Despite increasingly hardened visions of racial difference in colonial governance in French Africa after World War I, interracial sexual relationships persisted, resulting in the births of thousands of children. These children, mostly born to African women and European men, sparked significant debate in French society about the status of multiracial people, debates historians have termed 'the métis problem.' Drawing on extensive archival and oral history research in Gabon, Republic of Congo, Senegal, and France, Rachel Jean-Baptiste investigates the fluctuating identities of métis. Crucially, she centres claims by métis themselves to access French social and citizenship rights amidst the refusal by fathers to recognize their lineage, and in the context of changing African racial thought and practice. In this original history of race-making, belonging, and rights, Jean-Baptiste demonstrates the diverse ways in which métis individuals and collectives carved out visions of racial belonging as children and citizens in Africa, Europe, and internationally.

Winner, 2024 David H. Pinkney Prize, Society for French Historical Studies

Finalist, 2024 Best Book Prize, African Studies Association

Winner, 2024 Martin A. Klein Prize, American Historical Association

‘This wonderful book opens up the question of race in Africa in two ways: departing from colonial visions of métissage, it follows instead how multiracial Africans themselves lived, conceived, and debated their identities in the French empire. Secondly, Jean-Baptiste demonstrates that local actors acted first and foremost as global thinkers, inventing forms of multiracial internationalism that still matter enormously today.’

Florence Bernault - Center for History, Science Po

‘Rachel Jean-Baptiste’s study of racially mixed people in colonial French Africa is not just the story of the making of a category but of the men and women who inhabited it, who tried to make their lives within a colonial racial order, and who acted collectively to challenge that order. Her deeply researched account brings out the ambiguous and contested meanings of race, colonialism, citizenship, and community.’

Frederick Cooper - New York University

‘This is a pathbreaking book that expands the history of childhood and race in Africa and rethinks our methods for studying intimacy and emotions. With case studies drawn from diverse archives, Jean-Baptiste combines a discussion of state welfare policy with attention to children’s rights and considers colonial sexualities from the point of view of Africans.’

Stephanie Newell - Yale University