Negotiating culture, performing identities

North African and Pied-Noir associations in France

Bibliographic Data

ID3978833
AuthorsVictoria M Phaneuf (University of Arizona, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume17
Issue4
Pages671-686
Publication date2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2012.686301
OpenAlexW2091045166
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited28

The integration of minorities in France, particularly those with roots in North Africa, has been of national concern since the 1980s and remains so today. Official and public discussions about minorities, and social relations with them, are saturated with mutual distrust and misunderstandings. Despite structural and social impediments, these minorities are encouraged to integrate into the national mainstream and to avoid communitarian and community-building practices that might be interpreted as a rejection of the nation. Minority cultural associations are among the focal points of these negotiations, being places where communities can both strengthen internal bonds and create zones of intercultural contact, mutual education, and debate. In the following I analyse the activities undertaken by North African and Pied-Noir cultural associations in France as examples of boundary maintenance (Barth, F., 1969. Introduction. In: F. Barth, ed. Ethnic groups and boundaries: the social organization of culture difference. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, 9–38). I argue that community building activities within associations are a necessary component in their ability to organise outreach activities designed to create dialogue and improve inter-communal relations. Keywords: FrancePied-NoirNorth Africanscivil societymulticulturalismfood Acknowledgements An earlier version of this work was presented at the 2011 Middle Eastern Studies Association annual meeting in Washington, DC. The 15-month ethnographic fieldwork for this project was made possible by the generous support of the Fulbright IIE Fellowship, the Arthur King Peters Award, the Riecker grant and numerous small grants from the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and the SBSRI Dissertation Research Award from the University of Arizona. The author thanks Thomas K. Park, Thérèse de Vet, Anne Betteridge, James Greenberg, Lauren Penney, and Kacy Hollenback for their invaluable feedback on earlier versions of this paper. Notes Leparmentier (2011 Leparmentier, A., 2011. Sur TF1, Nicolas Sarkozy Bétonne à Droite. Le Monde. Available from: http://elysee.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/02/10/sur-tf1-nicolas-sarkozy-fait-campagne-a-droite/ [Accessed 4 November 2011]. [Google Scholar]). David Cameron (2011 Cameron, D., 2011. PM's speech at Munich Security Conference. Number 10 [Online]. Available from: http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference/ [Accessed 15 April 2011] [Google Scholar]) and Angela Merkel (Weaver 2011 Weaver, M., 2011. Angela Merkel: German multiculturalism has 'utterly failed'. The Guardian. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/17/angela-merkel-german-multiculturalism-failed [Accessed 11 April 2011] [Google Scholar]) have also commented on the failure of multiculturalism. The Pied-Noir and second-generation immigrants, being French citizens, were never influenced by this ban. This population is also referred to as French-North African or Maghrébin. Pied-Noir is one of many names used to refer to this population, and is not universally accepted. For ease of comprehension and to follow the majority usage I maintain Pied-Noir here. The Pied-Noir often also count Harkis, or Algerians who supported the French colonial endeavour, as members of their associations. In the interests of space, however, I will not be able to discuss them in this consideration. In the interests of space discuss of associations founded and run by Harkis will be left for another venue. At times, minority associations count as members non-minority individuals who are very active with the association, at times even serving as elected officials. In my experience, for the purposes of inter-community relations, the minority members of the association treat such individuals as members of their own cultural group – at times stating this explicitly. For the purposes of this paper, I will also treat these individuals as part of the minority group, though I plan on analysing their situation at length elsewhere. Discussions of what is 'traditional' are always contingent and shifting. In this consideration I use the word as my informants used it in our discussions. One exception to this trend was an association that hosted pan-Mediterranean cooking classes attended primarily by non-North African women. These classes were themed by country; therefore, on the nights when Spanish or Italian cuisine was taught, for example, no North African dishes were included, but this was clearly an exceptional situation. The selection of couscous restaurants was primarily based on the nationality of the owner and wait staff, then on the quality of the food and convenience of the location. Algerian-owned restaurants were typically excluded from consideration. In a number of cases, this was explained by the fact that the owner or staff had made anti-Harki comments in the past, though I do not know the truth of these allegations. It is worth noting that there is, to my knowledge, only one restaurant in France that markets itself as offering Pied-Noir cuisine. Because it is not located near any of the cities in which I attended association meetings, I cannot comment on how associations might entertain were they given the option to do so at an explicitly Pied-Noir establishment. As mentioned above, this can include individuals who are not members of the minority community. I discuss this at much greater length in my forthcoming dissertation

Distrust · Ethnic group · Mainstream · Negotiation · Outreach · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Law · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Political and Social Issues

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