3.6.1. THE CITY HONORS HEROES OF COLOR

IN THE EARLY 2000s...

Of the 15 "Mariannes"* whose photos surrounded the Panthéon

to honor Women's Day, three were Black...

(In 2021)

*Marianne: the symbol of the French Republic 

 

Three Black Mariannes, Entrée to Black Paris, March 2021

• Fatoumata Kébé, daughter of a Malian cleaning woman, is an astrophysicien specialized in spatial waste. 

• Others: of the film-maker Fanny Glissant and the judo champion Clarisse Agbeguenon, of Martinican and Togolese heritage respectively.

# # #

Two sculptures of Black heroes appeared...

(At the General Catroux park, 17th)

• General Alexander Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie,* the herculean general of whom Napoleon was jealous. He was born into slavery as the son of Marie-Cessette Dumas, a West Indian slave, and as a child was briefly sold into slavery himself.

He is the father of Alexander Dumas.

*Podcast: Dumas and Napoleon in "Noble Blood"

Irons by Driss Sans-Arcidet / zoom

The irons evoke slavery in his memory.

General Dumas (zoom) and his statue (of 1906), demolished during the Occupation (zoom)

Black past with a short biography

• Solitude, a slave hanged for participating in a Guadeloupean revolt that Napoleon repressed (en 1802):

  Jacky Poulier / zoom with a short biography (in French) 

The attitude she confronted

"And since nothing stops people without education, of whom violence is the essence of character, they indulged in the greatest excess [...]. Thirty thousand were in full insurrection and had already burned down 2018 sugar plantations and massacred 300 whites [...]. The merchants Le Havre and other ports offered all their armed ships for the transport of troops." 

-- Memoirs of Madame the Duchess of Tourzel, governess of the children of France,

 1957 ed, pp. 251-252

Her biography, The Mulatto Solitude by André-Schwarz-Bart (1972), is fictionalized since little is known of her. But the context is real. 

The hanging took place the day after she gave birth, because the baby was valuable as a slave. 

This is the only statue of a Black woman in Paris. 

WikiTimbres

    This stamp appeared at the same time.

# # #

Other cities followed the trend... 

• La Rochelle, the second French slave-trading port

     Entrée to Black Paris

 Musée du Nouveau Monde (New World Museum)

 

By Ousmane Sow (please scroll down), 2015. zoom

Toussaint-Louverture, best-known general of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)

 

Clarisse, wet-nurse slave by Woodly Caymitte, called Filipo, 2024

She nourishes a white child while her own child cries. 

• Bordeaux

                                                                                                                        Zoom

Modeste Testas, slave of plantation owners in what is now the Dominican Republic, also by Filippo in 2019.

# # #

The Senate's recognition of the slave trade and slavery

as crimes against humanity is commemorated each May 10...

recently with drama.

• In 2021 President Macron came to the ceremony but remained silent, though a speech by the President is traditional. A few days before he had given an oration in praise of Napoleon, who restored slavery that revolutions in the Antilles had abolished.

• Christiane Taubira, the former Minister of Justice, deputy from Guyana and driving force behind the law just mentioned, walked out in protest.

# # # 

In 2022, Black popular arts appeared at...

• The City Hall métro station

     Baudoin Mouanda

"Sapeurs" of Congo-Brazzaville mocked the white conquerors by exaggerating

 their dress, now make overdressing an art.

• The Louvre

 "Wax" prints are worn throughout sub-Saharan Africa and almost nowhere else.

In 2023: "Black legends" at the 13th's mall and Creole music on Bastille Day 

In 2025:

     Osain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter, Entrée to Black Paris

"Jamaican Party," free concert and shows in front of City Hall.

*     *     *

Next,

"Chocolat," the first Black star