As a Mast of Fraternity and Memory is unveiled in Nantes, calls are growing for Macron to announce framework for discussions
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n the French port city of Nantes, once France’s largest departure point for ships that trafficked enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, a new wooden mast rises 18 metres into the sky from the waterside.
The Mast of Fraternity and Memory, inaugurated this month, marks a turning point in France’s complicated relationship with the legacy of its history of enslavement – just as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, comes under pressure to make key announcements on a process of reparatory justice.
“We’re not responsible for the past, but we are responsible for the present and future,” said Dieudonné Boutrin, a descendant of enslaved Africans who were trafficked from Benin to the French Caribbean island of Martinique.
