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Celebration, Commemoration and the Postcolonial World 

Professor Robert Aldrich

In 1931, Parisians, people from other parts of France and tourists from far beyond flocked to Paris to ‘see the whole world in a single day’, as posters and handbills boasted. Their destination was the Exposition Coloniale Internationale, the grandest colonial jamboree ever held in France and, arguably, in all of Europe. Visitors marvelled at a reconstruction of the temple of Angkor Wat, suitably floodlit in the evening, and at the West African temple of Djenné. They queued for the pavilions of Algeria, Tunisia, the Congo, Tahiti and the other French colonies, as well as the colonies of other powers: countries such as Italy, Denmark and the United States had pavilions there. They applauded performances of lithe Khmer dancers and saluted African soldiers on parade - the tirailleurs sénégalais who had won fame in the First World War...

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