An article written by Raphaël Cheriau, historian

In 1881, the ‘Djamila’, a dhow flying the French flag, was captured by the British Navy off the coast of Zanzibar, along the western shores of Africa, with 94 slaves on board. The incident, far from being anecdotal in character, reflects the importance of the slave trade in this maritime space during the second half of the 19th century.

Despite the thriving character of the slave-trade in this region, little is known about this particular commerce, seemingly remaining in the shadow of the Atlantic trade. The lack of knowledge is due to the shortage of archives left by the activity in the Indian Ocean. Less well documented than its equivalent in the Atlantic, it is in fact virtually impossible to assess its the true scale. We have to be satisfied with approximate estimations of numbers. It is considered that between 800,000 and over 2 million women, men and children were the object of this slave trade along the coasts of East Africa during the 19th century as a whole.

As is reflected in the incident involving the ‘Djamila’, dhows from Zanzibar or Oman, those sailing ships equipped with one or two triangular sails, were for Europeans the incarnation of this “final trade.” It was easily forgotten that before the start of the abolition process, this “abject trade” had been dominated by Europeans in the early part of the century.

While the trade was condemned by the European colonial powers during its peak, it did not, however, decline until fairly late on. Indeed, it only saw a true decrease following the First World War, when trade in dates and pearls from Arabia collapsed under the effect of commercial globalisation.

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Since 1940, the Château Royal in Blois has had in its storerooms a set of 53 busts cast from former African captives, mostly enslaved on Mauritius island. The collection was brought together on the island in 1846 by Eugène de Froberville in the context of his “ethnographic study” of East Africa.

The aim of the exhibition is to give a voice to the persons whose busts were cast, to cast a new light on the busts, freed from “racial science” and, on the contrary, to focus on the culture, experience and accounts of each person. Historical research has made it possible to identify the busts and partly trace the life stories of the individuals whose busts were cast. The exhibition is also a preliminary stage in the departure of the Froberville collection for Mauritius island, where it will be conserved at the Intercontinental Slavery Museum in Port Louis as from 2025.

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An article written by Prosper EVE, historian

Anyone wishing to issue a detailed study of enslaved persons in general, and more particularly enslaved women, will come up against a shortage of sources.
At times, sources on the topic have been deliberately covered up. In recent years, I was faced with the difficult task of attempting to obtain restitution of the tombstone provided for the enslaved woman Delphine, who was given the name of ‘Hélod’ on being emancipated in 1835, by her master’s family. The tombstone was secretly removed when the remains of the poet Charles Leconte de Lisle were brought back to the marine cemetery in Saint-Paul, with the aim of providing a decent, though fictional, tomb for the pirate La Buse.

Women reduced to slavery were considered equal to male slaves as regards work and punishments. They became objects, property of a master, but also the property of male slaves, particularly when they married. During the whole period of slavery, and notably after sugar started to be grown in the colony, there were fewer women than men slaves. There were constant tensions between the enslaved men and women. Enslaved women would often prefer to remain unmarried. As they were few in number, living in partnership with a man rather than being married was a way of avoiding persecution, since the man would be afraid of them leaving.
Marriage, on the other hand, left them vulnerable to the violence of the husband in the event of them being unfaithful since, when they pronounced their marriage vows, the spouses were reminded that if either of them was unfaithful, he or she was to be whipped in public by the other spouse. To avoid punishing his wife in public, the husband whose wife had been unfaithful would prefer to punish her behind closed doors.

Through refusing marriage to her partner, the enslaved woman refused to bow to male domination. Due to differences in status, the situation in Reunion remained highly imbalanced and violent. Since slavery weakens human beings, for male slaves the violence perpetrated against the weakest (women and children) became a means of imitating the dominant group, giving them a feeling of importance through inspiring fear.

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An article written by Jean-François Géraud, historian.

The name of Kervéguen, though familiar to the Reunionese, is hardly of great significance. It is the name given to a particular slope, a warehouse, a concert hall or a few narrow streets: elements of the island’s natural or material heritage, but in no way does it recall persons, a family, almost a dynasty that did, however, weigh heavily on the economic history of Reunion, without having truly determined its destiny.

