Sovereignty and Coloniality in the French‐Speaking Pacific: A Reflection on the Case of New Caledonia, 1980–2021

Abstract

ABSTRACTFollowing the end of Indigénat rule (1946), Kanaks as the Indigenous people of New Caledonia entered the political world to claim their rights as full French citizens, demand recognition of their identity, and subsequently assert their independence and the sovereignty of their own country. Nine years after the May 4, 1989 drama of Ouvéa, where Jean‐Marie Tjibaou, Yeiwéné Yeiwéné and Jubely Wea were killed, the Noumea Accord (May 1998) introduced the idea of a new form of French citizenship for the people living in New Caledonia and provided a framework for three consultations on the country's accession to full sovereignty. The Accord also raised the foundational question of how any form of incorporation in the French state could avoid denying Kanak identity while taking into account the political desires of various other populations who lived in New Caledonia before 1988. From the stance of an anti‐colonial anthropologist rooted in the colonial metropole and conducting fieldwork in a colonial context, this article undertakes a review of almost half a century of debates over the articulations of independence versus sovereignty at the heart of the New Caledonian debate, the campaigns for the referendums and their results, and the diverse forces present. Ultimately, I conclude that what is sometimes put forward as ‘decolonization inside the republic’ may also be understood as a form of re‐colonization.