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This article explores the trajectory of the members of a specific Franco-African family that lived in the French metropolis and in various colonies in sub-Saharan Africa over the course of the 20th century. Drawing on this unique family history, we examined the development of social differences and individual subjectivities (based on gender, race, class and generation) in relation to the historical dynamics of the transformation of the colonial empire. The story of the Arboussier family is thus also the story of a social space, where race, gender and class are constantly negotiated, where people try on multiple identities in an attempt to carve out a place for themselves, not without difficulty, under the ‘suns of independence’.