"Kanaky independence is a political objective and also a philosophical
and ethical necessity, aiming to restore the dignity and autonomy of apeople who aspire to live in harmony with their history, culture, and
environment." ---- This statement is from Yewa Waetheane, a Kanak
independence activist arrested following the youth uprising in Nouméa in
May 2024, imprisoned in France with six other Kanak activists, and then
released last June with a travel ban. ---- After being interviewed on
Radio Libertaire on September 22
(https://www.trousnoirs-radio-libertaire.org), Yewa wrote this text for
Le Monde Libertaire online, in which he recounts more than 170 years of
colonization in New Caledonia. ---- Kanaky: The State Perfects Its
Colonization
Since September 24, 1853 (1), Kanaky has been subjected to a structured
colonization based on specific mechanisms: land dispossession, forced
labor, military repression, and racial codification. The application of
the Indigenous Code in 1887 initially allowed for the organization of
domination through law, and its abolition in January 1946 did not end
the system, which simply modernized. From 1956 onward (2), the State
replaced these brutal tools with statutes of "autonomy" that were not
truly autonomous. Each text transferred symbolic powers but retained the
essentials: sovereignty, justice, and public order remained under the
control of the institutions. Domestic law became the primary tool for
maintaining colonial rule.
Colonial Law and State Violence
When the Kanak people organized politically, Paris recentralized power
and launched a massive population policy to disrupt the demographic
balance, weaken the pro-independence vote, and reduce the indigenous
population to a minority (3). This mechanism, designed to circumvent
international law, aimed to create a "mixed" electoral population in
order to make self-determination in accordance with UN standards impossible.
The successive statutes of the 1970s and 80s served the same strategy:
to announce progress while neutralizing any real advancement. As soon as
a text came too close to the right to independence, it was modified or
abandoned. Even the official recognition of the "colonial fact" in 1983
(4) was immediately emptied of substance. To reaffirm who remained in
control, the State then resorted to violence (state of emergency in
January 1985, "Operation Victor," the military operation on the island
of Ouvéa in May 1988).
Matignon Accords: Autonomy Under Tutelage
The boycotted 1987 referendum (5) illustrates another mechanism:
domestic law organizes a democratic charade to fabricate colonial
legitimacy. The Matignon Accords of June 1988 framed an autonomy under
tutelage, where any transfer of powers depends on the State,
constitutionally guaranteed in Articles 76 and 77. By confining Kanaky
within a French constitutional framework, Paris provides itself with a
legal shield; all international law relating to the right of peoples to
self-determination takes a back seat to the Constitution, allowing the
State to legally circumvent the spirit of decolonization while
"formally" respecting its own laws. The perverse effects are clear: a
manipulated population to stifle the indigenous majority, controlled
institutions, biased referendums, limited autonomy, and the
impossibility of a sovereign choice. Domestic law serves to legitimize
domination, while international law is neutralized by constitutional
mechanisms. Colonialism changes its tools, but not its objective: to
prevent the Kanak people from fully exercising their right to
self-determination.
Nouméa Accord, "electoral freeze"
With the Nouméa Accord (6), the State seemed to recognize the Kanak
people's right to self-determination, but it immediately locked down the
process by constitutionalizing the rules of the game: conditional
transfers, referendums controlled by Paris. The electoral freeze (7) is
not a "gift"; it is the bare minimum to prevent the settlement policy
pursued since colonization from turning the referendum into a colonial
farce. But even this mechanism, intended to protect the victims of
history, is now a target, and the State is seeking to unlock it in order
to restore electoral weight to an imported population, reconfigured and
manufactured by a century of demographic colonization. The third
referendum of December 12, 2021, was imposed despite the unanimous
request for postponement from customary authorities, as Kanak families
needed an extended period of mourning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This
demonstrates how domestic law is being used as a tool to circumvent the
right of peoples to self-determination. The unilaterally decided
timetable disregards local customs and traditions, and the absence of
the indigenous people in the voting booth (56% abstention rate)
effectively closes the case. Paris used its own legal framework to
produce a result contrary to the spirit of decolonization while claiming
to respect the legal framework.
The "Bougival Agreement," Demographic Engineering
The Bougival Agreement of July 12, 2025, rejected by the FLNKS on August
13, follows the same logic. Presented as a "break from the referendum
cycle," it is in reality a tool to reintroduce demographic engineering
into institutional law. By definitively opening the electorate, it
eliminates one of the few remaining protective mechanisms and paves the
way for a New Caledonia where the Kanak vote will once again be
marginalized, not by political choice, but by constitutional decree. The
State is using the force of its domestic law to neutralize a principle:
the international right to self-determination. Bougival thus allows
Paris to disguise this maneuver as "democratic modernization," when it
is clearly a return to classic colonial tools: controlling institutions,
redefining who has the right to vote, and creating an artificial
electoral majority favorable to remaining within the Republic.
The FLNKS, a historical partner in the previous agreements, refuses to
adhere to them because it sees precisely what is at stake: a
confiscation of sovereignty through constitutional mechanisms, rendering
independence legally unattainable. Thus, through domestic law, the State
circumvents the decolonization stipulated by the UN and reconstructs a
status in which Kanaky remains French not by popular choice, but by
legal structure. What Paris can no longer impose by force, it locks down
through domestic law, redefining who votes, when, and how, manipulating
demographics to fabricate a majority, using referendums as weapons, and
blocking self-determination behind constitutional articles to present
manipulation as "dialogue," colonial engineering as "reform," and the
confiscation of genuine sovereignty as "peace." Bougival is merely the
ultimate expression of this strategy: neutralizing the Kanak people,
circumventing international law, and maintaining Kanaky as French not
through the will of the country, but through its legal framework. It
must be stated unequivocally: as long as Paris decides who counts as a
citizen, who can vote, and within what framework the country's future is
determined, Kanaky will remain trapped in a system designed to last.
Beneath its legal veneer, France is not ending colonization; it is
perfecting it.
Faced with this cold, calculating machine, one fact remains, stubborn
and unalterable: no people has ever renounced its right to political
existence.
The Kanak people are not asking for permission to become sovereign; they
are simply reminding France that no legal framework can erase its
legitimacy or indefinitely stifle its march toward independence.
Yewa Waetheane
Notes
(1) Rear Admiral Febvrier-Despointes takes possession of New Caledonia
in the name of Emperor Napoleon III. A penal colony is established there
the following year.
(2) June 23, 1956: Gaston Defferre's framework law creates a territorial
assembly and a local governing council.
(3) In 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Messmer advocated various measures to
avert the danger of a "nationalist movement by the indigenous population
by improving the numerical balance of the communities": "mass
immigration of metropolitan French citizens," "systematic immigration of
women and children," and "reserving jobs for immigrants in private
companies."
(4) July 1984: The Nainville-les-Roches Round Table recognized the Kanak
people's "innate and active right to independence" and referred to them
as "victims of history."
(5) Since the requirement for participation was only three years of
residency, pro-independence supporters called for a boycott: of the
50.1% of voters, 98% favored remaining within the French Republic.
(6) May 5, 1998: The French State transferred powers to New Caledonia,
with the exception of defense, security, justice, and currency.
A referendum on independence is planned, followed by a second and then a
third if the first fails.
(7) Residents of New Caledonia before 1998, as well as their
descendants, are eligible to vote, provided they have resided in the
territory for ten consecutive years beforehand.
https://monde-libertaire.net/?articlen=8696
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