
Race, Childhood, and Citizenship
, pp. 103 - 146
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • “I Am French”
  • Rachel Jean-Baptiste, University of California, Davis
  • Book: Multiracial Identities in Colonial French Africa
  • Online publication: 25 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108773751.004
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  • “I Am French”
  • Rachel Jean-Baptiste, University of California, Davis
  • Book: Multiracial Identities in Colonial French Africa
  • Online publication: 25 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108773751.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • “I Am French”
  • Rachel Jean-Baptiste, University of California, Davis
  • Book: Multiracial Identities in Colonial French Africa
  • Online publication: 25 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108773751.004
Available formats
×