In 2013, the Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration in Paris launched a campaign to raise public awareness of the importance of immigration to France. Posters created for the occasion included old photographs of people of various origins portrayed in different situations, such as working in construction sites or dancing at social events. One poster that received significant attention depicted immigrants debarking from a boat with Liberté written across it. This provocative poster read: ‘Nos ancêtres n’étaient pas tous des Gaulois’. Those familiar with French culture will recognize the reversal of a phrase emblematic of French nationalism – ‘Nos ancêtres les Gaulois’ – that appeared in the mid-nineteenth century. While a cornerstone in the conception of French national identity and education, the saying ‘Nos ancêtres les Gaulois’ has nevertheless changed gradually in meaning over time. During the colonial period it was used in the colonial education system to promote the French mission civilisatrice [‘civilizing mission’], despite an evident paradox. As Dietler states, ‘An ironic by-product of the educational system under French colonial administration is that generations of Vietnamese and African children also grew up reciting the phrase “our ancestors the Gauls”’ (1994: 590).

As the poster from the Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration shows, more than a century passed before France took the first steps to adjust the conceptualization of national identity encapsulated in this phrase. Indeed, memorializations of the Paris massacre of 17 October 1961 in 2011, the end of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) in 2012, and the 1983 Marche pour l’égalité et contre le racisme in 2013 show a new willingness to present and process France's colonial past. In 2013 the Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration hosted an exhibition on bande dessinée [‘comics’] and immigration, in part in recognition of the importance of the connection between this literary genre and French colonial history. As McKinney (2011a) argues, bande dessinée has, since its origins, played an important role in the development of imperialist culture, in the legitimization of colonial power, and in the dissemination of cultural stereotypes (the most famous example being Hergé's Tintin au Congo [Tintin in The Congo]).