Over four generations, the Kervéguen family, mainly settled in Saint-Pierre in the south of the island, developed an economic activity that contributed to the island’s prosperity, even more so to their own wealth. The Kervéguen family were an example of those numerous French migrating from mainland France to the colonies, and specifically Bourbon island, that is to say Reunion, and who, from the late 17th until the early 20th centuries, saw the island as a place both of refuge and opportunity. Many of them came from Brittany, so were used to sailing the seas. It is estimated that they represented 30 % of the first settlers on the island, continuing to arrive in the years to come. They were also small-scale gentlemen farmers that had been deprived of all hopes for the future through the French revolutionary context.

This was the case of the first Kervéguen, who disembarked in Saint-Pierre at the end of the 18th century, in 1796, an insignificant nobleman who applied his skills, energy and audacity to his objective of gradually achieving success. The elements behind this success, later continued by his descendants, were those of trade, profitable marriages and a keen business sense applied to the conversion to sugar-cane. This strategy, applied by Denis Marie, the first Kervéguen, was applied in an almost identical manner by his son Gabriel, his grandson Denis André and his great-grandson Robert.
They bought land on which they planted sugar-cane in Saint-Pierre, Saint-Joseph, Saint-Philippe, Étang-Salé and, later on, in Quartier Français in the east of the island. They constructed ten sugar factories and three distilleries. They became the owners of over 1,500 slaves, followed by as many as 3,200 indentured labourers, whom they treated no more and no less harshly than the other landowners. However, they remained sensitive to the developments of the period, progressively modernising the work tool and concentrating it, making investments in the early 20th century that certainly turned out to be too hazardous. At the service of this economic expertise, they applied financial skills which were, at times, close to fraud. However, in the end, the family portrait is one of followers, who, unlike that of the Desbassayns and despite the difference in scale, is not one of founders or creators. Their confidence and know-how were applied inside a narrow local context: Mainland France and international contacts were absent. Their skills were insufficient to withstand the difficulties and constraints of a world order that was ultimately unfavourable to colonial sugar production, the more so as from generation to generation the heads of the family still wished take their revenge and live the dream life of small-scale nobility, underestimating the important socio-political changes that turned slaves into free men and that should have turned the emancipated or indentured labourers into responsible human beings. Continuing to dominate, they attempted to perpetuate authoritarian attitudes over a population they continued to consider as dependent. The discrepancy between this mentality and the realities of history, totally unacceptable following WWI, certainly created, for Robert de Kervéguen, the heir to the dynasty, a feeling of frustration and failure, leading him to sell off his businesses on the island and leave the colony, to live off a fortune earned in a land whose destiny the family never really shared.

Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that these men, in the end playing the role of predator, left no other memory than the impersonal one of a few second-rate place names.

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An article written by Klara Boyer-Rossol, historian and curator.

From the slaves of his estate-owning hosts, Froberville gathered vocabulary of East African languages, which he recorded in notebooks. Eugène de Froberville’s notebooks, manuscript documents, correspondence and drawings, for a long time conserved in the Froberville private archives (in France), are a precious source for reconstructing his study on Bourbon and giving a voice to enslaved Africans.

Among the ‘Mozambiques’ questioned by Froberville on Bourbon, it has been possible to identify four men and one woman, tracing their names, origins, languages and cultural practices, as well as part of their life story. Deported to Bourbon around the 1820s – 1830s from what is now Mozambique, they are among the last captives of the slave trade to have been taken to this French colony in the Indian Ocean. In the context of slavery, their retaining their languages, original names and cultural practices from East Africa, stand outs as forms of resistance by these survivors of forced maritime transport.

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Klara Boyer-Rossol is a historian and curator. In 2005, her doctoral thesis on the ‘Makoa’ in the west of Madagascar (University of Paris 7) received the thesis award of the (French) National Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery (CNMHE). As a research member of the International Centre for Research on Slavery, and Post-Slavery (CIRESC), she is currently holder of an international grant (2024-2025) at the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) at the university of Bonn.

10th May 2024. For the 19th national slavery, slave-trade and abolition commemoration day, in partnership with the Foundation for the memory of slavery, the Villèle historical museum is focusing on “Mussard’s shotgun”.

The weapon is considered to have been the famous shotgun given by the French king Louis XV as a gift to François Mussard, a famous slave-hunter on Bourbon island, to thank him for services rendered. To encourage slave hunters to track down fugitive slaves, the French East India Company would often grant prestigious gifts on behalf of the King of France.

