L’esclavage et la traite atlantique dans les musées en France métropolitaine. Etat des lieux et enjeux

Although slavery is in no way a new subject, its collective memory has officially emerged in French public space quite recently (and in a controversial manner), mostly since the memorial movements of the 1990s. The two official commemoration days of the abolition of slavery were only officially adopted in 2006 (May 10th, Journée commémorative de l'abolition de l'esclavage en France métropolitaine) and in 2008 (May 23rd, Journée nationale de commémoration en hommage aux victimes de l'esclavage colonial). However, on the 23rd of February 2005 a law was voted which officially recognized “the positive role of the presence of France in the colonies”: this article was later repealed, but it seems highly indicative of how recognizing the crimes of slavery and of the slave trade as part of French history bears many implications, not limited to a symbolic level. I have chosen to examine the museum as a physical embodiment of the state narrative on its history and identity and on its representation of the Other. In my article, I try to outline the state of the heritage of slavery in French public space and of the issues raised by a museum representing a piece of history that has always been told from the point of view of those in power. Firstly, I will briefly resume the beginning of the memorial movements in France and their main trends; I will then consider the three museums in metropolitan France that have a whole section dedicated to the themes of slavery and slave trade. I will describe the process of approval (and ultimate refusal) of a slavery museum that was to be built in Paris and would have been the first to be entirely dedicated to this theme in metropolitan France; lastly, I will analyse the issues implied in this type of construction of memory and whether this medium could be made into something else than another instrument of erasure of subaltern memory.