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"State negrophobia": the author of the tag on the statue of Colbert in front of the National Assembly judged on Friday

2020-08-14T04:13:10.853Z


The man who had covered in red the statue of the former minister of Louis XIV must appear for "facts of inscription, sign or drawing made on a facade, a public road or street furniture".


The legs covered in red paint and the words " State Negroophobia " inscribed on the plinth of his statue in front of the National Assembly. This is how the monument erected for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister under Louis XIV, actor in the implementation of the Black Code, was found on June 23, 2020. Written in 1685, this text legislated on slavery in the French colonies.

Read also: Colbert and the Black Code: what exactly are the facts?

The scene was filmed and claimed by the " Anti-Negrophobia Brigade " and then posted on Twitter. Very quickly arrested, the perpetrator justified himself before the police: “ What is prohibited is racism. This man (Colbert, editor's note) defends negrophobia ”. The man in his thirties is expected Friday, August 14 at the Paris Criminal Court for " the facts of registration, sign or drawing made on a facade, a public road or street furniture ".

To read also: Martin Parr: "Unbolting statues, it is an example of reappropriation of history"

" Revisiting History "

In June, several politicians denounced the degradation of the statue of Colbert. The President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, had accused the man of wanting to " revisit History " before adding that " in the life of a public figure of the 17th century, there are inevitably parts of shadow and shares of light ”, then considering that it“ might not be a bad idea to enrich these statues with a plaque, a panel that explains why this statue is there, the highlights of a character, the glorious facts as well as those which are less glorious ”.

To read also: Vandalism on the statue of Colbert: "The logic of the clean slate is at work"

The former government spokesperson, Sibeth Ndiaye, had also condemned “ with great firmness those who want to erase features of our history ”. Fearing to see the statues of General de Gaulle and Napoleon undergo the same fate, the president of the RN Marine Le Pen had qualified as insane the people who " judge History from the principles which are those of today " .

For Éric Ciotti, LR deputy for Alpes-Maritimes, " we judge with values ​​that come from other countries, and we do not have the same history as the United States ". " Let's stop this permanent guilt which is really ridiculous ", he had said on Public Senate.

Colbert was not the only victim of this memorial crisis, other monuments and statues linked to French colonial history or to the slave trade were targeted. The statue of General Faidherbe, right in the center of Lille, was colored red with the words “colon” and “assassin” , the day after a demonstration to demand his withdrawal from public space.

Fiery debates around the figure of Colbert

This Friday's trial could once again fuel the controversy surrounding Louis XIV's minister. The former Secretary of State for the Navy from 1669 to 1683, was tasked with unifying French law, particularly within the colonies. It was in 1685 that the Black Code, first called " edict or ordinance on the slaves of the islands of America " was published. Often accused of being contradictory, he wanted to be both pragmatic by writing down the rules of life for slaves on paper and at the same time moral by imposing a Catholic education on them and limiting mixed marriages.

" We are scandalized today that slaves are assimilated to furniture there, as in Roman law (article 44), explains historian Thierry Sarmant, interviewed by Le Figaro, but this legal fiction, intended to consolidate property and to facilitate transactions, does not mean that they are really considered as things ”.

Read also: Colbert and the "Black Code": the historical truth

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-08-14

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