Dr Berny Sèbe, D.Phil (Oxon), F.R.G.S.

Lecturer in colonial and post-colonial studies at the University of Birmingham

Resident at the Maison française d'Oxford

Background

I was born in Nice (Provence, France) and partly brought up in the Sahara desert, where I have been travelling since I was a child. For that reason, I was educated through the CNED (National Centre for Distance Learning, France). During that period, I became closely associated to the activities of my father, the French desert photographer and publisher Alain Sèbe, with whom I still regularly publish photographic books. I studied for my first degree (licence) and Master's (maîtrise) at the University of Aix-en-Provence, and for my doctorate at the University of Oxford (D.Phil in Imperial and Commonwealth History). During my time there, I also organised the Oxford University Expedition to Mauritania. My first full-time academic position was at the university of Durham, where I was a lecturer in African and imperial history (2007-8). I joined the French Department of the Centre for European Languages and Cultures and the ‘Culture, Society and Communication' programme of the University of Birmingham in September 2008, and I am a resident at the Maison française d'Oxford.

Description of doctoral research

My doctoral research (completed in June 2007) sought to analyse and document the ways in which British and French imperial heroes involved in the exploration, conquest or administration of Africa between 1870 and 1930 were selected, created and packaged in their respective countries. The representations of these envoys of the Western civilisation (who consisted mainly of explorers, missionaries, officers and administrators) reveal how Britain and France conceptualised their imperial role in Africa and how they projected their civilising mission. This work includes an analysis of the new media and journalistic trends, improved printing techniques and new pictorial means which were used in order to promote in the metropolis the reputations attached to imperial heroes. It also uncovers the networks of patronage, promotion and diffusion of cultural products that informed the perception of the Empire at home.

The analysis of these various factors helps historians establish an ‘epistemology of imperialism' through the case-study of colonial heroes. Outstanding individuals conquering little-known African lands for the good of their homeland represent the last instalment of the enduring tradition of Victorian heroes, and therefore deserve particular attention. The Indian Mutiny had provided grounds for new heroic accounts in the 1860s, with military figures like Sir John Nicholson, John and Henry Lawrence and above all Sir Henry Havelock elevated to mythic status. Then Africa, by far the most mysterious continent by the early 1870s, provided the appropriate mixture of remoteness, danger and ‘savagery' to enhance the unique appeal of either bold, daring and dashing military heroes, or simple, altruistic and exemplary religious figures.

In their attempt to carve out large shares of the African continent for themselves, Britain and France sought moral reasons to justify their endeavour. Social Darwinism was indeed a convenient rationale, and heroes embodied the racial superiority of their fellow-countrymen. Those who brought the Union Jack to remote places were cheered in Britain, and the same happened in France to these few Frenchmen who unfolded the tricolour in the heart of swampy rainforests or inhospitable deserts. Red and pink surfaces were expanding quickly on African maps, representing respectively British and French colonies. Once back to their home countries (or after they had been killed in service), these standard bearers of the ‘civilising mission' were widely celebrated. They gave rise to a series of cultural constructions reflecting the values and ideologies of the societies in which they were produced. They served to explain -and justify- the rise of the imperial state, personified national greatness and offered examples of self-sacrificing service.

My thesis (which I am currently revising for publication) offers the first historical analysis of the contemporary and posthumous discourses developed about British and French imperial heroes who acted in Africa, as well as the hidden mechanisms of hero-making which ensured their promotion to the public. It also produces new evidence about the reception of these heroes among metropolitan audiences.

Research

My research interests lie mainly in the history of nineteenth and twentieth century European imperialisms, decolonization and post-colonialism, with particular emphasis on the popular reception of imperialism and Empire-related subjects in the metropolitan centres.

My doctoral research looked at the processes of selection, construction and promotion of colonial heroes in Britain and in France between 1870 and the Second World War. It has led me to consider the variety of media which were used to promote the imperial idea in the metropolises, the networks of producers and systems of patronage which sustained them, and the reception of heroic propaganda by various types of audience. Drawing upon a variety of unpublished archives, it also analysed the various political, economic and individual interests which these cultural constructions served. I am currently revising this work for publication.

With colleagues from the European Studies Centre (University of Oxford), and as part of the ‘Re-Thinking Europe in a Non-European World' project, I work on the legacy of Europe's colonial past upon the EU and in its relations with the rest of the world. Developing comparative approaches to European imperialisms allows us to evaluate the extent to which colonial expansion stemmed from a core of shared assumptions and values while exacerbating political and economic rivalries, and how these conflicting roots and effects are negotiated in the post-colonial world against which the EU took shape.

On a more general level, I am interested in the history of Third- and Fourth-Republic France, and in Franco-British relations since the mid-nineteenth century. My next project looks at the practice and effects of colonial and post-colonial photography in Africa from the 1860s until the 1970s.