In 1754, François Mussard, the most famous hunter of ‘maroon’ slaves and head of a detachment, was given a rifle and a couple of pistols decorated with silver and bearing the crest of the East India Company, as a sign of their gratitude towards him.

In the 18th century, the flintlock mechanism of weapons made shooting operations rather complicated and only the most skilled hunters were able to shoot and recharge their weapons several times, while at the same time running after fugitive slaves.
When this rifle was examined, it appeared that it was fired not using a flintlock, but a more recent ‘percussion’ cartridge system, invented in 1807 (date the patent was registered): the hammer would hit a cartridge containing mercury fulminate, the first contact reacting to the impact.

However, it can clearly be seen here that the lock was designed to accommodate a flint structure (with holes at the front) and that the pan was cut out for a barrel to be set up in its place. This modification, carried out after cartridge locks were invented and, like a large number of early 19th century weapons which continued to be used afterwards, does not call into question the dating of the shotgun and its links to its former owner.

“Shotgun belonging to Mussard, object of memory”

Exhibition on the first floor of the Villèle museum, until 20th December 2024.

“Used for killing animals, the shotgun was initially a hunting tool, later, through the massacre of slaves during that period, becoming an ‘object of memory’.

In 2023, in the context of the la classe, l’oeuvre! (a class, a work!) project, François Mussard’s shotgun was taken as the starting point for a project carried out by pupils of the François de Mahy professional high school in Saint-Pierre (Reunion).

During European Museum Night, the year 12 pupils studying for the Visual Communication and Multi-media Professional Diploma presented a graphic interpretation of the shotgun, a heritage object, on the first floor of the museum.

They designed and created a mural, focusing on the confusion between man and animal, prey and slave, creating chimeras. They also depicted the crops the slaves worked on as from the 17th century, such as cotton, coffee and sugar cane.

SELF-PORTRAIT OF FRANÇOIS MUSSARD

Composed by a pupil of the François de Mahy high school

To mark the Gran 20 désanm 2023 (20th December celebrations for 2023), the Villèle historical museum and the Reunion departmental archives are presenting the 1723 letters patent, more commonly referred to as the Black Code for the islands of Ile de France and Bourbon.

The exhibition, presented in the gardens of the Villèle museum, can also be visited on line.

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A booklet created by the historian Gilles GAUVIN.

Since it was first celebrated in 2018, ‘Gran 20 Désanm’ (20th December celebrations), organised by the Departmental Council of Reunion on the site of the Villèle museum, notably aims to ensure wide dissemination using a range of supports, informing the public of the history of slavery on Reunion, its abolition, the traces it has left and also the celebration of the end of this dark period of our history.

The booklet is a contribution to this process. It was published to mark the 40th anniversary of the law of 30th June 1983, which led to the date of the announcement of abolition on Reunion Island becoming a public holiday.

The analyses made by the historian Gilles Gauvin throw light on these four decades that have seen the 20th December celebrations progressively and calmly becoming a part of the official calendar on the island, from both the cultural and memory point of view.

Consult the booklet

Identities Rooted in Slavery

From 18th December 2023 to 30th October 2024, the Villèle historical museum is hosting an exhibition entitled My Name is February, designed by the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.

Enslaved people were brought to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company as forced labour for the expanding settlement at the Cape. The first ship-load of slaves was brought in 1658. Between 1658 and the early 1800s over 63 000 men, women and children were snatched from their homes in places such as Madagascar, Mozambique, Zanzibar, India and the islands of the East Indies such as Sumatra, Java, the Celebes, Ternate and Timor (Indonésie) and brought to the Cape as slaves.
Stripped of their homes, families and friends, cultures, languages, religions, and identities these enslaved people became the property of others. They had no rights to their own children; their production and reproduction was controlled; they could not own property; and did not have the freedom to choose who they wanted to work for or the kind of work they wanted to do.
Initially the Dutch East India Company was the biggest single slave-holder at the Cape. As more and more free burghers occupied land at the Cape they too made use of slave labour and by the early 1700s there were more enslaved people ‘owned’ by the free burghers.
While the so-called “company slaves” generally kept their names, though incorrectly spelt by the officials, with the area that they were from appended to the name (e.g. Abasembie van Zanzibar, Nelanga van Mosambique, Mabiera from Madagascar, Toemat van Sambouwa, Domingo van Malabar, etc.) the slaves ‘owned’ by the free burghers were generally given new names. The renaming of slaves was one way of stripping them of their identity.
In some cases the free burghers gave slaves classical names, often based on an emperor or some mythical figure — Alexander, Hector, Titus, Hannibal. Slaves were also given Old Testament names like Adam, Moses, Abraham and David. Others still, were given comical and insulting names such as Dikbeen and Patat.
Many of the slave-holders resorted to giving slaves calendar names based on the month in which they were brought to the Cape, such as February, April and September.

