Society

To ensure that the slave-owning past is better known and understood by everyone, France has chosen this date to commemorate the abolition of slavery each year.

Choosing a date to celebrate the abolition of slavery, as provided by Article 4 of the Taubira law of 10 May 2001, is obviously a powerful act for France. The only country to have adopted a law recognising slavery as a crime against humanity, France is now also the first Western country to commemorate its abolition officially and explicitly. Indeed, the sole exceptions are Black History Month in February, when the United States remembers America’s black heritage, and 23 August, proclaimed in 1998 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, in commemoration of the uprising by the slaves of Santo Domingo, now Haiti, on the night of 22 August 1791.

So 10 May 2006 was the first Day of Memories of the Slave Trade, Slavery and their Abolition and saw an upsurge of commemorations in France, its overseas territories and Africa.

But while "a country’s greatness means accepting all of its history, not just its days of glory but its dark side too," it also means establishing the tools to build a clearer present and a better future. From this perspective, it is anticipated that the subject of slavery will be given its rightful place in future school curricula, that a national research centre for researchers and the general public will be set up and that a European and international initiative might penalise companies practising new forms of slavery, such as the use of forced or child labour.

Mélina Gazsi
journalist