Voices from former French colonies reflect on painful slave trade legacy

It's been more than two decades since France recognised transatlantic slavery as a crime against humanity – the first country in the world to do so. On the day France honours the memory of victims of the slave trade, RFI spoke to people from French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion Island – former colonies and now overseas departments – about this dark period.

Almost four million men and women lived as slaves in the French colonies until the abolition of the slave trade in 1848. Thousands of French citizens in those former colonies are the descendants of people that were enslaved.

France has two days to commemorate slavery: 10 May memorialises the slave trade, slavery and abolition, while 23 May marks a national day for the victims of colonial slavery.

In 2001, on 10 May, parliament adopted the Taubira Law recognising the slave trade of African, Amerindian, Malagasy and Indian populations from the 15th to 19th centuries as a crime against humanity.

It was tabled by a Socialist lawmaker from French Guyana, Christiane Taubira, who went on to become France's first black justice minister.

Three years later a decree was signed to turn 10 May into a national day of remembrance.

RFI asked citizens of French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion Island what the day means for them.

Valérie Tribord, singer, French Guyana

It's important as it marks a painful chapter of our history. We must not forget.

The law tabled by Christiane Taubira makes it mandatory to teach the history of slavery during the French colonial empire. It also serves to remember the suffering of our colonial past through memorials and museum exhibitions.

In Guyana, we commemorate the abolition of slavery on 10 June – the day it was officially announced in 1848. However, 10 May has its importance in ensuring that the future generations learn about the slave trade. More and more research on the topic is helping to uncover aspects of slavery we didn't know about.

Franck Salin, writer and director, Guadeloupe

Personally I celebrate 23 May to honour the memory of my ancestors, as well 27 May – a public holiday in Guadeloupe that marks the official abolition of slavery.

The duty of remembrance is most important for me. Jean-Charles Salin, the grandfather of my own grand-father, was born a slave. On 23 May, 1998, I marched along with 40,000 French Caribbeans in the streets of Paris, silently demanding that the victims of slavery, our ancestors, be remembered.

The French state “remembers” the abolition of slavery and the end of the slave trade on 10 May – it's a sort of pat on the back for what it did.

It never occurred to anyone to celebrate the Russians and the Americans who opened the doors of the concentration camps at the end of WWII, but people do remember the victims of the Holocaust – and rightly so.

Why can't it be the same for the millions of victims of an inhumane slave trade that lasted over three centuries?

I'm not saying that 10 May shouldn't exist, I'm saying that the French should know what happened. When I was at school, we didn't learn about slavery. I had to do my own research up until university.

What I do hope is that the stigma attached to being descendants of slaves one day disappears – you know, being ashamed of our skin colour and being of African origin.

This is because centuries of enslavement conditioned us to see ourselves like the slave owners did.

Muriel Hillion-Toulcanon, artist, Reunion Island

I confess that 10 May holds no significance for me: I didn't even know of its existence. Like most people from Reunion Island, the date that makes sense to us when talking about slavery is 20 December. That's when it was officially abolished on the island, in 1848.

This is a very important date for us, and nowadays there's even a week of events across the island to commemorate the abolition of slavery. Maloya, the music and dance we inherited from our enslaved ancestors, takes centre stage during what we also call Fèt Kaf. Kaf refers to the black descendants of slaves.

During slavery, maloya was almost banned; only a few planters allowed it. The church and plantation owners saw it as something evil – the music of sorcery, its songs mixing all the different languages spoken by the African and Malagasy slaves.

The abolition of slavery freed our maloya, which expressed the sufferings of slaves. However, it was not until 1981, when a socialist government took over, that a sort of unofficial censorship was lifted off maloya.

Then in 2009, when Unesco included maloya on its list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity, it became accepted on the island as an art form – as did the way people relate to slavery.

Sacred rituals performed during the 20 December celebrations are now even broadcast on TV – that used to be unthinkable.

Maddy Orsinet, creole singing school founder, Martinique

I'm not happy with the idea of regrouping the history of slavery in Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana and Reunion under the same 10 May date – as if each territory did not have its own specific turbulent history of enslavement. In Martinique, slavery was officially abolised on 22 May, 1848.

The French state is putting all four creole territories into the same category without acknowledging their cultural differences. I fear that school teachers might talk about slavery without explaining how it affected each island differently.

It makes me think about how I learned about WWI at school. I don't remember the teachers explaining the role played by the harki fighters and the Senegalese riflemen. It took decades before they appeared in the school curriculum.

But the 10 May official commemorations does put an official spotlight on France's grim role in the violent slave trade. It's now part of the law of this country and no one can pretend they don't know what happened.