France's Mare Nostrum: colonial and post‐colonial constructions of the French Mediterranean

Abstract

This article explores the ways French colonial constructions of the ‘Mediterranean’ as a cultural category have been appropriated in contemporary identity politics in North Africa and the North African diaspora in France. Focusing on colonial Algeria, I examine the relationship between two different constructions of trans‐Mediterranean unity ‐ primeval commonality versus hybridity ‐ directed alternately at Berber tribal subjects and European settlers. I argue that these two visions continue to underwrite contemporary projects for regional economic and political integration, as well as a diverse set of social imaginaires outlined by Amazigh and Beur militants in their writings and cultural political activities.