French law on colonialism
Encyclopedia
The February 23, 2005, French law on colonialism was an act passed by the Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP) conservative
majority, which imposed on high-school (lycée) teachers to teach the "positive values" of colonialism
to their students (article 4, paragraph 2). The law, particularly the aforementioned paragraph and articles 1 and 13, created a public uproar and opposition from the whole of the left-wing, and article 4, paragraph 2 was repealed by president Jacques Chirac
(UMP) at the beginning of 2006, after accusations of historical revisionism
from various teachers and historians, including Pierre Vidal-Naquet
, Claude Liauzu
, Olivier LeCour Grandmaison
and Benjamin Stora
. Its article 13 was also criticized as it supported former Organisation armée secrète
militants.
crimes of colonialism, and had national and international consequences until its repeal at the start of 2006. Hence, Abdelaziz Bouteflika
, president of Algeria
, refused to sign the envisioned "friendly treaty" with France because of this law. On June 26, 2005, he declared that the law "...approached mental blindness, negationism and revisionism." Famous writer Aimé Césaire
, leader of the Négritude
anti-colonialist literary movement, also refused to meet then-UMP leader (and winner of the 2007 presidential election) Nicolas Sarkozy
, who then cancelled his visit to the overseas department
of Martinique
, where a thousand people demonstrated against him in Fort-de-France
.
UMP deputy Christian Vanneste
was criticized for having introduced the expression "positive values" in the text. On April 25, 2005, more than a thousand professors and thesis students had signed the petition "Colonisation: No to the teaching of an official history". MP Christiane Taubira
called the law "disastrous" and enacted because of lobbying
from the harki
s and the pied-noir
s, remaining silent on the Indigenate Code or forced labour in the former colonies
.
charging the president of the Assembly, Jean-Louis Debré
(UMP), with modifying the controversial law, taking out the revisionist article about the "recognition of the positive role of the French presence abroad". In order to do so, Chirac ordered Prime minister Dominique de Villepin
to seize the Constitutional Council
, whose decision would permit the legal repeal of the law. The Constitutional Council judged that history textbooks regulation is not the domain of the law, but of administrative regulation. As such, the contested amendment was repealed in the beginning of 2006.
, Alain Decaux
and Marc Ferro
) demanded the repeal of all "historic laws": not only the February 23, 2005 Act, but also the 1990 Gayssot Act against "racism, xenophobia and historical revisionism", the Taubira Act on the recognition of slavery
as a "crime against humanity
" and the law recognizing the Armenian genocide
. This call was controversial among historians. Many supported non-intervention of the state on historical matters, but few went as far as asking for the repeal of previously existing acts. Some were against the Gayssot Act and other laws, but thought repealing them would send the wrong message.
The debate on the February 23, 2005, law was linked to a further debate in France concerning colonialism, which itself is linked to the debate on immigration
. As the historian Benjamin Stora
pointed out, colonialism has a major "memory" stake in influencing the way various communities and the nation
itself represent themselves. Official state history always had a hard time accepting the existence of past crimes and errors. Indeed, the Algerian war of independence
(1954-1962), previously qualified as a "public order operation," was only recognized as a "war" by the French National Assembly in 1999.
In the same sense, philosopher Paul Ricœur (1981) has underlined the need for a "decolonization
of memory", because mentalities themselves have been colonized during the "Age of imperialism."
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
(UMP) conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
majority, which imposed on high-school (lycée) teachers to teach the "positive values" of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
to their students (article 4, paragraph 2). The law, particularly the aforementioned paragraph and articles 1 and 13, created a public uproar and opposition from the whole of the left-wing, and article 4, paragraph 2 was repealed by president Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
(UMP) at the beginning of 2006, after accusations of historical revisionism
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
from various teachers and historians, including Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in 1969....
, Claude Liauzu
Claude Liauzu
Claude Liauzu , was a French historian specializing in the history of colonialism. He was an ardent critic of the French law of February 23, 2005 of the teaching of French colonialism describing the colonialists positively. He was professor at the Sorbonne .- External links :****...
, Olivier LeCour Grandmaison
Olivier LeCour Grandmaison
Olivier LeCour Grandmaison is a French historian. He is a professor of political science at the Evry-Val d'Essonne University and also teach at the Collège International de Philosophie, and mainly works on colonialism issues...
and Benjamin Stora
Benjamin Stora
Benjamin Stora is a French historian, expert on North Africa, who is widely considered one of the world's leading authorities on Algerian history. He was born in a Jewish family in Constantine, then in French Algeria, which left the country following its War of Independence in 1962. Stora holds...
. Its article 13 was also criticized as it supported former Organisation armée secrète
Organisation armée secrète
The Organisation de l'armée secrète was a short-lived, French far-right nationalist militant and underground organization during the Algerian War . The OAS used armed struggle in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence...
militants.
Article 4 on the "positive role of the French presence abroad"
The controversial article 4 asked teachers and textbooks to "acknowledge and recognize in particular the positive role of the French presence abroad, especially in North Africa". This was considered by the left-wing and in the former colonies as a denial of the racistRacism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
crimes of colonialism, and had national and international consequences until its repeal at the start of 2006. Hence, Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the ninth President of Algeria. He has been in office since 1999. He continued emergency rule until 24 February 2011, and presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002...
, president of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, refused to sign the envisioned "friendly treaty" with France because of this law. On June 26, 2005, he declared that the law "...approached mental blindness, negationism and revisionism." Famous writer Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...
