Kery James - Lettre à la République
Selected Excerpts
Ce passé colonial, c'est le vôtre
C'est vous qui avez choisi de lier votre histoire à la nôtre
Et maintenant vous devez assumer
L'odeur du sang vous poursuit, même si vous vous parfumez
Nous les Arabes et les Noirs, on est pas là par hasard
Toute arrivée a son départ
Vous avez souhaité l'immigration
Grâce à elle, vous vous êtes gavés, jusqu'à l'indigestion
[…]
En pleine crise économique, il faut un coupable
Et c'est en direction des musulmans que tous vos coups partent
J'n'ai pas peur de l'écrire, la France est islamophobe
D'ailleurs plus personne ne s'en cache dans la France des xénophobes
Vous nous traitez comme des moins que rien, sur vos chaînes publiques
Et vous attendez de nous qu'on s'écrie "Vive la République »
Song Name: Lettre à la République
Artist: Kery James
Year: 2012
Country: France
Language: French
Archive themes: Citizenship · Racialisation · State violence · Belonging
Artist Profile: French rapper of Haitian descent, born in Guadeloupe in 1977 and raised in Paris, France. He converted to Islam in the 1990s and is widely recognised for politically engaged work addressing racism, colonial legacies and the exclusion of Muslim communities in France.
Archival Notes
Lettre à la République is framed as a direct address to the French state, mobilising the format of an open letter to interrogate the historical and political foundations of the Republic. Through a sustained critique of colonialism, immigration policy and contemporary racism, the song situates the experiences of immigrant populations within longer histories of French imperial violence in Algeria and wider Africa. Kery James explicitly links post-war migration to colonial extraction, labour exploitation and military service, insisting that the presence of Arab and Black communities in France is the outcome of deliberate historical processes.
The song repeatedly challenges republican narratives of universalism and equality, exposing what Kery James presents as a gap between proclaimed values and lived realities. While religion is not the sole focus of the track, he foregrounds the targeting of Muslims within French public discourse, particularly in moments of economic or political crisis. Islamophobia is presented as part of a broader system through which minority populations are positioned as internal threats and convenient scapegoats. Gives these condition, Kery James rejects demands for immigrant communities to show gratitude or assimilate, asserting instead a form of political and moral legitimacy rooted in historical knowledge and personal dignity.
[English Translation]
This colonial past is yours.
You are the ones who chose to bind your history to ours.
And now you must take responsibility for it.
The smell of blood follows you, even if you try to mask it with perfume.
We, Arabs and Black people, are not here by chance.
Every arrival has its departure.
You wanted immigration—
Through it, you gorged yourselves, to the point of indigestion.
[…]
In the midst of an economic crisis, a culprit is needed,
And it is toward Muslims that all your blows are directed.
I’m not afraid to write it: France is Islamophobic.
In fact, no one hides it anymore in this France of xenophobes.
You treat us as less than nothing on your public channels,
And yet you expect us to cry out, “Long live the Republic.”