This exhibition, based on interviews with people whose surnames derive from calendar names, opens up dialogue about the way in which the often forgotten and neglected slave past has shaped our heritage not only at the Cape but in South Africa as a whole. In taking up this narrative we wish to pay tribute to the thousands of people forcibly uprooted from their homes in various parts of Africa and Asia, who were brought to the Cape and whose labour contributed to the building of South Africa’s cities, towns and farms.

“If you choose to lie down, then you stay down. But it’s your choice to get up — and these are the stories of those who have. These are stories of hope.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

A residency creation by Geneviève Alaguiry

The aim of the creative residency in Villèle, which opened on Monday 16th October 2023, was to create a sculptural work highlighting the figure of the fugitive slave. It will be presented in the context of the annual ‘20th December’ event held on the site of the Villèle Museum.

The artist Geneviève Alaguiry was commissioned to create the work. In the past, her papier mâché sculptures have attracted attention, notably though the very special effects she has succeeded in developing over the years.

In actual fact, this creative residency has two objectives: first of all creating an original work around the figure of the fugitive slave and secondly inviting the young people of the 31st intake of the Académie des Dalons¹ to contribute to the process of artistic creation, encouraging them to discover the visual arts as a profession, as well as art and creation in general.

The papier mâché sculpture depicts maronèr è maronèz: male and female fugitive slaves emblematic of freedom in Reunion. Five heads of men, women and children are represented emerging out of the cliffs of mountains in the island’s interior. They represent major ethnic groups from Madagascar, Africa and India or Creoles born on the island, all having contributed to creating the population of Reunion as we know it today.

Geneviève Alaguiry’s aim was to focus not on the suffering but on the hopes and dreams of these fugitives, hopes and dreams which became a reality for a certain number of them. This is how she has represented them: at peace and with their eyes closed. The faces are smiling and gazing up towards the ideal of a life of freedom, towards a future they can build for themselves. They are literally stepping out of the two mountain chains separated by the riverbed, the common thread of their journey, symbolic of life.

They are not simply stepping out of the mountains, but are also contributing to their creation. Cimandef, Marianne, Anchaing, Héva and Mafate: they were the first to discover our mountains, the interior of the island, the remotest spots and the highest peaks, appropriating its steepest slopes. The artist expresses the way in which they tamed the harsh terrain so familiar to them. The footpaths are represented using gold foil, gold being the colour of light and perfection. Light, in its association with life, speaks to us of persons in the past, from social death and their inexistence through being enslaved human beings to Life… a life of freedom through becoming fugitives. From the asphyxiation of an imposed condition, the fugitive achieves perfection through a freedom arduously acquired: “(…) A fugitive, I am reborn.”

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¹ L’Académie des Dalons is an experimental project set up by the Departmental Council of Reunion, aimed at the social and professional integration of motivated voluntary participants aged between 18 and 25.

An article written by David GOULOIS, Doctor in Psychology, Clinical Psychologist, Psycho-pathologist.

 

Here we question the paternal function on Reunion Island. We think that the societal context of yesterday and today has shaped one “to be a father” which is not without psychopathological consequences on the family life: slavery will have caused the absence of the father and his law, both cause and consequence of a matrifocality transmitted trans-generationally. We propose a reading of the problematic from the ethno-psychoanalytic point of view.

Keys words:
slavely – paternity – matrifocality – violence – Reunion Island- ethnopsychoanalysis

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The year 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of the Letters Patent (Black Code), issued in December 1723. To mark the event, the Association historique Internationale de l’Océan Indien (Indian Ocean International Historical Association), in partnership with the Departmental Council of Reunion, is devoting Indian Ocean history week to an international symposium entitled “The slave, a human being”.
From 22nd to 25th November 2023, the symposium will bring together historians from different regions.

