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Jean's visit to France in May could revive slavery questions

French blacks see opportunity to spotlight 'hidden' history

Monday, March 24, 2008

LA ROCHELLE, France-Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, here in May to mark the 400th anniversary of Quebec City's founding by Samuel de Champlain, will be pushed to help rekindle a French national debate over race relations and France's historic reluctance to confront its role in the slave trade.

Jean, Canada's most famous Haitian immigrant, will share centre stage with France's media-magnet President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on May 8 to mark the anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

She will then fly to this southwestern coastal tourist city for events the same day honouring 17th- and 18th-century pioneers who left France via this picturesque port, guarded by two giant stone watchtowers that were the last bits of France seen by many of Canada's nervous first settlers as they sailed into the horizon.

There she will see off close to 50 vessels sailed by French recreational boaters who will retrace the original settlers' route to Quebec City.

While the official events will focus on mostly folkloric aspects of the Canada-France historical bond, a new and more controversial issue is emerging as activists in France's black community become aware of Jean's visit.

Jean, the great-great-granddaughter of African and aboriginal slaves, will attend events at a port that was at the epicentre of France's slave trade that shipped an estimated 1.25 million kidnapped Africans to plantations in France's colonies, particularly its sugar and indigo plantations in Saint-Dominique, now Haiti.

Jean, who made an emotional private visit in 2006 to a local museum here that includes disturbing artifacts from the slave trade, is painfully aware that her own ancestors may very well have been placed in leg irons by bullwhip-wielding guards in ships that set sail for Africa from this port.

Her visit also takes place two days before France's national day to commemorate slavery, which was inaugurated only in 2006 under pressure by France's blacks.

Critics of the French government's approach to race issues see Jean's visit as an opportunity to advance the black community's interests.

French minority groups have often been frustrated by the republic's shunning of the concept of multiculturalism, which is cherished in Canada.

The French have instead demanded that all citizens be assimilated into the dominant French culture under the revolutionary banner of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

"I think the visit of Her Excellency will have a tremendous effect on the situation of black people in France, because the French have tried to hide their history," Patrick Lozes, president of the moderate national advocacy group called the Representative Council of Black Associations.

"It will also help the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who can't understand the quest for social justice carried by millions of black people," he told Canwest News Service.

Lozes said he will attempt to set up a meeting with Jean, who currently hasn't scheduled any speaking events relating to slavery, according to Jean spokeswoman Marthe Blouin.

Lozes said Jean's high stature could prove embarrassing for Sarkozy because there are almost no black people in the upper echelons of France's political, business and military world, despite a black population he estimates at about five million.