François Bayrou calls for not remaining silent in the face of "the terrible history of slavery"

This Saturday in Brest, during the National Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Slavery and their Abolition, François Bayrou , visibly moved by the sculpture "Mémoires" by Max Morvan, erected ten years ago, declared at the beginning of his speech that this work "invites us to listen to our history."

"We must not remain silent. This history of slavery must be known (…) We must know, and to know we must name, quantify, and analyze this reality," declared the Prime Minister, speaking in front of Brest harbor.

The Prime Minister described "a terrible and monstrous story in both its dimensions and its subject matter: approximately 4 million women, men and children experienced slavery from 1625 to 1848 in the French colonies."

"A label will soon be created to bring together all these places of remembrance of slavery, places of slavery as such, mainly in the overseas territories, and places evoking the struggles for abolition throughout the territory," he announced.

Referring to the "double debt" imposed by France on Haiti to compensate former landowners and slave owners, the Prime Minister sent a "message of solidarity" to "this martyred and fraternal people" and called for "a lucid relationship" with the past "based on truth."

In April, Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a Franco-Haitian commission of historians to study the "impact" on Haiti of the "very heavy financial compensation" imposed by France on its former colony in exchange for granting it independence.

Former Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, president of the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery , said he hoped that this "work would allow our country to engage in the reparative process for the Haitian people to which history obliges us and urgency calls us." "This history is engraved in the memory of the Haitian people when, even today, it remains absent from the French national memory," he stressed.

"We are not seeking repentance. We want younger generations to face up to history, our history," said Max Relouzat, founder of the association Mémoires des Esclavages and creator of the work "Mémoires."

Standing 10 meters tall, the steel work was inaugurated on May 10, 2015. May 10 is the anniversary of the unanimous adoption by the Senate, on final reading, of the Taubira law of 2001 recognizing trafficking and slavery as a crime against humanity.