From one empire to another, and even from one territory to another, the situation was different. It was different according to the number and duration of the settlers, it was different according to the type of colonization, and sometimes different within the same empire. The Portuguese Cape Verde, for example, had an entirely mixed population, since the Portuguese (exclusively men) arrived on uninhabited islands and united with slaves brought by the slave trade, which led the Portuguese royalty to issue some regulatory decrees. On another level, while the administration – and the medical profession – encouraged in the Belgian and French cases the colonials to take a wife in the fashion of the country (a question of hygiene!), the British were in this respect much more reserved, even hostile.
Some works highlight the fluctuations of the medical discourse on mixed unions, as Amandine Lauro did in Belgium. Others, such as those of Ann-Laura Stoler, analyze the use of categories. She shows, for example, that in the Dutch Empire of the Indies (Indonesia) a single category designated poor Europeans born in the Indies and mixed-race people. The Nuremberg laws borrowed from Germany’s race policy in Africa. Italy, for its part, applied the racial laws of 1938 to Ethiopia, which it occupied from 1938 to 1941.
What do the invention and treatment of the mestizo question say about imperial governance, its anxieties and fears, and what are the differences, from one governance to another, not so much in the structures as in the « racial » vision that the « mestizo question » can, par excellence, reveal? It is not only from one empire to another, but from one colony to another, that complex assignments are played out, which depend on laws but also on power relations. The law plays a very different role (and sometimes none at all) according to the territories, and yet a « Métis question » exists everywhere.
In addition to laws, decrees and various codes, or jurisprudence, there are also numerous (auto)biographical narratives, that is to say, narratives produced by the individuals themselves (memoirs, autobiographies) or by the colonial administrations on the life trajectories of the mestizos (following the example of personal files). These life stories, although not archetypal, make it possible to identify some constants inherent to the « mestizo condition. They allow, moreover, to make the voices of the mestizos heard and how some of them have lived (in acceptance or in revolt) a condition assigned by the colonial order. How also sometimes they have been able to disturb this order by challenging or overcoming its constraints, whether by their complicity with the colonized or by their social success. And in a general way the fate of the mestizos was extremely varied, in terms of gender in particular. The fact that they were mostly confronted with forms of racism is not in doubt, whether from Europeans, Africans or Asians. This led them to organize themselves in associations or congresses. In the Portuguese empire, there are different associations for the « whites of the country », the mestizos and the assimilated blacks. On the one hand because the colonial administration wanted to divide, but also because the experiences of these different legal categories of population were not the same. In general, mestizo associations were called « African » (in the sense of « non-indigenous ») while black associations were called « negras » or « negrófi-las ». The indigenous people (98% of the population) were obviously not allowed to found associations.
In this regard, a distinction must be made between the different colonial spaces. To take once again the example of the French Empire of Africa, it seems that the European-Malagasy mestizos were, according to Violaine Tisseau, relatively well accepted by the Malagasy society, compared to other colonies. In AOF, the mestizos of the 4 communes, French citizens since 1916, sometimes had leading political roles. But their history was not the same as that of children abandoned by their fathers in the rest of the AOF. In the AEF, racism was undoubtedly more brutal, and social relations of « race » more violent. This did not prevent some mestizos from having important roles there as well, such as Henri Lopes, or Andrée Blouin who, raised in an orphanage in Brazzaville, became head of the proto-school of the short-lived Lumumba government. In the Portuguese colonies, mestizos played an important role in the liberation struggles. But what about North Africa or India, for example?
This project has several objectives:
– To take stock of the situation by listing contemporary works on the question, scientific works and articles, without forbidding some excursions into the colonial library. Beyond the scientific literature, we will also take stock of published testimonies, as well as films and/or documentaries, many of which give a voice to mestizos. We will also be interested in the complaints recently filed by mestizos asking for reparation for the fate that was reserved for them. We will take into account the novels. Some have become archetypal, such as the famous novel by Abdoulaye Sadji: Nini la mulâtresse du Sénégal, or the Roman d’un Spahi, by Pierre Loti. But many of them remain unknown and/or have sunk into oblivion. This census will be publicized via a blog (hypothesis notebook) that will also be fed with interviews with researchers and witnesses. Once the project is completed, this blog could become a reference site.
– Identify public or private archives that could shed light on the blind spots in the research.
– To constitute an international network of researchers on the question, even though the compartmentalization is still too rigid, with specialists from one empire to another. Involve some researchers to re-read their own work in the light of the « mestizo » question.
– Organize workshops bringing together a certain number of these specialists.
– The purpose of these workshops would be to prepare a volume devoted to the issue in three parts: Laws, decrees and devices; trajectories (life stories); contemporary impacts. All the contributions should be comparative, perhaps by associating specialists from different geographical areas. It is a question of « working together ».
This project has several ambitions:
– To decompartmentalize imperial histories. It is about colonial empires, Spanish, French, British, Portuguese, Dutch, and the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. Although the chronology is not the same, we cannot exclude the Spanish empire insofar as it was a precursor in the invention of the « mestizo question », nor the old colonies such as the West Indies, but the focus will be on the empires of the 19th and 20th centuries.
