Editorial | Engage with France on reparations

France last week made a second symbolic move in a possibly fruitful, but likely long, and potentially fraught, tango on reparations for slavery. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) must urgently, and aggressively, engage Paris in the dance.

In particular, CARICOM should deepen its partnership on the reparations issue with Martinique and Guadeloupe, two of France’s overseas departments in the Caribbean, which have sought associate membership of the community.  Martinique has already signed the formal accession agreement, while Guadeloupe is still negotiating its status.

Though formally part of France, like other former French colonies that endured slavery and post-colonial inequities, Martinique and Guadeloupe share many of the wishes of CARICOM’s members for reparatory justice. In that respect, CARICOM’s partnership with two departments would have the potential value, or at least the optics, of an internal insurgency, which could bring added and consistent pressure in the French government to maintain focus and momentum on the question.

After joining other European Union (EU) states to be among the 52 countries that in March abstained from a United Nations General Assembly resolution that described slavery “the gravest crime against humanity”, France has recently made moves that suggest a deepening sensitivity on the matter and a willingness to talk frankly about the country’s debt to the victims of slavery.

On May 28, the fractious National Assembly voted unanimously to formally repeal the Code Noir, 60 articles signed by King Louis XIV in 1685, that clearly established slaves in France’s colonies as chattels and regulations for all aspects of their lives.  The regime remained on the books for 178 years after the French finally abolished slavery in 1848, although the Code Noir was no longer in effect.

IMPORTANT

The symbolism of its removal, though, was important. For as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, remarked days before the vote: “The silence, even the indifference, we have maintained for nearly two centuries towards this Code Noir. is no longer an oversight? It has become a form of offence.”

At the same event marking the 25th anniversary of a French law that recognised the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity - the first country to do so- Mr Macron acknowledged slavery’s long-term effect and that indicated that the question of reparations was something with which France would have to reckon. He, however, offered no specific ideas on the issue. 

“How to repair … is a question that must not be refused,” he said. “It’s also a question on which we must not make false promises.”

Mr Macron added: “We must have the honesty to say that we can never fully repair this crime, because it is impossible. You will never one day be able to put a number on it, or find words that would bring this history to a close.”

RESEARCH PROJECT

However, the French president said that France and Ghana (which was the main sponsor of the UN resolution and has recently aggressively pushed the issue of reparations) would partner on an international research project to make “solid recommendations to political decision-makers” on the legacies of slavery.

“We must engage with honesty in dialogue and work to continue this path,” he said.

France was among the biggest European participants in the slave trade and slavery. It is estimated to have, between the 16th and 19th centuries, trafficked up to 1.5 million Africans from the continent to colonies in the Americas and Indian Ocean.

When slaves in Saint-Domingue revolted and launched the independent nation of Haiti in 1802 France forced it to pay compensation for loss of property, which some economists say in modern GDP value, assuming Haiti had been able to keep that money to investment in the country’s development, was the equivalent to more US$100 billion today.  This forced payment is often blamed for much of Haiti’s current under-development and social and political instability. 

When the French eventually abolished slavery, freeing more than 251,000 Africans, enslavers were paid 126 million francs, or over half a billion dollars today in purchasing power parity.  However, some estimates of its modern GDP equivalent is closer to €27 billion.

For over a decade CARICOM (whose members are mostly former British colonies, but includes Haiti, former Spanish and French colony and Suriname, which was a Dutch colony) has pressed a reparations agenda that includes calls for a formal apology, debt cancellation and investment in health and education.  The reparations coalition has expanded in recent times, with Ghana assuming a critical role in arguing the case from the perspective of the continent while partnering with the diaspora.

France’s recent posture on the matter, could potentially open a new front in the campaign.  In addition to any individual action by Paris, CARICOM and its partners should press Mr Macron to formally place the reparations matter on the table of the European Union.  The community should coopt Martinique and Guadeloupe to help in this effort.  

CARICOM must act fast. Mr Macron’s presidency ends in less than a year. His successor may be less mindful of the debt France owes for its role in “the gravest crime against humanity”.