A French Family: from the Caribbean to Dunkirk by way of Algeria

To RSVP, please click here. In this intimate family history that spans from the 1930s to today, Audrey Celestine traces fragments of the lives of three generations of the same family. The history moves from the Caribbean to Algeria and the Mediterranean and passes through the North of France. It shows how one family’s small history can shed light on the larger political and social history. Minerva’s parents fled Franco’s Spain for Algeria in the 1930s. Marcel was born in Marie-Galante and met Ginette at Dunkirk. Pierrot was born in Fort-de-France before moving to metropolitan France.

Their lives reflect how colonization, Empire, and decolonization shaped the lives, friendships, loves, and trajectories of one family over the course of a century.

Audrey Celestine is a Maître de conférences at the Université de Lille and a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France.