France commemorates slavery abolition and the formal recognition of slave trade as a crime against humanity
This Friday, France is marking the National Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The date May 10th corresponds with the French parliament’s adoption of the so-called Tobiah law in 2001, formally recognizing slavery and the slave trade as crimes against humanity. Speaking at commemorations in La Rochelle on France’s western coast, French Prime Minister Gabriel Atal announced his wish to hold a national exhibition dedicated to the memory of slavery in 2026. Is Simeon Pandora Dussec for two centuries, right here in La Rochelle. Ships left this port 447 times, sealing the fate of at least 160 thousand women and men who were taken from Africa. 160,000 people out of millions of people who were the victims of slavery and the slave trade. Saying it, recognising it, doesn’t make us weaker. On the contrary, it’s a way of growing. Opening our eyes in the past is the best way to build a better future. Well, a little earlier I spoke to Francois Verges, a former president of France’s National Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery. I asked her whether she felt France is doing enough to own up to its colonial past. I think that, you know, we are still living with, you know, what historian called the afterlife of slavery, that slavery is not abolished in the sense that who is owning the land in the Guadalupe Martini, Griana and Renault, which was, you know, slave colony. What is the environmental racism today? Why are they still underdeveloped? You know why is still very poor territory. So this is a very important and so there is this proposition of Prime Minister to have an international exhibition in 2026, which was a demand of the committee of Russia President for a long time. But I want to remind us that next year, 2025 will be also the anniversary of short term decree imposing on IT of the young Republic of it a huge debt that has totally absolutely endured the development. Of the first black Republic in history. So there are still a lot to be done in terms of reparation, very much to be done. And but one thing I would like to say, I mean, I know that in La Rochelle they celebrate also this enslaved black woman who was breastfeeding the children of honours, white kids. And I think this is very important to also acknowledge what was the role of a black woman in slavery. How this, how they were exploited and absolutely really, you know, taken the milk for their children to give to the children of their honours. Historian Francois Verges speaking to me earlier there.