La Dissidence : French Caribbean Contribution to World War Two

1. La Dissidence: French Caribbean Contribution to World War Two Dr Antonia Wimbush University of Birmingham Translating Cultures: French Caribbean History, Literature and Migration Photo Caftan Guadeloupe

2. La Dissidence • 1940-1943: 4000-5000 men and women from French Caribbean islands assisted in liberation of Occupied France • Contribution to war effort hiddenfrom official French narratives Lefigaro.fr

3. Dissidents or Résistants? • Dissidents→ black French Caribbean population who left the islands to join the Forces françaises libres • Résistants→ white Békés who did not fight • Which term?

4. Historical Context • July 1940→ fall of France to Nazi Germany • French Caribbean controlled by Vichy regime • Admiral Georges Robert (High Commissioner for Antilles), Constant Sorin (Governor of Guadeloupe) & Henri Bressoles/Yves Nicol (Governor of Martinique) • Violence→ 2 May 1943, Basse-Terre Island, Guadeloupe • ‘An tan Sorin’ & ‘an tan Robè’

5. Hunger & starvation • Blockades against Robert’s troops prevented food imports • Self-sufficient→ resourcefulness and ingenuity • Made shoes out of old tyres, used alcohol for fuel, cooked with coconut oil & made bread out of manioc (Stromberg Childers 2016: 44)

6. Vichy regime perceived as return to slavery • October 1940→ Universal male suffrage abolished • Guiana→ appalling conditions in bagne (50 % mortality rate in 1942) • 24 November 2017→ Robert Badinter, former French Minister of Justice, denounced treatment as crime against humanity in Le Monde Lemonde.fr

7. What Happened? • Dissidents escaped to British islands of Dominica and Saint Lucia • Precarious fishing boats and dinghies • Joined Forces françaises libres Worldatlas.com

8. Military training in USA & Canada • Crossed Atlantic to fight in Europe • Frantz Fanon a Dissident Raphaël Confiant, L’Insurrection de l’âme (2017) Libération.fr

9. June 2009→ Nicolas Sarkozy granted Légion d’honneur to thirty-six former Dissidents Lefigaro.fr 23 June 2009 Martinique.franceantilles.fr 25 June 2009

10. Why No Commemoration? • No official memorial • 2010→ small stele in Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique • 2 June 2014→ plaque in Les Invalides inaugurated by Hollande Outremer-radio.com Les Invalides Martinique.franceantilles.com Les Trois-Îlets

11. Until 1980s→ no mention in school curriculum/historical accounts (Toureille 2013: 71) • Eclipsed by stories of colonisation and slavery • ‘Colonized then, but not part of an independent nation now, there is no national government to represent [the islands’] specific history, for they are part of a French Republic which promotes universalism, and a dominant metropolitan narrative’ (Wardleworth 2018: 375)

12. La Dissidence in Literature and Film • Raphaël Confiant, Le Nègre et l’Amiral (1988) & La Dissidence (2002) • Daniel Maximin, ‘Dissidences’ (2008) • MALE AUTHORS & MALE CHARACTERS

13. Alice Delpech, La Dissidence: roman antillais (1991) • Gisèle Pineau, ‘Paroles de terre en larmes’ (1988), La Grande Drive des esprits (1993) & Mes quatre femmes (2007) • FEMALE AUTHORS & FEMALE CHARACTERS

14. Euzhan Palcy, Parcours de dissidents (2006) • Screened at official commemoration at Elysée Palace in June 2014 • Set of teaching resources by Académie de Paris

15. Conclusion • Dissidence→ specifically Caribbean form of resistance in WWII • Literature & film crucial in calling for official commemoration of the Dissidents’ bravery and sacrifice

16. References • Childers, Kristen Stromberg, Seeking Imperialism’s Embrace: National Identity, Decolonization, and Assimilation in the French Caribbean (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) • Toureille, Julien, ‘La Dissidence dans les Antilles françaises: une mémoire à préserver (1945–2011)’, Revue historique des armées 270, (2013), 68–78 • Wardleworth, Nina, ‘The documentary as a site of commemoration: filming the Free French Dissidents from the French Antilles’, European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire 25.2 (2018), 374–91