It all started in 1903, when Governor Ernest Roume, head of French West Africa (AOF), decided to set up dedicated spaces for children born to French fathers and "native" mothers, the " Bastards of the Republic ". In the Ivory Coast colony, the "Foyer des métis" was born in the majestic old Palace of the governors of Bingerville.

André Manket, 90, was one of the first residents. He has tears in his eyes when he tells about his kidnapping. "They came to look for me in my fishing village of Anono and took me by force. I was seven years old. My aunt was crying ...", testifies the old man, who arrived in Bingerville surrounded by two colonial guards. "I was told: 'Guerard', your father's name is over. Now, you will take your mother's name". We also gave him a number: 39. This meant that before him, there were 38 boys and girls, whose only common point was the color of their skin, mixed.

Trauma

Maurice Berthet does not understand. He is not French, but he nevertheless owns land in Vitry-le-Francois, which he obtained by inheritance ... "My father never abandoned me! But he did not know how to do it. He cut wood and lived in the forest, "he explains.

Abandonment is one thing, loss of identity is another. To have access to Bingerville and to the status of "pupil of the Nation", you had to declare yourself "orphans", even when you were not. 

Same story for Calile Sahily, the president of the Association of former students of the orphanage and the Foyer des métis (AEFOCI). "How could we be yesterday pupils of the Nation - and therefore children of the French State - and not be French today? It is an aberration!", He points out.

They may be now over 80, but the trauma is still very much alive. "We were the laughing stock of all. Our mothers were treated like prostitutes", also explains Monique Yace. "We were treated like bastards, scratched skin ... Putting ourselves in the orphanage was legalizing abandonment," adds Philippe Meyer. All of them today see themselves as "victims of colonization".

Well educated, most of these half-breeds have integrated well into Ivorian society. Jeanne Reinach, née Langui, is the product of this generation of hidden children. If it bears the name of one of the richest French families of the pre-war period, it has, however, never obtained French nationality. She had to wait 77 years to learn that her grandfather, Théodore Reinach, was a member of parliament for Savoie, a member of the Institut de France, owner of castles and villas ... "We are angry with France because it did nothing for us, "she says, bitter.

"Putting the debate on the table"

 At the independence of Ivory Coast in 1960, the question of these children was never put on the table. "Those who succeeded in obtaining French nationality are those who were made, before their majority, a supplementary birth certificate by specifying that the father was presumed to be of French origin", explains Patricia Armand, secretary general of AEFOCI. Still had to be informed ... The lawyer is also the granddaughter of a settler, but she never managed to find the traces of her grandfather, Fernand Combaluzier, yet land administrator.

Many Ivorians now want France to take inspiration from Belgium, which in April 2019 officially apologized to Métis children born in its former colonies. Last month, five Métis women, born in colonized Congo, sued the Kingdom for "crimes against humanity". They denounce systematic kidnappings of children like them, between 1911 and 1960. 

Will France in turn be targeted by this type of approach? Auguste Miremont, former Minister of Communication for Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who also grew up in the Foyer des Métis, believes that "now is the time to put this debate calmly on the table".

>> See our special program: "Memories of Africa, slavery and colonization"

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