The commemoration of the abolition of slavery will take place discreetly despite the coronavirus pandemic, we learned on Thursday, starting with the ceremony of May 10 at the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, on the eve of deconfinement.
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This commemoration Sunday on the occasion of the National Day of the memories of the slave trade, slavery and their abolitions, instituted in application of the law known as Taubira of 2001, will be chaired by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, during a ceremony in small committee, sanitary measures oblige, affirmed to AFP the Foundation for the memory of slavery (FME). " In times of deconfinement, the history of slavery has lessons to give, on the resilience and invention of the next world ", it is argued within the Foundation, chaired by Jean-Marc Ayrault since its creation last November to succeed the National Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery.
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It is this Foundation which has been responsible for overseeing the commemorations this year, underlined Edouard Philippe in a circular sent on Wednesday to the prefects, to whom the Prime Minister asked to organize " the commemorative ceremony planned in each department (...) respecting the rules of social distancing ”and without them being open to the public. The commemoration of May 10 " is an opportunity to recall the place that colonial slavery occupies in our national history and to celebrate the commitment of all those who fought for its abolition in overseas as in France , as an integral part of the constitution of the Republic, "wrote Edouard Philippe in the circular.
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In addition to this ceremony, another commemoration is on the program on May 23, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), for the National Day in tribute to the victims of slavery. " Because the epidemic must not prevent us from remembering, thinking and sharing ", several online events are offered by the FME.
