http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20...s-largest-slavery-memorial-french-west-indies
France's President François Hollande inaugurated the largest slavery memorial in the world on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Sunday. US black rights activist Angela Davis was to be awarded the freedom of the former slave port of Nantes during France's day to commemorate the slave trade and its abolition.
The opening of the ACTe memorial on the site of a former sugar refinery that processed the products of slave plantations "will allow Guadeloupe and the whole of the Caribbean, with a deep bond with Africa, to tell the world that the combat for human dignity is not over", Hollande said on Saturday ahead of the inauguration.
He cited the people smugglers in the Mediterranean and the recruiters of child soldiers as some of the "new slave-traders".
The memorial, a newly built building overlooking the bay of Guadeloupe's main town, Pointe-à-Pitre, looks at the history of slavery from antiquity to the modern day and pays homage to slave revolts and runaways who established free communities in the New World.
Its cost - 83 million euros - has aroused criticism on an island with serious economic problems, although local officials hope it will help attract tourists to the island.
"Today Guadeloupe means 60 per cent of under-25-year-olds unemployed, practically 30-33 per cent of the working age population unemployed, an illiteracy rate of more than 25 per cent of the population," trade unionist Elie Domota, who led a general strike against the rising cost of living in 2009, told France Inter radio.
He called for abrogation of laws passed in 1848 and 1849, which compensated slave-owners for the abolition of slavery.
The ceremony - attended by Senegal's President Macky Sall, Mali's Ibrahim Bouboucar Keïta and Benin's Thomas Boni Yayi - was to be broadcast live at the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, where Prime Minister Manuel Valls attended the government's official event to mark the day.
American Communist Party activist and veteran black rights activist Angela Davis was to receive the freedom of Nantes, France's main slave port before abolition, on Sunday, while another former slave port, Brest, inaugurated a 10-metre-high sculpture, entitled Mémoires, with two faces, one looking out to the Atlantic, the other towards Europe.
Several activists' groups in the French West Indies and in France have launched legal cases for compensation for the trade.
One of them, the Cran, announced on Saturday that it has filed a case for profiting from crimes against humanity against the former head of employers' union Medef, Ernest-Antoine Seillière, who was also boss of the Wendel group, an investment fund founded by his ancestors that had interests in plantations and slave ships.
"The descendants of slave traders are not guilty but they have profited from it and their fortune comes from ill-gotten gains," commented Cran president Louis-Georges Tin. "In refusing compensation, they make themselves liable for the crime that they are vainly trying to dissociate them from."
http://www.france24.com/en/20150510-france-slavery-hollande-caribbean-museum-guadeloupe
Hollande, who is on a tour of the Antillean islands that includes a scheduled trip to Cuba, paid homage to slaves and their sacrifices at the memorial, which is the first of its kind by France to remember those who suffered during the slave trade.
"The way I see it, this monument will allow Guadeloupe, but also the entire Caribbean with a deep link to Africa as many African leaders will be here, to tell the whole world that the fight for human dignity is not over,” Hollande said on a trip to the French Caribbean island of Martinique on Saturday.
“We have to remember what happened, remember history of course, but also we must find hope, and we must fight on," he said, to explain the significance of Sunday’s inauguration.
Called the Memorial ACTe, the site is described as “a Caribbean centre on the expression and memory of slavery and the slave trade” and is housed in a former sugar factory in the Guadeloupian city of Pointe-à-Pitre.
The museum holds hundreds of objects dating back several centuries that bear witness to France’s turbulent history -- that included slavery from the 17th to 19th centuries -- when black people were sold to work on the islands’ sprawling sugar plantations.
Thierry Létang, an anthropologist, showed whips and shackles in the museum to a film crew. “This type of lock is very French. They were worn around the feet,” he said, holding the heavy rusted shackles against his feet.
The museum explains the history of slavery and the slave trade using archived documents, images, artefacts, everyday objects plus visual and audio testimonials, the museum’s website noted.
“We don't have museums or memorial sites that allow us to understand this part of French history and especially places that allow people to gather without courting controversy. But this memorial site allows us to do so,” said Patrick Lozès, president and founder member of the Council Representing the Associations of the Black People of France.
France abolished slavery in 1848 but only recognised slavery as a crime against humanity since 2001.
The cost of the Memorial ACTe project, however, has come under scrutiny. The 85 million euros spent on the memorial could have been better used elsewhere, critics say, in a region where 60 percent of young people are unemployed.
Hollande’s visit to the site has also put the spotlight on reparation claims made by descendants of slaves in Guadeloupe.
