After the end of the colonial regime in Vietnam, the French Cemetery in Hanoi was levelled to make way for newly planned collective apartment blocks. Due to rural migration to the city and the subsequent housing shortage in the 1960s, people settled there, some occupying the lower rooms of the mortuary as accommodation. Humans were not the only residents; they cohabited with wandering ghosts of tirailleurs Sénégalais, French colonial soldiers from Africa. This article traces the building of socialism after the First Indochina War by investigating the implications of urban planning and construction work on the territory of the former French graveyard. As this urban area is conceived of as being animated by spirits, I argue that it emerges as a potent site where colonial ghosts appear protesting against their displacement. Over the last ten years, however, human residents are also threatened by eviction due to urban redevelopment.