Behind the scenes of the Taubira law: how slavery was recognized as a crime against humanity
If the member of Guyana Christiane Taubira was the ardent defender, the law recognizing slavery and trafficking as crimes against humanity has mobilized many other actors.
AFP - BERTRAND GUAY
Text by: Lou Roméo Follow
8 mins
The Taubira law turns twenty this Monday, May 10, 2021. Unique at the time of its adoption in 2001, it is the first to recognize slavery and trafficking as crimes against humanity.
Its promulgation upset France's memorial policy, and more: the United Nations also recognized slavery as a crime against humanity in 2001, followed by the European Parliament in 2020. Back behind the scenes and on the mobilization of many activists and associations.
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It all started in 1998. Echoing the program “The Slave Route” organized by Unesco, the cohabitation government, headed by Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, decides to celebrate the 150th anniversary of France more widely than usual. the abolition of slavery.
To prepare for the ceremony, an interministerial mission was entrusted to the West Indian writer Daniel Maximin, one of the supporters of "
Antillity ”, a current which celebrates the richness and resilience of societies and cultures born of slavery.
A choice in line with the government's vision, which wants to emphasize the recognition of anti-slavery struggles and the creative and cultural contribution of ultra-marine societies.
But there is no consensus on this vision.
From an abolitionist vision to a tribute to the victims
“
It is still an abolitionist approach that dominates official ceremonies,
analyzes Johann Michel, political scientist and philosopher at EHESS, professor at the University of Poitiers.
President Chirac and the Senate glorify the Revolution and the Second Republic of 1848, the figures of Victor Schoelcher and Abbé Grégoire, who contributed to the abolition
.
The victims of slavery are hardly part of the symbolism of official commemorations.
"
But we are in 1998, and mobilization work has been carried out for several years by various associative currents.
For them, there is no question of concealing the drama experienced by their slave ancestors.
The abolitionist Republic, the emancipatory struggles, okay, but it is important that France assumes and recognizes the martyrdom that it has imposed on hundreds of thousands of people reduced to slavery.
►Also read: Genealogy workshops to find your slave ancestors
In 1992, a conference on this issue was already held in Abuya, Nigeria.
Two years later, Beninese sociologist Assani Fassassi founded Coffad,
the Collective of Daughters and Sons of Deported Africans.
The association is organizing in France, at Unesco, a conference entitled: "The slave trade, a crime against humanity?"
".
Multiple university conferences
In Martinique, an association, the Duty of Memory Committee, is organizing a series of conferences in parallel. “
These conferences are held at Unesco and in Martinique, and mobilize intellectuals, jurists, associative activists, politicians and writers
, situates the researcher.
Legal expert Emmanuel Jos is responsible for drawing up the framework for a future bill.
We go from a moral protest to the language of law.
"
Mobilization is spreading in the overseas departments and among the metropolitan West Indian diaspora, for whom the history of slavery is still an open wound.
“
Lionel Jospin's slogan at the time was
“ all born in 1848 ”, remembers Emmanuel Gordien, president of
the CM98 memorial association
.
For us, it was not possible.
It was like making a clean sweep of the past, as if the suffering experienced by our ancestors had not existed.
"
A unitary association to recognize slavery as a crime against humanity
Against this slightly too smooth presentation of the role played by France in the history of slavery, the Bwa Fouyé memorial association, founded by the Romana couple and to which Emmanuel Gordien belongs, is mobilizing.
In January 2001, they brought together several associations to prepare a 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, which pays tribute to the victims.
The Committee for a Unitary Commemoration of the Abolition of Negro Slavery in the French Colonies is founded for one year.
The Committee is preparing a great silent march, on May 23, 1998, in memory of the slaves, with a slogan: recognize slavery and trafficking as crimes against humanity.
“
Against all expectations, the walk we proposed met with extraordinary echo,”
sums up Emmanuel Gordien.
Several tens of thousands of descendants of slaves mobilized that day.
From there, France takes on a new awareness of the issue of colonial slavery.
"
►To (re) read: The slave trade, a story still alive
The role of the Communist Party
The unitary association therefore multiplies exchanges with unions, parliamentarians and politicians.
The stakes of a law recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity are indeed multiple: we speak of reparations, financial or symbolic, with regard to the descendants of slaves, but also of penal sanctions, in the event of negationism. , as is the case with the Shoah since the adoption of the Gayssot law in 1990.
The parallel with the Shoah also provokes several reservations, some fearing the “competition” between memories and victims.
A first bill was tabled in the National Assembly in July 1998. Carried by the Communist deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, Bernard Birsinger, it qualifies slavery as a "
drama
", a term which does not suit to certain associative and communist activists, who prefer the qualification of "
crime against humanity
".
“
The central leadership of the PCF hesitates to label slavery and trafficking as crimes against humanity for fear of weakening the memory of the Shoah, the only one at the time to benefit from this status in France
, contextualizes Johann Michel.
This reluctance will also be found during parliamentary debates, and will be shared by many politicians at the time.
"
Beginning of the legislative process
But the pressure from West Indian activists is shifting the lines.
Another bill, carried by the Communist deputies of Reunion, Huguette Bello and Élie and Claude Hoarau, passes the course.
She asks for the recognition of slavery as a "crime against humanity", just like that tabled, on December 22, by the member of Guyana, Christiane Taubira.
The three proposals are combined, and a long legislative process begins.
Bitter debates stirred the Hemicycle.
Some provisions are problematic, Christiane Taubira defends the law "
tooth and nail
", according to Johann Michel.
It is above all
the question of reparations
, financial and symbolic, to be paid to the descendants of slaves, which divides.
Despite the support of Coffad and the PCF, they were quickly abandoned.
The socialist government refuses to open what it then sees as a "
Pandora's box
".
The possibility of criminal prosecution for negationism is also removed.
A law that is more declarative than normative
“
The government of
Lionel
Jospin was in favor of the idea of recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity, but did not wish to make it a binding law,
relates Johann Michel.
Christiane Taubira's initial proposal was modeled on the
Gayssot law, which penalizes negationism, but the provision has not passed the stage of examination in the Commission. The form of the law finally adopted is therefore more declarative than normative
. "
On May 10, 2001, the law was
adopted in Parliament
, then promulgated on May 21. It requires the establishment of a National Day of Commemoration of Slavery and the Slavery,
fixed since 2006 on May 10
of each year. The law also demands that a greater place be given to slavery and the slave trade in school curricula and in university research, as well as the creation of a committee, ancestor of the current
Foundation for the Memory of the slavery
, whose missions aim
to guarantee "the sustainability of the memory of this crime through the generations"
.
Finally, a draft request for recognition of this crime against humanity to international organizations is adopted.
The United Nations complied a few months later, followed in 2020 by the European Parliament.
► See also
:
France: disparities and gaps in the teaching of the history of slavery
“
It is therefore a law which has been partially amputated, a martyred law, which was finally adopted in 2001,
concludes Emmanuel Gordien.
We went to see Christiane Taubira to protest.
She answered us
:
"Do what you feel good, but do not throw the baby out with the bath water."
It was already positive that we are finally talking about slavery in France… We have decided not to attack the law.
"
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