Friday, March 14, 2014
Chairman's (Omni Shoreham)
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a wave of intellectual critiques emerged regarding the relationship between France and its former colonies in West Africa. While the voices of prominent intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre resounded throughout the public sphere, overlooked were the perspectives of former colonial subjects turned immigrants residing in France after decolonization. African immigrant labor activists such as Sally N’Dongo started to question France’s intentions with its former colonies, its position within their economies, and the stake carved out for the former colonizer throughout West Africa. This critique not only aligned with the Marxist critique of capitalist nations and their penchant for colonialism and neo-colonialism, but also called into question the position of former colonizers within the international arena and especially in relation to former colonies throughout the world. My paper analyzes African immigrants and their perspectives on neocolonialism throughout the early post-colonial period, when the neo-colonial critique overlapped with scathing criticism of the conditions that African immigrants found themselves living in in cities such as Paris. French society, in many ways, became a neocolonial society and African activists resurrected and utilized the rhetoric of anti-colonialism in response. The tactics and language used to fight colonialism in West Africa became critical tools in the struggle against oppression and marginalization in France throughout the early post-colonial era, shaping immigrant political activism in metropolitan France.
