Legacies of Enslavement in the French Republic

Reviews / Votes

'The contribution of this book is fundamental in that it contrasts with the work in the field produced by the vast majority of French historians, sociologists, anthropologists and philosophers, whose precautions or positions do not give rise to such a committed analysis based on the premise of the legitimacy of demands for reparations.'

Professor Christine Chivallon, CNRS 'As a direct witness but also as a contributor to the process that Nicola Frith is describing and analysing, I must say that she has done a real tour de force. With great clarity, she takes the reader through the complex and difficult journey of recognising the history of centuries of slave trade and slavery by the French society. Frith explains the specificity of French republican coloniality, its intellectual and political elite (Left and Right) attachment to a national narrative that must save at all cost the idea of France as the << pays des droits de l'homme >>, that has refused, to this day, to fully acknowledge the damages the French State did to the Republic of Haiti, and to whom the debate on reparation must be avoided. Frith, who has interviewed activists in France, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Reunion and has read extensively about active memory and politics, offers an invaluable analysis of the French (post)colonial debate on slavery, race, citizenship and justice.' Professor Francoise Verges