FRANCE: In a speech that was hailed as one of the finest of his career, President Jacques Chirac yesterday announced that from now on France will honour the memory of slaves and the 1848 abolition of slavery every May 10th.
Mr Chirac made the announcement before the Committee on the Memory of Slavery. It was established under the Law of May 10th, 2001, which made France the only country in the world to officially condemn slavery as a crime against humanity. It has taken 4½ years to enact the law's provision for an annual day of memory on the French mainland.
French overseas territories of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Reunion Island and Mayotte already hold commemoration days.
"The greatness of a country is to assume responsibility for its entire history," Mr Chirac said. "With its glorious pages, but also with its share of shadow. Our history is that of a great nation. Let us look at it with pride. Let us see it as it was." The French president called slavery "a wound . . . a tragedy . . . an abomination perpetrated by Europeans for several centuries, through an unspeakable trade between Africa, the Americas and the islands of the Indian Ocean".
Events last year heightened sensitivity to racial issues in France. During a protest by students in March, black youths attacked white students, leading the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut to denounce "anti-white racism".
Dozens of African immigrants perished in tenement fires, sparking an outcry against discrimination in housing.
Some French politicians alleged polygamy among Africans was a cause of three weeks of race riots in November.
On January 25th, Mr Chirac abrogated article 4 of the Law of February 23rd, 2005, which required schools to teach "the positive role of the French presence overseas, particularly in North Africa". The law led to widespread protests by citizens from former French colonies.
"It is not up to the law to write history," Mr Chirac said earlier, regarding article 4. But yesterday he appeared to contradict himself when he said that "slavery must find its proper place in primary and secondary school programmes". In France, he said, "We can say everything about our history."
He has appointed the West Indian writer Edouard Glissant to plan a national centre dedicated to the slave trade, slavery and its abolition. The city of Nantes, which was the leading slave-trading port in France, will next year begin construction of a €6.5 million memorial to honour the abolition of slavery.
In the wake of the November riots, Mr Chirac denounced widespread racial discrimination in France. He went further yesterday, calling racism "a crime of the heart and the mind" which "debases, dirties and destroys". Slavery fed racism, he said.
The battle against enslavement is still relevant today, Mr Chirac said, drawing a parallel with forced labour, of which 20 million people are victims, according to the UN. He said it was intolerable that at the beginning of the 21st century, families are forced into servitude, generation after generation, to pay off debts, that young girls are sold as servants or prostitutes.
Le Monde's editorial said yesterday's address will go down in history with Mr Chirac's July 1995 "Vél d'Hiv" speech, in which he recognised the responsibility of the French state in the second World War deportation of Jews.
The slavery commemoration comes at a time of unprecedented assertiveness among French blacks. Last November 56 groups joined together to form the CRAN (Representative Council of Black Associations). Cran means "courage" or "guts" in French. The body models itself on the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in the US.
It claims to represent five million blacks and has shocked many French people by defining itself in terms of race. The group has declared May "black culture month".