In 2013, Hollande acknowledged the country's "debt" to Africa because of slave trade and the "baneful role played by France." But he also said that this history "cannot be the subject of a transaction", AP reported.
The memorial, which hopes to welcome 300,000 people annually, is scheduled to open to the public in July.
http://www.ibtimes.com/francois-hollande-evokes-frances-debt-haiti-stops-short-reparations-1915791
http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13832-haiti-politic-slavery-france-will-not-reimburse-haiti.html
Speaking at the inauguration of a memorial and cultural center in Guadeloupe devoted to the history of slavery, French President François Hollande evoked France’s “debt” toward its former slaveholding colony of Haiti but also appeared to reject the idea of monetary reparations.
“When I go to Haiti, I will, for my part, handle the debt that we have,” Hollande said to loud applause. But later in the same speech he cited a famous French Caribbean writer’s objections to financial reparations.
...
Sunday, May 10, day of the commemoration of the slave trade and slavery, decreed by the French government (Chirac 2006), the President Michel Martelly, in the presence of French President Francois Hollande and more than fifty heads of State and Government as well as representatives of prestigious international institutions participated in the inauguration of the world's largest center of memory on slavery, the Memorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
In his speech, the President of the Republic of France welcomed the presence of Haitian President Michel Martelly whose country was the first to break the chains of slavery around the world. Mr. Holland, who praised the indigenous army that defeated the French troops, declared "This memorial will tell the world that the fight for human dignity is not over."
Addressing the sensitive issue of financial compensation, the French President stated "Do we have stressed enough that when abolition was acquired, the issue of compensation took proportions and especially a particularly surprising orientation, since it was claimed to body and cries not by the former slaves but by the old masters which required to be compensated for the loss of the work force they had recorded in their writing as the value of their livestock. Charles X (1825) even claimed the young Republic of Haiti a State compensation of 150 million gold francs to compensate the former colonists who would claim it, some have called this requirement, the ransom of independence [...]"
Note that this incredible amount has been reduced to 90 million gold francs in 1838, equivalent to € 17 billion that the Haitians have finished paying in 1946.
Speaking directly to Michel Martelly, President Hollande surprised the audience by declaring in a formula confusing "When I will come to Haiti, I will I will pay in turn the debt we have." Comments that quickly ignited the social network and cause many reactions...
However following this declaration, the entourage of the French President clarified to the national and international press, came in large numbers, that the words of President Hollande spoke only of a "moral debt" and not financial as some believed to have understood.
Francois Hollande will be in Haiti on Tuesday, the last stop of his tour after Cuba.
http://www.la1ere.fr/2015/05/05/l-i...ion-du-memorial-acte-pointe-pitre-253419.html
google translate:
The Guadeloupean nationalist Luc Pippin came to Paris to challenge Francois Hollande and explain his boycott of the inauguration of the Memorial Act on May 10 Yet he had campaigned for the construction of this building in honor of the slaves.
At 65, Luc Reinette denied nothing of his past independence . In the 1980s, he did not hesitate to plant bombs in Guadeloupe and in France for the decolonization of the island. Which in 1985 earned him a prison stay in Basse-Terre, where he escaped the same year. But today, Luc Reinette changed method. Founding member of the NHIC (International Committee of black people), he calls President François Hollande by refusing to participate in the inauguration of the Memorial Act on May 10 and in particular the fact to know the World newspaper. The 1ère.fr contacted Luc Reinette.
La1ère.fr: Why did you decide not to go to the inauguration of the Memorial act next Sunday?
Luc Reinette: The International Committee of black people which I am a founding member is the origin of the Memorial. This is a very nice project. The architect is Guadeloupe, the 300 workers who participated in the construction of the building too. But we do not want to go to the inauguration of May 10, as this would serve as a surety for Francois Hollande. The president will spend two hours. We can not take the risk of not being heard.
What would you ask the president?
In a letter we sent to him on April 13 , we ask three things. We want Hollande ask forgiveness on behalf of the French people for crimes committed as part of the deportation of millions of unfortunates. Our repair requirement should be recognized as legitimate and non-negotiable. Finally third point Guadeloupeans must be recognized as a people.
Wondering independence?
Yes, we are for a Guadeloupean Guadeloupe. We are not French. We want decolonization.
But you changed your method?
I am a patriot. This is the fight of a lifetime. I'm like the resistance in France who fought against the German occupation.
Your brother Peter Pippin, current Executive Director of the Memorial will be him at the inauguration.
My brother has long worked with Victorin Lurel, President of the Region Guadeloupe. It will be the inauguration on 10 May. But on our side, we wanted to mark the occasion. We are 100% for the Memorial act, but I fight against the French presence in Guadeloupe.
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