 

1723. A key date for Bourbon island as regards the judicial structure and the legal definition of slavery.

 

When the November 1723 edict set up a Provincial Council on Ile de France and replaced the one on Bourbon island by a Higher Council, the legislation applicable by the two courts was still that of the Royal ordinances of 1667 and 1670. However, just like the March 1711 edict, the one issued in November 1723 did not define measures specifically applicable to slaves.

During the assizes held in November 1718, the Provincial Council issued an ordinance in line with the practices applied in Martinique. An extract of this document, referring to the punishments applied, declares that “slaves found guilty of rebellion will be broken alive and left to die on the wheel.” No compassion was to be shown for those disturbing the social order.

In December 1723, when the French East India Company requested a general document defining the status of slaves, king Louis XV of France complied by issuing the letters patent, precisely referring to this status as well as the function and the social situation of the slaves, a document based on the 1685 Black Code drawn up for the Caribbean islands.

 

2023. This legislative document, drawn up at the start of the century of the Enlightenment and defining the enslaved human being as mobile goods having a soul, has already given rise to a number of analyses, including the very thorough and uncompromising work carried out by Louis Sala-Molins, which, three centuries later, deserves to be debated once more.

Consult the program of the symposium

 

An article written by Audrey Carotenuto, Historian

During the final century of slavery, the slaves working on Reunion island did always kowtow to their masters, patiently awaiting a hypothetical emancipation in a society that would suddenly become benevolent. The colonial violence they underwent was a daily reality that they attempted to protect themselves from.

Their acts of heroism, while perhaps not spectacular, involved ways of adapting to the ferocious constrains of a repressive society. From the very beginnings of the period, they thus perpetuated means of resistance in a perspective of permanent adjustment.

Three examples taken from the legal archives will be used to focus on the three main means of opposition to slavery and will highlight certain quantified and comparative findings around the final century of slavery.

The first important group is that of resistance through preservation. The slaves shared a common history of cultural uprooting; each element of preserved tradition, whether through dancing, singing or telling stories, was a victory in the face of the destruction of their identity. Certain woman, by preventing childbirth, refused to give birth to further violence. But it is physical preservation that is the most clearly visible in the archives, since this led to illegal acts.

The second group was that of resistance through escape: maroonage was the form of denial the best adapted to the island’s geography, filled with hostile and uninhabited crags; reflecting the inability of the newly-arrived Blacks to adapt or the nostalgia experienced by Madagascans, actions of escape might be impulsive, short-tem or permanent. Escape by sea, concerning mainly Madagascans, reflected the dream of returning to the land of their ancestors.

Finally, resistance through violence, involving deterioration of means of production or directly aimed at the settlers, covers all forms of violence applied by slaves attempting to break their chains, including self-inflicted violence.

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The Intercontinental Slavery Museum opened to the public on 4th September 2023 in Port-Louis (Mauritius), twelve years after the creation of the Truth and Justice Commission, set up with the aim of reconciling the Mauritian population with its history.

This new museum dedicated to slavery has been opened in the former military hospital of Port Louis. The building, constructed in 1740 under Mahé de Labourdonnais, Governor of Ile de France, was one of the first major constructions put up in this former French colony.

The location is highly significant. The building was constructed by slaves and bears the memory of this painful period of the island’s history.

The restoration project, covering several years, has been financed by the Mauritian government, donations from the heritage lottery, as well as contributions from France, Japan and the United States. Researchers and students from the University of Nantes and the Aquitaine Museum in Bordeaux contributed their know-how and expertise regarding the organisation of the different spaces in the museum.

The challenge of the scenography consisted in providing visitors with an immersive experience of the different atmospheres, enabling them to experience the intense emotions linked to this chapter of the island’s history. The aim was to give a voice to the slaves, reflecting aspects of their resistance, rather than the physical conditions of their day-to-day lives.

The experience is a multi-sensorial one, with exhibits including documents on the slaves’ culture and music. In one of exhibition rooms, loudspeakers have been set up to broadcast early Sega music that has never been recorded in the form of musical scores. In another room is exhibited an original copy of the Black Code, on loan to the museum from the Carnegie library in Curepipe. The document, drawn up under XIV, legislated on the condition of enslaved persons.

Among the exhibits, visitors can, notably, appreciate objects that belonged to slaves, unearthed during archaeological digs carried out in 2021 and 2022 in the old cemetery of Albion: buttons, tools made of bone, earrings and a rosary.

