Postcolonial heritage: how to heal the wounds of the past?

Audio 29:30

French President Emmanuel Macron, during the ceremony in tribute to the victims of the massacre of October 17, 1961. October 16, 2021 near the Pont de Bezons in Colombes, in the Paris region.

© AP - Rafael Yaghobzadeh

By: Adrien Delgrange

1 min

Do we leave an open wound?

A priori no.

But apparently with some wounds it takes time to hope to heal.

At the end of the five-year term, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, is accelerating the gestures of appeasement.

From France's responsibilities in Rwanda to the return of property looted during the colonial era, or even the request for forgiveness from the harkis, Emmanuel Macron is multiplying the pledges of a desire for normalization with Africa. 

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But how do you treat a wound that's left open?

How do you find the right word?

The right gesture?

The right policy? 

And how are the other former colonial powers doing?  

To discuss it:

- 

professor at La Sorbonne Nouvelle, director of a Cereg (Center for Studies and Research on Germanic Space), associate researcher at Ehess and deputy editor-in-chief of the journal Germany d ' today 

- Maria-Benedita Basto

, lecturer in Portuguese-speaking studies, specialist in the history and political analysis of contemporary Portuguese-speaking Africa  

- Nicolas Bancel

, historian, professor at the University of Lausanne, specialist in colonial and postcolonial history.

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• France

• Africa

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