Mapping Memories of Slavery: Commemoration, Community and Identity in Contemporary France

《绘制奴隶制的记忆》探讨了设在法国的纪念协会及其海外部门如何挑战国家未能参与奴隶制历史的问题。它始于在希拉克担任总统期间(1995-2007年)在法国庆祝废除奴隶制150周年(1998年)，并促成了一项具有里程碑意义的法律的通过(2001年5月21日陶比拉法)。在几十年的沉默之后，这项法律追溯地承认奴隶制是“一种反人类罪”，并承诺共和国克服以前拒绝面对这一艰难历史的问题。然而，在现实中，除了国家每年5月10日(2006--)最敷衍了事的纪念‘职责’之外，国家一级几乎没有采取什么行动来履行这一法律承诺。由于没有真正努力处理奴隶制的历史并将其纳入国家叙述，自1998年以来，法兰西共和国各地出现了许多纪念协会。他们的项目范围从政治活动到重新洗礼以前奴隶主的名字命名的街道，再到重建一艘受教育的奴隶船，这些项目共同旨在评估那些奴隶制后裔的身份。人们渴望创造可见的、有时甚至是暴力的记忆场所，在那里可以听到这些后裔的声音，这在很大程度上说明了当今法国后殖民身份和记忆的构建。在缺乏国家记忆的情况下，对这些纪念性联系与过去的关系的研究因此揭示了民族国家作为身份形成的日益模糊的参照点的角色的变化。首先，它试图从受这段历史影响最大的人的角度来评估国家纪念做法的有效性。首先，它将审查政府通过确保奴隶制、奴隶贸易和废除奴隶制的记忆嵌入国家叙事，在多大程度上实现了向奴隶后裔提供道德赔偿的法律意图。其次，它旨在探讨纪念协会如何应对和反击国家主导的纪念做法，纪念模式往往挑战共和国的著名座右铭：“自由、自由、博爱”。事实上，这些项目提醒我们，当代社会的种族主义、不平等和社会分裂仍然是殖民时代最具分歧的遗产。作为对纪念协会之间记忆和身份形成的第一次完整研究，该项目将与总部设在巴黎的12个公民团体合作，这些团体包括南特和波尔多的前奴隶港口，以及留尼汪岛、马提尼克岛和瓜德罗普岛的前种植园殖民地。它从政府和博物馆中心的档案工作中提取主要数据，并辅之以对协会成员、艺术家、地方政客和政府委员会的主要利益攸关方的采访，将从不同角度比较国家和协会领导的纪念活动的规划和执行。此外，它还将收集地方和国家媒体以及更广泛的社区对这些场合的反应。通过这些来源，它将深入展示当代法国政府和公民之间在奴隶制和奴隶贸易记忆问题上存在的意见分歧。在这样做的过程中，将揭示在一个共和主义意识日益薄弱的社会中，身份和记忆形成的复杂和动态的方式。因此，这些离散的案例研究为理解民族国家内外的后殖民身份形成以及法国政府与公民之间日益脆弱的关系提供了一个新的理论模型，因为他们试图处理过去的遗产。

'Mapping Memories of Slavery' explores how commemorative associations located in France and its overseas departments are challenging the state's failure to engage with the history of slavery. It begins with the 150-year anniversary of the abolition of slavery (1998) that was celebrated in France under Chirac's presidency (1995-2007) and gave rise to the passing of a landmark law (Taubira Law, 21 May 2001). After decades of silence, this law retrospectively recognized slavery as 'a crime against humanity' and committed the Republic to overcoming its former refusal to confront this difficult past. In reality, however, little has since been done at a national level to honour this legal pledge beyond the most perfunctory commemorative 'duties' performed each year by the state on 10 May (2006-). In the absence of a genuine effort to address the history of slavery and incorporate it into the nation's narrative, numerous commemorative associations have, since 1998, emerged across the French Republic. Their projects, which range from political campaigns to re-baptise streets named after former slavers to the reconstruction of a pedagogical slave ship, collectively aim to valorise the identities of those descended from slavery. The desire to create visible and, at times, violent sites of memory in which the voices of these descendants can be heard has much to say about the construction of postcolonial identities and memories in France today. In the absence of a state memory, the study of the relationship of these commemorative associations to the past therefore exposes the changing role of the nation-state as an increasingly nebulous point of reference for identity formation.This project has two primary aims. First, it seeks to assess the efficacy of the state's commemorative practices from the perspective of those most affected by this history. Primarily, it will examine the extent to which the government has achieved its legal intention to offer moral reparations to the descendants of slaves by ensuring that the memories of slavery, the slave trade and its abolition become embedded within the national narrative. Second, it aims to explore the ways in which commemorative associations have encountered and countered state-led memorial practices with models of remembrance that often challenge the Republic's celebrated motto: 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité'. Indeed, these are projects that remind us that the racism, inequality and social division of contemporary society remain some of the most divisive legacies of the colonial past.As the first complete study of memory and identity formation among commemorative associations, this project will work with twelve citizen groups based in Paris, the former slave ports of Nantes and Bordeaux, and the former plantation colonies of Réunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Drawing its primary data from archival work in government and museum centres, complemented with key stakeholder interviews with association members, artists, local politicians and government committees, it will compare the planning and execution of state- and association-led commemorative events from different perspectives. In addition, it will gather the responses of local and national media, and the wider community, to these occasions. Through these sources, it will present an in-depth picture of the divergence of opinion that exists between the contemporary French state and its citizens over the remembrance of slavery and the slave trade. In doing so, will reveal the complex and dynamic ways in which identities and memories are being formed in a society with an increasingly weak sense of Republicanism. These discrete case studies thus serve as the basis for offering a new theoretical model for understanding postcolonial identity formations within and beyond the nation-state and the increasingly fragile relationships between the French state and its citizens as they attempt to work through the legacies of the past.