Macron opens the debate on reparations for colonial slavery
The National Assembly will repeal the 17th-century law that regulated slavery, which is still in force although without legal effect
ParisFrance, a European country that was a pioneer 25 years ago in recognizing the slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity, is now opening the door – timidly – to its reparation. The country was one of the main colonizing powers in Africa, the Caribbean, and America, especially between the 17th and 18th centuries, where it promoted slavery. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has argued this week that the "immense issue" of reparation should not be evaded.
The head of state has not made any specific proposal but has put on the table the need to address the issue, while warning that it is complex and has its limits. "We cannot make false promises either," he said on Thursday. "We must have the honesty to say that we will never be able to fully repair this crime, because it is impossible," he insisted.
the Brazilian and American historian Ana Lucia Araujo.
Forgive the debtLe Monde the Brazilian and American historian Ana Lucia Araujo.
Condone the debt
Macron has been expressly ambiguous when speaking of reparations, a very broad term. Associations of descendants of slaves in the US or African countries have long been demanding compensation for descendants, but for now, the states' refusal is absolute. Another possibility –surely less complex– is that former powers compensate the states they colonized. In 2013, for example, member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) unsuccessfully demanded that colonizing powers repair the damages of slavery by annulling their external debt. In any case, the President of the Republic has not specified what type of reparation he was referring to.
During his presidency, Macron, at the head of a country that was one of the great colonial empires along with Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, has advocated for historical reparations that until recently had been a taboo, such as the restitution of works of art stolen during the colonial era. "French identity is made up of great stories and crimes. [...] There is no French identity in denial, nor in hiding what we have done, nor in refusing to move forward with reparations," the head of state justified.
Obsolete law
The President of the Republic has spoken about the reparation of slavery, coinciding with next week's vote in the National Assembly to repeal the so-called Code Noir (black code, in French), a set of royal edicts dating from the 17th and 18th centuries that regulated slavery. Despite having become obsolete and without legal effect, it has never been formally repealed. The fact of having maintained it for so many years "is a betrayal of what the Republic is," Macron assured.
Its repeal next Thursday – approval is assured – will be a new chapter of symbolic gestures of reparation. The Code Noir was promoted by Louis XIV in 1685 and was the great legal and clearly racist text that institutionalized French colonial slavery. The country abolished it in 1794, during the French Revolution, although Napoleon Bonaparte later reinstated it in 1802. Its definitive abolition came in 1848, during the Second Republic.
However, Macron's step forward is very modest. And the little time he has left at the Élysée – less than a year – will probably mean that the door to reparation has been symbolically opened. At least, however, the president has managed to get the issue onto the political agenda. It will be up to the next president to make concrete proposals or to ignore the issue again.
