“Vous n’êtes pas venus en paix / Votre histoire est agressive” : Postcolonial and memorial resistance in the work of Kery James

During the ‘memory wars’ in 1990s and 2000s France, various memorial narratives came forward in the public space, challenging the ‘roman national’, notably regarding the French colonial and slavery past. Besides grassroots movements and state officials, some rappers also took on this memory work. Delving into the work of Kery James, I aim to reveal the literary, musical, and visual elements he uses to create a dissonant memory of the French colonial past. Through name-dropping and storytelling, the rapper places the experiences of people of colour at the centre of his narrative, ultimately giving them a place in the French narrative. In that sense, I argue that Kery James is a memory activist and a public historian, using his rap to promote a multidirectional memory of French colonial history, while giving his audience keys to understand (their) history. This contributes to picturing rap music as a powerful tool of resistance, including in the historical and memorial fields.