Laurent Dubois. Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. xx + 329 pp. $27.50, cloth, ISBN 978-0-520-25928-7.

Paul A. Silverstein. Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. x + 298 pp. $49.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-253-34451-9.

Reviewed by Ian Coller

Published on H-Levant (April, 2011)

Commissioned by Amy A. Kallander (Syracuse University)

The word shared in the titles of these two bound these territories together for more than a books is “France,” but that word can mean many century. It is also a France of multiple transversal diferent things. In Laurent Dubois’s recent and identifcations that challenge the postcolonial highly readable book Soccer Empire, “France” is French and Algerian nation-states from within. the mass-merchandised brand of Les Bleus, the What these two books show, then, is that France French national football team. At the same time must be understood in a plural sense. Too many “France” is a far more fragmented territorial English-speaking observers--whether neoconser‐ sovereignty scattered from the Caribbean to the vative France-haters or multiculturalist critics of Pacifc. This is a France métissée, a product of the “republican” model--have fallen into the trap multiple crossings, both slave and free. The of projecting a unitary vision of France, a France France of Paul Silverstein’s close participant-ob‐ stripped of its messiness, its ambiguities, its con‐ servation of Algerians in Paris, is both France and tradictions. These two authors--following on from Algeria at once, perpetuating in underground seminal works by Tyler Stovall, Gary Wilder, and ways the coerced and ruptured connections that others--represent a diferent and refreshing trend, H-Net Reviews one which deserves the full attention of all seri‐ European Cup two years later. This victory is the ous students of contemporary France, colonialism central tableau of Dubois’s book, and he insists and postcolonial theory.[1] that it must be understood as a key event in mod‐ What these books share is a wholehearted ern French history. For the crowds pouring onto commitment to the people who live in this plural the streets, more numerous even than those who France, a determination to tell their individual welcomed the Liberation of 1944, it certainly stories in all their complexity, and to build from seemed so. There is little doubt that this moment that base toward a wider analysis of French soci‐ brought the diversity of the French population ety, its structures, and challenges. Silverstein ap‐ into the spotlight in a way that nothing else had proaches his subjects through the medium of ev‐ done before. A few churlish xenophobes com‐ eryday life, following the random individuals en‐ plained that the team was not “really French,” but countered in his feld work in the 1990s, applying Dubois makes a convincing case that the victory an ethnographical methodology with a highly crit‐ changed many people’s understanding of what ical and self-refexive awareness of the environ‐ that “real” France could be. ment he shared with them. As much an outsider Sport can be discomforting to the historian as those he studied, Silverstein is able to strip because of the role that pure chance plays in its away many of the preconceptions of French and outcomes. In this instance it seems possible that a even of Algerian observers: he does not present random case of food-poisoning sealed Brazil’s fate this space as a “problem” of integration or of po‐ and allowed the black-blanc-beur (black-white- litical loyalties, but as a space in its own right, as Arab) French team to win. Would a French loss he aptly frames it, a “transpolitical” space. have changed the understanding of diversity in The names that pepper Dubois’s story are the long term? As historians we try to analyze the much more glamorous: Zinadine Zidane, Lilian processes at work across apparently random Thuram, . These are names familiar events, and Dubois certainly marshals a vast to anyone with the remotest interest in football, range of references to contextualize the responses but Dubois uses their compelling rags-to-riches to that victory. It is important to recognize, how‐ stories to illuminate a raft of other less prestigious ever, that in the case of sport it is precisely the players and teams, along with their families, their sense of play, of luck, of miracle even, that defnes neighbors, and the histories from which they its attraction. In that sense, sport must inevitably emerged. Soccer Empire is above all the story of explode from within our best attempts to contain the French team, not a sociological analysis of the it within a rational, historical explanation. One of sport itself. Indeed, in many ways it is an the great strengths of Dubois’s book is how fully unashamed paean to that team, to its diversity, its he gives rein to this other passion, how vividly he strength, and its skill. It is a celebration of the ex‐ brings to life in his writing the roller coaster emo‐ traordinary moments of possibility that football tions of exhilaration and despondency. That inti‐ seemed to open up in the World Cup of 1998 and macy and involvement might seem to place into again in 2006, moments that few observers of question its historiographical “objectivity”--but France could aford to ignore. Dubois is very clear what kind of a book this is, and it deserves to be understood both as a great The triumph of the French soccer team football book, and as an experiment in a new kind against Brazil in 1998, on the home turf and in of histoire engagée. front of a jubilant crowd, is the only World Cup France has ever won in the eighty-year history of In Dubois’s hands, the story of the French na‐ the competition, a triumph sealed by winning the tional soccer team is much more than just a can‐

