Compensating for the past
Debating reparations for slavery in contemporary France
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12878752 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charles Forsdick (0000-0001-7470-8421, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 420-429 |
| Publication date | 2015-08-08 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary French and Francophone Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1740-9292 • E-ISSN: 1740-9306 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17409292.2015.1066188 |
| OpenAlex | W1577344486 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 12 |
The article explores the place of reparations for slavery in the contemporary politics and culture of France and the French-speaking Caribbean. Considerable attention has recently been paid to the recent decision of CARICOM leaders to set up a reparations commission, but similar questions relating to slavery and its (financial) afterlives have also been raised (and remain equally unresolved) in the Francophone world. In a press conference in Dakar in October 2012, François Hollande answered questions about the subject: “La réparation”, he claimed, “elle n'est pas que morale, elle est aussi de savoir ce que nous voulons faire ensemble.” (Weider, Thomas. “Couacs entre l'Elysée et Matignon sur les traites négrières.” Le Monde. 14 October 2012). In the wake of these comments, legal action was launched in France by the group CRAN (Conseil représentatif des associations noires) against the Caisse des dépôts, itself accused of profiting from compensation paid by Haiti to the French state from 1825 onwards. The article draws on speeches by Sarkozy and Hollande as well as recent publications by the CRAN in order to locate reparations for slavery within the wider geopolitical, historical, and memorial context of the Francosphere. In conclusion, it will analyse one of the few cultural artefacts to address the question of reparations for slavery, the controversial 2011 comedy Case départ
Art · Context (archaeology · French · Geopolitics · Humanities · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · State of exception · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · History · Law · Migration, Identity, and Health · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender
The Panthéon's empty plinth
Les patronymes attribués aux anciens esclaves des colonies françaises
The Horrible Gift of Freedom
Monsters and Revolutionaries
George W. Bush at Goree Island
Politics and Power in Haiti
Memory as reparation? The politics of remembering slavery in France from abolition to the Loi Taubira (2001)
"Crimes of History" Senegalese Soccer and the Forensics of Slavery
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2016 - 2023 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |