Events in recent years have made race and racism part of the public debate in France. These events include the 2016 death of Adama Traoré, who died in custody after being restrained by the police, and the beating of Michel Zecler, a Black music producer, by four policemen in 2020. France is now experiencing a growing mobilization against police violence. Many white French people are also trying to reckon with the concepts of race and racism, as well as with the country’s colonial past.

The process has not been easy. Politicians, including president Emmanuel Macron, have openly rejected American theories of race, gender, and postcolonialism, arguing that these theories go against the French Republic’s values of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.” Moreover, race remains a taboo subject in France, with the French state acting as if this reality does not exist—refusing, for instance, to include race and ethnicity as categories in its national census. The colonial history of France in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean also remains a touchy subject. And there is still much work to do in better integrating that history in school curricula and discussions about the so-called French identity.

The core materials featured below were published in the last 20 years. They represent a wide array of issues and stories that are essential in better understanding France and its complicated relation to race and its colonial past. The majority of the books were written by Black authors from France, the DOM-TOM, or France d’outre-mer (overseas French territories), Haiti, and Africa. A few books in the recommended reading section were written by white authors, but are deemed essential works for anyone working in French and Francophone studies.

In addition to literary and scholarly works, the list also includes bandes dessinées (comic books/graphic novels), which are considered a fine art in France and currently represent 25% of all book sales in the country. Comics and graphic novels are a great way to introduce students to French and are a popular teaching tool for instructors.

Core Materials

Comic Books

Abouet, Marguerite, and Clément Oubrerie. 2005. Aya de Yopougon. Paris: Gallimard.

Abouet, Marguerite, Clément Oubrerie, and Dag Dascher. 2008. Aya of Yop City. Montréal: Drawn & Quarterly.

Abouet, Marguerite, Charli Beléteau, Christian de Metter, and Alain Mabanckou. 2018. Terre gâtée. Paris: Rue de Sèvres.

Alagbé, Yvan. 2012. Nègres jaunes et autres créatures imaginaires, 1995-2011. Bruxelles: FRMK.

Alagbé, Yvan, and Donald Nicholson-Smith. 2018. Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures. New York: New York Review of Books.

Baruti, Barly, Christophe Cassiau-Haurie, and Appollo. 2014. Madame Livingstone: Congo, la Grande Guerre. Grenoble, France: Glénat.

Camus, Jean-Christophe, Sam Garcia, and Lilian Thuram. 2014. Notre histoire. Paris: Delcourt/Mirages.

Edimo, Christophe Ngalle, and S. Mbumbo. 2009. Malamine: Un africain à Paris. Vallauris: Enfants rouges.

Faro, and Kylian Mbappé. 2021. Je m’appelle Kylian. Paris: KM éditions.

Haurie, Christophe Cassiau, Christophe Ngalle Edimo, and Adjim Danngar. 2017. Mamie Denis. Évadée de la maison de retraite. Paris: L’Harmattan Editions Distribution.

Masson, Charles. 2009. Droit du sol. Paris: Casterman.

Pahé. La vie de Pahé. 2006. Liechtenstein: Editions Paquet.

Fiction

Amadou Amal, Djaïli. Les impatientes: Roman. 2020. Paris: Editions Emmanuelle Collas.

Amérique, Jean d’. Soleil à coudre: Roman. 2021. Arles: Actes sud.

Bulle, Estelle-Sarah. Là où les chiens aboient par la queue. 2018. Paris: Liana Levi.

———. Les étoiles les plus filantes. 2021. Paris: Liana Levi.

Chamoiseau, Patrick. Césaire, Perse, Glissant: les liaisons magnétiques: Essai. 2013. Paris: Philippe Rey.

———. La matière de l’absence: Roman. 2016. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

———. Frères migrants. 2017. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Chamoiseau, Patrick, Matthew Amos, and Fredrik Rönnbäck. 2018. Migrant Brothers: a Poet’s Declaration of Human Dignity. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Chamoiseau, Patrick. 2021. Le conteur, la nuit et le panier. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Condé, Maryse. 2006. Histoire de la femme cannibale. Paris: Mercure de France.

———. 2007. The Story of the Cannibal Woman: A Novel. Translated by Richard Philcox. New York: Atria Books.

Condé, Maryse. 2012. La vie sans fards. Paris: JC Lattès.

———. 2017. Le fabuleux et triste destin d’Ivan et Ivana: Roman. Paris: JC Lattès.

———. 2021. L’évangile du nouveau monde. Paris: Buchet-Chastel.

Dambury, Gerty. 2010. Enfouissements. Paris: Éditions du Manguier.

———. 2014. Des doutes et des errances: Suivi de Les Atlantiques amers. Paris: Les Editions du Manguier.

———. 2014. Le rêve de William Alexander Brown: Histoire du premier théâtre noir de New York, 1821: Essai. Paris: Les Éditions du Manguier.

Diome, Fatou. 2003. Le ventre de l’Atlantique. Paris: Anne Carrière.

———. 2006. The Belly of the Atlantic. Translated by Lulu Norman and Ros Schwartz. London: Serpent’s Tail.

Dominique, Jan J. 2016. L’écho de leurs voix. Montréal, Québec: Les Éditions du Remue-ménage.

Doyle Péan, Laura. 2020. Coeur Yoyo. Montréal, Québec: Memoire d’Encrier.

Gauz. 2014. Debout-Payé. Paris: Le Nouvel Attila.

Glissant, Édouard, and Patrick Chamoiseau. 2009. L’intraitable beauté du monde: Adresse à Barack Obama. Paris: Galaade.