2 H-Net Reviews vas for the great sporting moments of exaltation licking story allows ample space for all these ele‐ and despair: it opens a space for exploring some ments to coexist, but they are never quite pulled of the more shadowy aspects of French colonial together into an overarching argument. and postcolonial history. His early chapters inves‐ Algeria in France provides a more tightly ana‐ tigate the ambivalent insertion of sport in the fab‐ lytical framework: Silverstein is acutely conscious ric of colonial society--as a “safe” activity to occu‐ of the powerful genealogy of anthropological py colonial workers as their working hours were knowledge about Algeria, and in particular the gradually reduced, or as the terrain for the rising Kabyle household (axxam) which played a crucial resentments of the colonized, which would even‐ role in the ethnological theory of Pierre Bourdieu. tually explode into years of violence and repres‐ Silverstein both challenges and renews these sion. These conficts are never black and white, al‐ ideas, reconsidering Bourdieu’s “structural nostal‐ though race and color play a powerful role in gia” in the context of populations displaced dur‐ their development. Between colonizer and colo‐ ing the Algerian War, and resituating questions of nized are a panoply of other contradictory fg‐ space and spatializing practice in the urban sub‐ ures--the black colonial governor who fought urbs of Paris. He emphasizes the ways in which against Vichy; harkis who fought for the French ethnicity was shaped and even produced by larg‐ in Algeria; Kanak New Caledonians traumatized er historical events, and then maps these forma‐ by their experience in a Parisian “human zoo,” Al‐ tions of identity back into the everyday lives of in‐ gerian Jews playing on Muslim teams to make up dividuals and groups in France. He shows very ef‐ “European” quotas. Football is a thread that con‐ fectively how these formations have become as nects the lives of these people in tangled ways, French as they are Algerian, articulating them‐ dispelling any sense that there is any simple “na‐ selves increasingly alongside Breton, Catalan, and tional” story to be told. Basque regionalisms, extending solidarity to other Dubois--an eminent historian of the Haitian Berberophone populations in North Africa, while Revolution--never succumbs to the temptation to seeking shelter under the transnational umbrella simplify these concatenating realities. In giving of the European Union on questions such as hu‐ historical shape to this diversity, he shows how man rights. deeply rooted in French history the ethnic and re‐ Such transformations are part of the phenom‐ ligious plurality of the French team of 1998 actu‐ enon that Silverstein identifes as “transpolitics”-- ally was, with its white convert to Islam, its Antil‐ an increasingly deterritorialized set of claims and lean players of various backgrounds, its French contestations that no longer take as their ground a Arabs and Berbers and Basques and Africans. One single nation-state--in this case France or Algeria. group not represented in the team, of course, is Yet in drawing upon these powerful genealogies the other half of the population: women’s sport for his analysis, at times the inherited ethno‐ has never been given the same recognition as the graphical focus seems to infect his argument games of men. But women are neither absent nor away from the wider implications of “transpoli‐ passive in this story: they can be formative infu‐ tics.” From the title of his doctoral thesis and ear‐ ences, like Thuram’s charismatic grandmother; lier publications, it seems that Silverstein’s origi‐ agents of political action, like the young woman nal feldwork was devoted to the question of who led the pitch-invasion during the Algeria- “Berberity” rather than to “Algeria”: and for this France match of 2001; or international athletes in reason all of his subjects were Kabyle (a term for their own right, like the track star Marie-José Tamazight-speaking eastern Algerians, with an in‐ Péréc. This rich multiplicity is a both an advan‐ tage and a disadvantage of Soccer Empire--the rol‐

3 H-Net Reviews digenous/Berber identifcation), some of them ac‐ clear in presenting football as a kind of vanguard tivists in enforced exile in France. and model for political change, arguing that “the Both Dubois and Silverstein make reference mass communion that took place in the streets in to , a French citizen born in Mar‐ 1998, liberating many from the shackles of their seille of Algerian parents, who takes great pride in own uncertainty about their place in French soci‐ his identifcation as a Kabyle. But, as Dubois ety, should serve as a charter for a diferent way notes, at other moments Zidane has spoken of of being French” (p. 169). But for others, sport is himself as an “Arab” in terms of his wider cultural no more than a distraction, or, worse, a substitute attachment. This “Arab” question is almost entire‐ for political change. Silverstein expresses such ly absent from Silverstein’s study, and with it the doubts in his book, seeing football instead as a majority of Algerians, whether in Algeria or colonial instrument and an expression of multina‐ France, who identify themselves primarily as tional corporate interests. In a 2000 article on soc‐ Arabs. Of course, many Kabyles consider them‐ cer he argued that “the celebratory discourse of selves wholly distinct from any Arab identifca‐ multiculturalism in the wake of the World Cup tion, and reject the “Arabization”--sometimes ex‐ victory was itself largely predicated on the active tremely violent--enforced by the Algerian state. suppression of certain kinds of cultural and reli‐ But to project “Algeria in France” solely through gious diference deemed incompatible or danger‐ the prism of Berber nationalism is problematic. ous to the French nation.”[2] Dubois shows that Dubois, in contrast, brings a much more volatile some French footballers--notably Lilian Thuram-- and plural set of identifcations in the Antilles to have engaged in political activism, speaking out bear on his discussion of these Algerian confgu‐ with great force and clarity, and shaping the de‐ rations, and this external gaze allows some of bate in important ways. But this highly articulate these complexities to appear in ways that Algeri‐ use of celebrity has not opened the way to in‐ an nationalisms, whether Arab or Kabyle, may creased diversity in the ranks of government, in‐ not. dustry, or the media in France. Both Silverstein and Dubois struggle to see a way forward out of Despite this limitation, Algeria in France is a the trap of tokenism, with varying degrees of opti‐ critical work in opening up a broader considera‐ mism about the future. tion of the complex set of identifcations running between France, Algeria, and the wider Arab and These divergent viewpoints come together Muslim world. That world today includes large di‐ again in considering the “riots” of November asporic populations across Europe, the Americas, 2005, triggered by the deaths of two young men in and Australasia, and new factors such as the inde‐ a Paris suburb after a chase by police. Those pendent Arab media (Al Jazeera, al-Arabiyya) and events came too late to be treated in Silverstein’s the blogosphere. Silverstein’s analysis of “trans‐ book, but Dubois builds in many ways quite close‐ politics” is more relevant than ever in regard to ly on Silverstein’s subsequent writings on the sub‐ the recent wave of democratic revolutions sweep‐ ject.[3] What both writers recognize is that these ing across the Arab world, and in understanding events provoked an important act of protest by their implications for the future of France: his the inhabitants of the banlieue against deteriorat‐ book should be required reading for addressing ing urban conditions--poor housing, unemploy‐ these new global conditions. ment, lack of infrastructure--but also against their exclusion from the wider French society. That ex‐ But the real change efected by these revolu‐ clusion was summed up in the contemptuous way tions confronts us with a question. Does sport re‐ that , then minister of the interior, ally ofer a path to a new politics? Dubois is very dismissed as racaille (scum) those who booed his