Areas of interest

British and French imperial history; decolonisation; post-colonialism

British and French popular imperialism

Comparative European colonialisms

History of the Sahara from 1880 to the present

Late modern French history; Franco-British relations

Doctoral thesis

"Celebrating" British and French imperialism: The Making of Colonial Heroes Acting in Africa (1870-1939), D. Phil, University of Oxford, 2007, supervised by Dr John Darwin, examined by Professors Judith M. Brown and John M. MacKenzie.

Book chapters

- ‘From Thoissey to the Capital via Fashoda: Major Marchand, partisan icon of the Right in Paris', in J. Irons (ed.), Paris and the Right in the Twentieth Century(Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006).

- Forthcoming: ‘Colonial celebrities in popular culture: Heroes of the British and French empires in the media, 1850-2000', in R. Clarke (ed.), Celebrity Colonialism(forthcoming: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008).

- Forthcoming: ‘Aventurières et voyageuses en Afrique de l'Ouest', in R. Little (ed.),Actes du Colloque international Lucie Cousturier, Les tirailleurs sénégalais et la question coloniale, (forthcoming: L'Harmattan (Paris), 2008).

Articles

Forthcoming: ‘In the shadow of the Algerian war: the United States and the Common Organisation of Saharan Regions/Organisation commune des régions sahariennes(OCRS), 1957-62'. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.

Forthcoming: ‘Porte-drapeaux de l'Empire : la promotion des héros coloniaux français et britanniques de la conquête de l'Afrique à la Seconde Guerre mondiale'. Synergies Royaume-Uni et Irlande.

‘Comment écrire l'histoire contemporaine en huit questions ?', Vingtième Siècle, No. 92, Oct.-Dec. 2006. (With other authors).

Selected non-academic publications

- Tibesti, Sahara interdit (ed., with Alain Sèbe) (Vidauban, 2005).

- Sahara, the Atlantic to the Nile, photos Alain Sèbe (London, 2003).

- Saharas, entre Atlantique et Nil, photos Alain Sèbe (Paris, 2001).

- Redjem, Libye des grands espaces, photos Alain Sèbe and Berny Sèbe (Vidauban, 2000).

- Alain Sèbe, L'Image du Sahara (Vidauban, 1999).

Conference and seminar papers

- Forthcoming: ‘Under Livingstone's shadow? The making of French imperial heroes under the Third Republic', Modern French Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 2 February 2009.

- ‘Confronting or endorsing French late colonial designs? Algerian and American reactions to the Organisation Commune des Régions Sahariennes, 1957-1962', Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of French History (SSFH), Aberystwyth, 4 July 2008

- ‘La gloire des empires français et britannique : les représentations des héros coloniaux en Afrique (1870-1939)', Centenary of the Franco-British Exhibition (London 1908) International Conference, Arts et cultures au tournant du siècle, Institut Français du Royaume-Uni (IFRU), London, 25-27 June 2008.

- ‘Aventurières et voyageuses en Afrique de l'Ouest', Colloque international Lucie Cousturier, Les tirailleurs sénégalais et la question coloniale, Espace culturel de Port-Fréjus, Fréjus, 13-14 June 2008.

- ‘Perspectives on European sea-borne imperialisms: the British and French experiences', Conference "Echoes of Imperialism: Re-Thinking European Colonialisms", University of Oxford, 9 May 2008.

- ‘British and French popular culture of Empire', Departmental Seminar, University of Durham, 20 February 2008.

- 'Explorateurs et conquérants du Sahara', Villa aurélienne, Fréjus, 20 November 2007.

- 'L'inscription des héros coloniaux dans le quotidien français et britannique', Marc Bloch Centre for Social Sciences (in partnership with the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Berlin, 6 July 2007.

- ‘Celebrating British and French imperialism: The Making of Colonial Heroes acting in Africa, 1870-1939', Imperial History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 5 February 2007.

- ‘Icons of Empire: British and French Imperial Heroes, 1870-1930', 1st Conference in Imperial and Commonwealth History, Sheffield Univeristy, 25 May 2006.

- ‘Spreading universalities: British and French imperial heroes, 1850-1940', Sixth Harvard Graduate Student Conference, Harvard University, 17-18 March 2006.

- ‘L'appel du désert', Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, Clermont-Ferrand, 12 May 2005.

- ‘The Making of British and French Imperial Heroes (1870-1930)', Cambridge World History Workshop, St Catharine's College, Cambridge University, 3 February 2005.

- ‘Imperial marketing and entente coloniale: The making of French colonial heroes (1870-1930)', Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies, Second annual conference, London, Institut français, 26-27 November 2004.

- ‘Celebrating British and French Imperial Heroes, 1870-1930', Commonwealth History Seminar, Faculty of Modern History, Oxford University, 7 March 2003.

- I have also co-convened the conference ‘Echoes of Imperialism: Re-Thinking European Colonialisms' (9-10 May 2008, Faculty of Modern History, Oxford University), the Durham Colonial and Post-Colonial Centre Seminar series (Epiphany and Easter terms 2008) and the Commonwealth History Research Seminar (Hilary term 2006, Faculty of Modern History, Oxford University).

- I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and a member of the American Historical Association. In Birmingham, I am a member of the Centre for Second World War Studies.