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00:00This Friday, France is marking the National Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
00:05The date, May 10th, corresponds with the French Parliament's adoption of the so-called Taubira
00:09Law in 2001, formally recognizing slavery and the slave trade as crimes against humanity.
00:16Speaking at commemorations in La Rochelle on France's western coast, French Prime
00:19Minister Gabriel Attal announced his wish to hold a national exhibition dedicated to
00:24the memory of slavery in 2026.
00:27For two centuries, right here in La Rochelle, ships left this port 447 times, sealing the
00:37fate of at least 160,000 women and men who were taken from Africa.
00:42160,000 people out of millions of people who were the victims of slavery and the slave
00:48trade.
00:51Saying it, recognizing it, doesn't make us weaker.
00:54On the contrary, it's a way of growing.
00:56Opening our eyes in the past is the best way to build a better future.
01:02A little earlier, I spoke to Françoise Vergès, a former president of France's National Committee
01:07for the Memory and History of Slavery.
01:09I asked her whether she felt France is doing enough to own up to its colonial past.
01:15I think that we are still living with what historians call the afterlives of slavery.
01:20That slavery is not abolished, in the sense that who is owning the land in Guadeloupe,
01:26Martinique, Guyana, and Réunion, which was a slave colony?
01:30What is the environmental racism today?
01:32Why are they still underdeveloped?
01:35Why is it still very poor territory?
01:37These are very important.
01:40There is this proposition of the prime minister to have a national exhibition in 2026, which
01:46was a demand of the committee of which I was president for a long time.
01:51But I want to remind us that next year, 2025, will be also the anniversary of Charlton decree
01:57imposing on Haiti, of the young republic of Haiti, a huge debt that has totally, absolutely
02:04hindered the development of the first black republic in history.
02:08So there is still a lot to be done in terms of reparation.
02:13Very much to be done.
02:15One thing I would like to say, I mean, I know that in La Rochelle they celebrate also this
02:19enslaved black woman who was breastfeeding the children of owners, white kids.
02:26And I think this is very important to also acknowledge what was the role of black women
02:33in slavery, how they were exploited and absolutely, really, you know, taking the milk for their
02:42children to give to the children of their owners.