4 H-Net Reviews arrival in a Paris housing project, ofering to clean nounce judgment on the man himself, insisting in‐ them out with a pressure-hose. Despite Dubois’s stead on the nation’s admiration and respect for unequivocal celebration of 1998, he does not pull Zidane as a great French player. Does this difer‐ his punches in describing the violence of 2005. ent response to a critical moment of loss and vio‐ Both writers see this three-week uprising as a lence suggest a gradual transformation in the un‐ turning point, and as a form of political protest derstanding of French identity and the role of di‐ rather than an “eruption” of violence as the versity? Or is it an extension of the football excep‐ French media so often portrayed it. But six years tionalism that has allowed national fans to em‐ on from those protests (and their lesser known se‐ brace individual players while rejecting their quels) it is not clear how much change has really Arab and black neighbors? In the end, the great taken place: indeed, recent indications suggest a virtue of Dubois’s book is in accepting that it is surge in support for the xenophobic right as the both, and in his vivid picture of his own struggle economic downturn stretches on. to comprehend this incident which seemed to Dubois’s book closes with the famous coup de bruise his own belief in the redemptive power of boule that ended Zinadine Zidane’s participation football. What Dubois and Silverstein show, with in the World Cup fnal of 2006, and marked the considerable panache, is that the historian and last act of his football career. At the heart of that the anthropologist--not always in agreement, but event is a question--not just the unanswerable rid‐ in dialogue with one another--can engage in the dle of what the Italian player Marco Materazzi fray itself, not just stand on the sidelines taking said to provoke Zidane into headbutting him in notes. the chest, but the question of what political or his‐ Notes torical signifcance we should attach to such an [1]. Tyler Stovall, Paris Noir: African Ameri‐ act. Unlike Thuram, Zidane long shied away from cans in the City of Light (New York: Houghton Mif‐ direct political involvement, preferring to keep fin Press, 1996); Tyler Stovall and Sue Peabody, his private life out of the public eye. But he found The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France himself drawn nonetheless into the highly (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003); and Gary charged political relationships between France, Wilder,The French Imperial Nation-State: Negri‐ Algeria, and what Silverstein calls “Algeria in tude and Colonial Humanism between the Two France,” most notably in organizing the “friendly” World Wars (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, match between French and Algerian national 2005). See also John Bowen, Can Islam be French? teams in 2001. Intended to promote reconcilia‐ Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State tion, the match ended in a pitch-invasion by (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010). French Algerians when it became clear that [2]. Paul Silverstein, “Sporting Faith Islam, France was heading for victory. In the hands of Soccer, and the French Nation-State,” Social Text many French critics, that moment became a con‐ 18 (2000): 42. frmation (only a month after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington) that French [3]. Paul Silverstein and Chantal Tetreault, citizens of “Arab” backgrounds had no intention “Postcolonial Urban Apartheid,” online at http://ri‐ of integrating into French society. otsfrance.ssrc.org/Silverstein_Tetreault/. Zidane’s 2006 gesture, however, elicited re‐ (?) markably diferent responses. While expressing regret about the incident, many French observers, from President Chirac down, refused to pro‐

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Citation: Ian Coller. Review of Dubois, Laurent. Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France. ; Silverstein, Paul A. Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation. H-Levant, H-Net Reviews. April, 2011.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32840

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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