France’s forgotten history of slavery

This video is called European colonialism Slavery in Africa.

From French daily L’Humanité:

By Rosa Moussaoui

France’s forgotten history of slavery returns to view

Translated 17 mai 2008, by Susannah Readett-Bayley

Memory. The slave trade and historic violence to black populations that have been hidden for so long in history books are slowly but surely being acknowledged. Freedom march tomorrow, in Paris.

On April 28th, 1948, at the centenary celebration of the abolition of slavery at the Sorbonne, Aimé Césaire described the event in 1848 as “both huge but also insufficient”. Huge, because shortly after the rise of the people in a revolution that would topple the ‘Monarchie de Juillet’ the decree of abolition of slavery was declared, a result of the combined struggle against slavery and the dogged combat by men such as Victor Schoelcher. Insufficient, because the Republic would continue to dominate with other forms of colonialism, and because, while this decree would end the practice of slavery in the colonies, it would mark the beginning of many years of denial. This denial was flagrant in French President Jacques Chirac’s astounding declaration in 2000 at Point-à-Pitre : “Haiti has never been a French colony in the true sense of the word.” Two years before, however, 40,000 people claiming to be “descendants of slaves” mainly of West-Indian origin met on May 23rd, 1998 to march in Paris to “condemn the official denial of slavery”.

A “crime against humanity”

This movement — that demands that the hunting, capture, deportation, reduction to servitude, and subjection to the most atrocious cruelty and exploitation of millions of human beings be officially recognized — achieved a breakthrough in 2001 when the Taubira Law was voted in. This text, which calls slavery and the slave trade “crimes against humanity”, was a concrete step in bringing these issues back into national dialogue.

São Tomé and the Slave Trade: here.

Origins of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: here.

Role Of Slave Trade In Evolution Of American Wild Rice Species: here.