Slavery: transatlantic memories
Audio 48:30
Unlike most other old Louisiana plantations, the Whitney Plantation tells about life there from the point of view of the slaves, not that of the "masters."
© Corey Balazowich / Flickr
By: Céline Develay Mazurelle Follow
51 mins
On the occasion of the 20 years of the vote of the so-called Taubira law, we set off on a journey with one foot in America, the other in England, to discover places that have decided to seize the history of slavery. , an essential memory to better understand the challenges and upheavals of the current world.
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On May 10, 2001, when the National Assembly and the Senate unanimously adopted the law recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity, better known as the Taubira law, named after the Member of Parliament for the 1st district of Guyana and ex-Keeper of the Seals Christiane Taubira, who carried and ardently defended this text, the crime is finally qualified.
Article 2 of this law relates to the teaching and sharing of this memory linked to the slave trade which, from the 16th century to the 19th century, claimed more than 13 million victims and tore millions from their lands. Africans, left in particular by force to join the sugar plantations or dwellings on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Since 2006, May 10 also marks the Memorial Day of the slave trade, slavery and their abolition.
And we at So far so close, it has been several years that we invite ourselves in our own way, on a trip, on "the scene of the crime", at the heart of this imperative need to tell and share this story and these memories.
For the 20 years of this historic law, we invite you to listen to a journey that took us on both sides of the Atlantic, to discover cultural institutions, both located in territories that have built their prosperity. and their wealth on the transatlantic trade and which today have decided to look this past in the face.
Travel and reports between the International Museum of Slavery in Liverpool, opened in 2007 in England, and the Whitney Plantation, an open-air slavery museum located in a former plantation in Louisiana, in the southern United States, inaugurated in 2015.
A report produced in 2016, by Sarah Lefèvre in Liverpool and Cerise Maréchaud in Louisiana
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Slavery
Christiane Taubira
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