Roots and Routes: Belonging and Citizenship of Métis in France, Senegal, Benin
This project uses the tools of genealogy, archival research, oral history, and DNA tests to investigate family ties and ruptures that arose in the context of colonial and post-colonial dynamics in the French-speaking Atlantic world. In spite of the racism that inflected twentieth century French colonial rule, interracial sex occurred and resulted in the birth of thousands of multiracial children born in Africa, from relationships between African women and French men. Few fathers publicly acknowledged paternity, stayed in touch with, and provided resources for their children. Yet métis (multiracial) people and their descendants sought acknowledgement of their existence and belonging from the greater French public. This project will produce a documentary film that follows a French-Senegalese filmmaker, a grandson of two métis parents born from interracial relationships, and his quest to find people to whom he is related in France, Mali, Senegal and Benin. This project explores how the colonial past inflects contemporary ideas about family, identity, and citizenship in the French-speaking world and seeks to produce a free and broadly accessible documentary film to expand knowledge and facilitate conversations about these compelling and important questions.