Voices from the Margins

Too often, France's overseas territories are discussed but not heard. Media coverage tends to focus on crises—hurricanes, protests, political tensions—while everyday life and cultural vitality receive less attention. Academic studies frequently analyze these regions through metropolitan lenses, missing local perspectives and ways of knowing.

"We're tired of being studied like insects," says Karyl Petit, a young entrepreneur in Guadeloupe. "We have our own intellectuals, our own artists, our own innovators. It's time for the world to listen to what we have to say about ourselves."

This book prioritizes these local voices. Through interviews with residents of all ages and backgrounds—fishermen and software developers, traditional healers and hip-hop artists, independence activists and French loyalists—it presents a chorus of perspectives on what it means to be French and overseas in the 21st century.