– To question imperial constructions through the prism of the « mestizo question » by focusing on the interweaving of social, racial and gender issues.
– To question the impact of racial policies on racialized subjects themselves.
– It does not claim to be exhaustive in any way, but rather to provide tools (Sites, interviews, books) for future students or researchers, as well as to shed some light on contemporary issues that have ancient roots.
Some works highlight the fluctuations of the medical discourse on mixed unions, as Amandine Lauro did in Belgium. Others, such as those of Ann-Laura Stoler, analyze the use of categories. She shows, for example, that in the Dutch Empire of the Indies (Indonesia) a single category designated poor Europeans born in the Indies and mixed-race people. The Nuremberg laws borrowed from Germany’s race policy in Africa. Italy, for its part, applied the racial laws of 1938 to Ethiopia, which it occupied from 1938 to 1941.
What do the invention and treatment of the mestizo question say about imperial governance, its anxieties and fears, and what are the differences, from one governance to another, not so much in the structures as in the « racial » vision that the « mestizo question » can, par excellence, reveal? It is not only from one empire to another, but from one colony to another, that complex assignments are played out, which depend on laws but also on power relations. The law plays a very different role (and sometimes none at all) according to the territories, and yet a « Métis question » exists everywhere.
In addition to laws, decrees and various codes, or jurisprudence, there are also numerous (auto)biographical narratives, that is to say, narratives produced by the individuals themselves (memoirs, autobiographies) or by the colonial administrations on the life trajectories of the mestizos (following the example of personal files). These life stories, although not archetypal, make it possible to identify some constants inherent to the « mestizo condition. They allow, moreover, to make the voices of the mestizos heard and how some of them have lived (in acceptance or in revolt) a condition assigned by the colonial order. How also sometimes they have been able to disturb this order by challenging or overcoming its constraints, whether by their complicity with the colonized or by their social success. And in a general way the fate of the mestizos was extremely varied, in terms of gender in particular. The fact that they were mostly confronted with forms of racism is not in doubt, whether from Europeans, Africans or Asians. This led them to organize themselves in associations or congresses. In the Portuguese empire, there are different associations for the « whites of the country », the mestizos and the assimilated blacks. On the one hand because the colonial administration wanted to divide, but also because the experiences of these different legal categories of population were not the same. In general, mestizo associations were called « African » (in the sense of « non-indigenous ») while black associations were called « negras » or « negrófi-las ». The indigenous people (98% of the population) were obviously not allowed to found associations.
In this regard, a distinction must be made between the different colonial spaces. To take once again the example of the French Empire of Africa, it seems that the European-Malagasy mestizos were, according to Violaine Tisseau, relatively well accepted by the Malagasy society, compared to other colonies. In AOF, the mestizos of the 4 communes, French citizens since 1916, sometimes had leading political roles. But their history was not the same as that of children abandoned by their fathers in the rest of the AOF. In the AEF, racism was undoubtedly more brutal, and social relations of « race » more violent. This did not prevent some mestizos from having important roles there as well, such as Henri Lopes, or Andrée Blouin who, raised in an orphanage in Brazzaville, became head of the proto-school of the short-lived Lumumba government. In the Portuguese colonies, mestizos played an important role in the liberation struggles. But what about North Africa or India, for example?
This project has several objectives:
– To take stock of the situation by listing contemporary works on the question, scientific works and articles, without forbidding some excursions into the colonial library. Beyond the scientific literature, we will also take stock of published testimonies, as well as films and/or documentaries, many of which give a voice to mestizos. We will also be interested in the complaints recently filed by mestizos asking for reparation for the fate that was reserved for them. We will take into account the novels. Some have become archetypal, such as the famous novel by Abdoulaye Sadji: Nini la mulâtresse du Sénégal, or the Roman d’un Spahi, by Pierre Loti. But many of them remain unknown and/or have sunk into oblivion. This census will be publicized via a blog (hypothesis notebook) that will also be fed with interviews with researchers and witnesses. Once the project is completed, this blog could become a reference site.
– Identify public or private archives that could shed light on the blind spots in the research.
– To constitute an international network of researchers on the question, even though the compartmentalization is still too rigid, with specialists from one empire to another. Involve some researchers to re-read their own work in the light of the « mestizo » question.
– Organize workshops bringing together a certain number of these specialists.
– The purpose of these workshops would be to prepare a volume devoted to the issue in three parts: Laws, decrees and devices; trajectories (life stories); contemporary impacts. All the contributions should be comparative, perhaps by associating specialists from different geographical areas. It is a question of « working together ».
This project has several ambitions:
– To decompartmentalize imperial histories. It is about colonial empires, Spanish, French, British, Portuguese, Dutch, and the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. Although the chronology is not the same, we cannot exclude the Spanish empire insofar as it was a precursor in the invention of the « mestizo question », nor the old colonies such as the West Indies, but the focus will be on the empires of the 19th and 20th centuries.
– To question imperial constructions through the prism of the « mestizo question » by focusing on the interweaving of social, racial and gender issues.
– To question the impact of racial policies on racialized subjects themselves.
– It does not claim to be exhaustive in any way, but rather to provide tools (Sites, interviews, books) for future students or researchers, as well as to shed some light on contemporary issues that have ancient roots.