France’s Slave Past

France is finally dealing with the fact that much of its national wealth was built upon the enslavement of Africans.

That will soon change. President François Hollande announced this month the establishment of a major foundation to create a slavery memorial and museum in Paris.

“I wish to give to France an institution it still lacks, a foundation for the memory of the slave trade, slavery and its abolition,” he told reporters.

The government’s announcement comes after years of frustration in France’s black community — one of the largest in Europe — over what they consider the effacement of a traumatic history.

France officially recognized slavery as a “crime against humanity” in 2001 but did little beyond that.

For Louis-Georges Tin, the president of the Representative Council of France’s Black Associations (CRAN), which led the campaign for the new foundation, the long public failure to grapple with slavery and its legacy sends a clear message.

“It clearly means that black lives do not matter,” he said in an interview.

Of course, I’m still waiting for the national museum of slavery in the United States comparable to the Holocaust Museum, an event that took place half way around the world.