Glissant, Édouard. 2011. The Overseer’s Cabin. Translated by Betsy Wing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

———. 2020. Sun of Consciousness.Translated by Nathanaël. New York: Nightboat Books.

———. 2020. Mahagony: a Novel. Translated by Betsy Wing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Kanor, Fabienne. 2014. Faire l’Aventure: Roman. Paris: JC Lattès.

———. 2016. Je ne suis pas un homme qui pleure: Roman. Paris: JC Lattès.

Laferrière, Dany. 2009. L’énigme du retour: Roman. Paris: Grasset.

———. 2020. L’exil vaut le voyage. Paris: Bernard Grasset.

Lahens, Yanick. 2014. Bain de lune: Roman. Deuxième tirage. Paris: Sabine Wespieser.

Lahens, Yanick, and Russell Banks. 2017. Moonbath. Translated by Emily Gogolak. Dallas, Texas: Deep Vellum Publishing.

Mars, Kettly. 2015. Je suis vivant. Paris: Mercure de France.

Mabanckou, Alain. 2015. Petit Piment: Roman. Paris: Seuil.

———. 2016. Le monde est mon langage. Paris: Bernard Grasset.

———. 2018. Les cigognes sont immortelles: Roman. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

———. 2018. The Tears of the Black Man. Translated by Dominic Thomas. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Mbougar Sarr, Mohamed. 2021. La plus secrète mémoire des hommes: Roman. Philippe Rey.

Noël, James. 2017. Belle merveille: Roman. Paris: Zulma.

N’Sondé, Wilfried. 2007. Le cœur des enfants léopards: Roman. Afriques. Arles, France: Actes sud.

———. 2010. Le silence des esprits: Roman. Lettres africaines. Arles: Actes sud.

———. 2012. Fleur de béton: Roman. Arles: Actes sud.

———. 2016. The heart of the leopard children. Translated by Karen Lindo. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

———. 2017. The silence of the spirits. Translated by Karen Lindo. Global African Voices. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press.

———. 2018. Concrete flowers. Translated by Karen Lindo. Global African Voices. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Orcel, Makenzy. 2018. Maître-minuit: Roman. Paris: Zulma.

Pierre-Dahomey, Néhémy. 2021. Combats: Roman. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Prophète, Emmelie. 2020. Les villages de Dieu. Montréal, Québec: Mémoire d’encrier.

Saint Eloi, Rodney. 2016. Passion Haïti. Québec, Québec: Les éditions du Septentrion.

Trouillot, Évelyne. 2003. Rosalie l’infâme. Paris: Dapper.

———. 2010. La mémoire aux abois: Roman. Paris: Hoëbeke.

———. 2013. The Infamous Rosalie = Rosalie l’infâme. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Trouillot, Lyonel. 2013. La parabole du failli: Roman. Arles: Actes sud.

———. 2016. Kannjawou: Roman. 1re édition. ed. Arles: Actes sud.

Victor, Gary. 2013. Cures et châtiments: Roman. Montréal, Québec: Mémoire d’encrier.

———. 2017. Haïti 2042: Les possibles futurs. Delmas: C3 Editions,

Recommended Readings

André, Lucie. 2019. Être actrice noire en France: (Dé)jouer les imaginaires. Paris: L’Harmattan.

Blanchard, Pascal, and Sylvie Chalaye. 2011. La France noire. Paris: Découverte.

Boni-Claverie, Isabelle. 2017. Trop noire pour être française. Paris: Tallandier.

Diallo, Elisa. 2019. Fille de France. Paris: Climats.

Fleming, Crystal Marie. 2017. Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press.

Germain, Félix F. 2016. Decolonizing the Republic: African and Caribbean Migrants in Postwar Paris, 1946-1974. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

Germain, Félix F., Silyane Larcher, and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting. 2018. Black French Women and the Struggle for Equality, 1848-2016. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Gillett, Rachel Anne. 2021. At Home in Our Sounds: Music, Race, and Cultural Politics in Interwar Paris. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Keaton, Trica Danielle., T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, and Tyler Edward Stovall. 2012. Black France/France noire: the History and Politics of Blackness. Durham, N.C: Duke University Press.

Maïga, Aïssa, Nadège Beausson-Diagne, and Charlotte Rotman. 2018. Noire n’est pas mon métier. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Mitchell, Robin. 2020. Vénus noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press.

Mokanda, Serg. 2011. Un Noir en colère: Lettre ouverte d’un Noir de France à Marianne. Paris: Afromundi.

Ndiaye, Macodou, and Florence Alexis. 2019. Les Noirs en France du 18ème siècle à nos jours. Paris: Paari éditeur.

Pitts, Johny. 2020. Afropean: Notes from Black Europe. London: Penguin Books.

Sagot-Duvauroux, Jean-Louis. 2004. On ne naît pas noir, on le devient. Paris: Albin Michel.

Thomas, Dominic. 2007. Black France: Colonialism, Immigration, and Transnationalism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Soumahoro, Maboula. 2020. Le triangle et l’hexagone: Réflexions sur une identité noire. Paris: La Découverte.

Steil, Laura. 2021. Boucan!: Devenir quelqu’un dans le milieu afro. Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Midi.

Traoré, Assa, and Geoffroy de Lagasnerie. 2019. Le combat Adama. Paris: Stock.

Traoré, Mahi, and Frédéric Beghin. 2021. Je suis noire mais je ne me plains pas, j’aurais pu être une femme. Paris: Robert Laffont.