The decolonization process in New Caledonia
- Interview with Benoît Trépied — Chargé de recherche — CNRS (IRIS)
“Do you want New Caledonia to gain full sovereignty and become independent?” Since 1988 New Caledonia has embarked on a process of decolonization with the French state. The referendum, to be held on November 4, 2018, will be about full sovereignty, that is to say the transfer of sovereign powers from France to New Caledonia (in the realms of defense, public order, money, justice, and international relations). It will bring the 1998 Noumea accord process to a close, under which all other powers have already been transferred to the local authorities. With the referendum a few months off, anthropologist Benoît Trépied analyzes the various competing forces rooted in the long-term history of the colonized territory. How did independentist demands first emerge in the context of the civil war in the early 1980s? Which citizens will be able to cast a vote on independence? Is statutory independence the equivalent of decolonizing local relations of dominance?
Summary
A few months ahead of the referendum to be held on November 4, 2018, on full sovereignty, Benoît Trépied provides in-depth analysis of the state of the various competing forces, and of social issues stemming from centuries of colonization.
Last modified on 10-26-2022
Original language: English Lire la version French
- Biography
- Bibliography of Benoît Trépied
“Le sang, le nom, la coutume. Controverses judiciaires sur la paternité kanak en Nouvelle-Calédonie”, Ethnologie française, n° 1, 2018, p. 57-68.
“Une histoire kanak contre l'indépendance. Relectures familiales du passé colonial en Nouvelle-Calédonie”, in S. Billaud et al (eds.), Histoires de famille. Les récits du passé dans la parenté contemporaine, Paris, Éditions Rue d'Ulm, 2015, p. 141-162.
“Une nouvelle question indigène outre-mer ?”, La Vie des idées, 15 mai 2012.
(with Adrian Muckle), “In the long ‘run’: Kanak stockmen, the cattle frontier and colonial power relations in New Caledonia”, Oceania, n° 80, 2010, p. 198-215.
Une mairie dans la France coloniale. Koné, Nouvelle-Calédonie, Paris, Karthala, 2010.
