Ambiguous Glory :

The Algerian Conquest and the Politics of Colonial Commémoration in Post-Revolutionary France

Jennifer E. SESSIONS *

In the last décade, as France has begun to reassess the rôle of colonial empire in shaping national identity, history and commémoration hâve been central to an increasingly vocal debate about colonialism's contemporary legacies. Most recently, plans for a national muséum of colonial history hâve resulted in politically charged projects for not one, but two lieux de mémoire: a museum-research center dedicated to France's past as a country of immigration and a historical muséum of overseas France. The mission of the first, the Cité Nationale de de l'Immigration (CNHI), to be overseen by the Ministère de l'Intégration, is to revitalize "le modèle républicain d'intégration 'à la française'" and "ressouder la cohésion nationale" against an apparently rising tide of communautarisme among immigrants. The historical muséum being installed in the former Musée des Colonies of the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition is to represent colonial and post-colonial migration as just one of many streams of immigrants to contribute to French society. * In this, the CNHI represents a significant intervention in culture wars over multiculturalism and ethno-religious particularity, and is implicated in political controversies about immigration, race, and Islam in a universalist, secular republic.

The second post-colonial muséum, initiated by the city of Marseille on the site of its 1906 and 1922 colonial exhibitions, is likewise caught up in contemporary politics. Unlike the colonial sections of the Musée de l'Armée in Paris which focus on military history, Marseille's d'Outre-Mer seeks to impart "une connaissance objective de de la France et des Français d'Outre-Mer." 2 From its inception,