Corsica’s Identity Dilemma: Between Warm Welcome and Cold Retribution

By Iris Isenegger

Corsica’s history is one of relentless resistance to outside dominance, from repeated incursions by pirates to successive waves of imperial subjugation. Over time, these conflicts fostered a collective identity centered on resilience and honor. The vendetta corsa—a system of familial and communal revenge—served as an alternative form of justice in a society where official governance was often seen as distant or unreliable. Feuds spanning generations saw retribution through targeted killings, property destruction, or lifelong exile. Despite its brutality, this informal system upheld honor and resolved grievances in the absence of a reliable legal authority. Rooted in medieval traditions, this system of justice became intertwined with Corsican identity, where defiance blurred into criminality.

A deep sense of cultural and political marginalization has long fueled the island’s struggle for autonomy. Since its formal incorporation into Metropolitan France in 1769, the island has been subject to policies of assimilation that many islanders perceive as eroding their distinct identity. In response, nationalist movements sought to reclaim Corsican identity through cultural revival and grassroots political action. Scholar Matei Candea describes Corsican identity as deeply rooted in “a social network of kinship and friendship” (pp.130-131), where loyalty to family and community often outweighs allegiance to the French state. This loyalty finds its ultimate expression in the bandit d’honneur—an imagined figure of the revered outlaw, embodying local justice, who unapologetically stands in defiance of external authority.

The friction between deep-seated cultural allegiance and the reach of state authority reached a dramatic climax in the Colonna Affair, a case that exposed the deep fault lines between Corsican identity and the authority of the French state. Yvan Colonna, a Corsican nationalist, was accused of assassinating Claude Érignac, the island’s French prefect, in 1998. His subsequent years in hiding—allegedly aided by local networks—underscored the extent to which Corsican resistance to French authority could manifest itself in real-world actions. This episode highlighted not only the persistence of nationalist sentiment, but also the challenges French authorities faced in enforcing law on an island where local allegiances often took precedence over state power.

The Colonna Affair is emblematic of a broader cultural dynamic that elevates defiance to an ideal. Corsican nationalist groups, such as the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC), have historically engaged in both political activism and violent resistance, including bombings, assassinations, and extortion rackets. Crucially, the boundary between political resistance and organized crime has grown increasingly indistinct. Once rooted in self-determination, some nationalist factions have turned to clandestine operations, legitimizing illicit activities through a cultural ethos that venerates defiance and self-reliance. A 2018 Transcrime report estimated Europe’s illicit markets at €110 billion annually, with Corsican criminal networks deeply entrenched in racketeering, smuggling, and money laundering. Unlike other non-state actors that engage in criminal enterprises purely for financial means, Corsican networks integrate criminality into a broader framework of identity and resistance. This intertwining of crime and

nationalism is reinforced by cultural narratives that frame illicit activity as an extension of defiance against external rule, further eroding the distinction between defiance and lawlessness.

This entanglement of identity politics and state intervention presents a fundamental challenge: how does a state impose legal authority on a population that perceives itself as culturally distinct and politically sidelined? In Corsica, resistance to external rule is not merely a political stance but a cultural tradition. Reckoning with Corsica’s historical grievances and the deep-seated role of identity in shaping governance attitudes may hold the key to easing tensions between the island’s nationalist movements and the French state.

Ultimately, Corsica exemplifies how cultural defiance complicates governance, making the balance between regional autonomy and state authority an ongoing struggle. The vendetta corsa may no longer be a formal system of justice, but its legacy endures in the island’s persistent defiance of external authority. As long as Corsican identity remains tethered to historical resistance, the fine line between hospitality and criminality will continue to test both the island and the state that seeks to govern it.

Bibliography

Beatrice, Laura. “Criminal Syndicates and Nationalism: The Case of Corsican Networks.” Journal of European Studies55, no. 3 (2019): 314-336.

Candea, Matei. Corsican Fragments: Difference, Knowledge, and Fieldwork. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

Clough, Shepard B. A History of Modern Italy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.

Colonna, Francis. Vendetta Corse et Banditisme. Ajaccio: Éditions Albiana, 2005.

Della Porta, Donatella. “Political Violence and Identity in European Separatist Movements.” Comparative Politics 29, no. 4 (1997): 431-450.

Hobsbawm, Eric. Bandits. New York: Pantheon Books, 1969.

Kalyvas, Stathis N. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Lecourieux, Jean-Pierre. “The Corsican Resistance: An Enduring Struggle for Autonomy.” Revue Française de Science Politique 67, no. 2 (2017): 245-272.

Santucci, Jean. “The Corsican Mafia and the French State: Organized Crime or Political Resistance?” Crime, Law, and Social Change 50, no. 4 (2010): 321-345.