, leader of the Négritude
Négritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...
anti-colonialist literary movement, also refused to meet then-UMP leader (and winner of the 2007 presidential election) Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, who then cancelled his visit to the overseas department
Département d'outre-mer
An overseas department is a department of France that is outside metropolitan France. They have the same political status as metropolitan departments. As integral parts of France and the European Union, overseas departments are represented in the National Assembly, Senate, and Economic and Social...
of Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, where a thousand people demonstrated against him in Fort-de-France
Fort-de-France
Fort-de-France is the capital of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique. It is also one of the major cities in the Caribbean. Exports include sugar, rum, tinned fruit, and cacao.-Geography:...
.
UMP deputy Christian Vanneste
Christian Vanneste
Christian Vanneste , is a French politician.-Career:A member of the French Parliament, he was elected in the 10th constituency of Nord...
was criticized for having introduced the expression "positive values" in the text. On April 25, 2005, more than a thousand professors and thesis students had signed the petition "Colonisation: No to the teaching of an official history". MP Christiane Taubira
Christiane Taubira
Christiane Taubira or Christiane Taubira-Delannon is a French politician. President of her party Walwari, she has served as a deputy at the French National Assembly since 1993, and was re-elected in 1997. Non-affiliated in 1993, she then voted for the investiture of the conservative Edouard...
called the law "disastrous" and enacted because of lobbying
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
from the harki
Harki
Harki is the generic term for Muslim Algerians who served as auxiliaries in the French Army during the Algerian War from 1954 to 1962...
s and the pied-noir
Pied-noir
Pied-Noir , plural Pieds-Noirs, pronounced , is a term referring to French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria before independence....
s, remaining silent on the Indigenate Code or forced labour in the former colonies
French colonial empires
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
.
Partial repeal
Supporters of the law were decried as a resurgence of the "colonial lobby", a term used in late 19th century France to label those people (deputies, scientifics, businessmen, etc.) who supported French colonialism. In defiance of this revisionism, Chirac finally turned against his own UMP majority that had voted for the law, and declared that "In a Republic, there is no official history. It is not to the law to write history. Writing history is the business of historians." He then passed a decreeDecree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
charging the president of the Assembly, Jean-Louis Debré
Jean-Louis Debré
Jean-Louis Debré is a conservative French political figure. He was President of the National Assembly of France from 2002 to 2007 and has been President of the Constitutional Council since 2007.-Biography:Debré was born in Toulouse...
(UMP), with modifying the controversial law, taking out the revisionist article about the "recognition of the positive role of the French presence abroad". In order to do so, Chirac ordered Prime minister Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
to seize the Constitutional Council
Constitutional Council of France
The Constitutional Council is the highest constitutional authority in France. It was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958, and its duty is to ensure that the principles and rules of the constitution are upheld.Its main activity is to rule on whether proposed...
, whose decision would permit the legal repeal of the law. The Constitutional Council judged that history textbooks regulation is not the domain of the law, but of administrative regulation. As such, the contested amendment was repealed in the beginning of 2006.
History and the law
In a tribune Liberty for history, 19 historians (including Elisabeth BadinterÉlisabeth Badinter
Élisabeth Badinter is a French author, feminist, historian, and professor of Philosophy at the École Polytechnique in Paris....
, Alain Decaux
Alain Decaux
Alain Decaux was born on 23 July 1925 in Lille, France. A historian by profession, he was elected to the Académie française on 15 February 1979.-Bibliography:* 1947 * 1949 ...
and Marc Ferro
Marc Ferro
Marc Ferro is a French historian. He has worked on early twentieth-century European history, specialising in the history of Russia and the USSR, as well as the history of cinema....
) demanded the repeal of all "historic laws": not only the February 23, 2005 Act, but also the 1990 Gayssot Act against "racism, xenophobia and historical revisionism", the Taubira Act on the recognition of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
as a "crime against humanity
Crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
" and the law recognizing the Armenian genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
. This call was controversial among historians. Many supported non-intervention of the state on historical matters, but few went as far as asking for the repeal of previously existing acts. Some were against the Gayssot Act and other laws, but thought repealing them would send the wrong message.
Un passé qui ne passe pas (An everpresent past)
- see also French rule in Algeria: Post colonial relations
The debate on the February 23, 2005, law was linked to a further debate in France concerning colonialism, which itself is linked to the debate on immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
. As the historian Benjamin Stora
Benjamin Stora
Benjamin Stora is a French historian, expert on North Africa, who is widely considered one of the world's leading authorities on Algerian history. He was born in a Jewish family in Constantine, then in French Algeria, which left the country following its War of Independence in 1962. Stora holds...
pointed out, colonialism has a major "memory" stake in influencing the way various communities and the nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
itself represent themselves. Official state history always had a hard time accepting the existence of past crimes and errors. Indeed, the Algerian war of independence
Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria's gaining its independence from France...
(1954-1962), previously qualified as a "public order operation," was only recognized as a "war" by the French National Assembly in 1999.
In the same sense, philosopher Paul Ricœur (1981) has underlined the need for a "decolonization
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...
of memory", because mentalities themselves have been colonized during the "Age of imperialism."
See also
- Historical revisionismHistorical revisionism (negationism)Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
- ColonialismColonialismColonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
- List of French possessions and colonies