 

In particular, visitors are confronted with a somewhat troubling and moving image: 63 ethnographical busts created by Eugène de Froberville in 1846 in a plantation on Mauritius Island. These plaster faces were cast from those of slaves coming from Mauritius, Tanzania and the Comoros. The busts, property of the town council of Blois in France and conserved at the château of the town, are presented in digital format. An agreement has been signed between ISM Mauritius Ltd and Blois so that they may be exhibited in Port-Louis once all the conditions for their conservation at the Museum have been set up.

The current exhibition is in a pre-representation phase and is the basis of the final version of the future museum once it is ready.

 

 

Families sold as “national property” on Reunion island during the French Revolution

An article written by Nathan Elliot Marvin, historian at University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

In 1789, the Constitutive Assembly in Paris took possession of all property belonging to the Catholic Church in France. In the colonies, such property included thousands of slaves living on estates belonging to or managed by religious bodies.

In 1793, on Reunion island, over 300 slaves owned by Lazarist priests were declared to be “national property” and sold at public auctions under the direction of a civil commissioner for the First Republic of France.

The present article examines the experiences of these persons, focusing on their daily lives in “curial estates” preceding the period of the French Revolution, their acts of resistance and their efforts to maintain family links despite being forcibly sold.

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An article written by Bernard Leveneur, territorial heritage curator

Maison Rouge is a former rural estate in the south of Reunion (at the time called Bourbon island). As was often the case on the island, the estate gave its name to a neighbourhood in the district of Saint-Louis. The history of the estate reflects the evolution of the plantation economy, from its beginnings up to the 1970s.

Originally belonging to the Desforges-Boucher family, its history follows that of the other estates belonging to the family, who, through the growing of coffee and the production of food crops, applied the economic policies set out by the French East India Company, reflected in the development of the island’s estates.
A yard with a mansion and its outbuildings, situated at the meeting-point between the savannah grassland and the agricultural land, already existed during this period, as did a slave camp or compound.

When the estate was taken over by the Murat family, then by the Hoareau family in the 19th century, coffee gradually gave way to sugar production. This change in agricultural practices, occurring between 1834 (the year when the sugar processing plant was set up) and 1897 (date when the plant ceased functioning) gave the estate an industrial character. During this period, sugar cane determined the daily lives of those living and working on this former colonial estate.

The Bénard family, the last family of notables to own Maison Rouge, maintained the splendour of the estate right up to the death of Fernande Bénard in 1971. The 1970s-1980s saw the estate divided up, with the mansion and the savannah being purchased by the town council to be used for cultural purposes.

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An article written by Albert JAUZE, historian

The wills drawn up by Madame Desbassayns in 1807 and 1845 were, above all, private documents. Studying them is all the more relevant as they reveal certain aspects of the 19th century colonial society related to one of its emblematic members. The two deeds are each totally independent.

In 1807, she took decisions favouring certain of her deserving slaves. They were not emancipated, but received land, houses and pensions as lifetime annuities. She even granted them slaves to serve them. Some of them could choose their new master.

In 1845, she distributed her estate, amounting to over Fr.1.6 million, among her descendants.

The servile workforce represented an important proportion of this estate. The large areas of land she possessed in Saint-Paul, Saint-Gilles, and Bernica were measured, carefully listed with their constructions, sugar processing establishments, steam pumps, hydraulic machines, draught animals etc.
In Saint-Gilles, the most opulent of her estates, was divided up into a large number of sections, measuring over 316 ha, similarly that of Bernica, with over 200 ha. The land was planted with sugar-cane, food crops or was used for pasture. In Saint-Paul, there were plots marked out for construction (with houses built on them), paddy fields, sugar-cane and food crops.
The slaves on her different estates totalled 406. Madame Desbassayns was the island’s biggest slave-owner. Most of the men and women servants worked on the land (‘pioche’: agricultural labourers). Some accomplished specific tasks as servants, cooks, nurses and midwives. The majority of them, who were Creole, had conventional (Christian) first names. She attached great importance to the chapel constructed on her estate in Saint-Gilles, with mass celebrated there frequently, with poor members of the population and slaves attending free of charge.

The second will does not contain any description of the interiors of her property (furniture, silverware etc.), only recorded in the inventory issued after her death on 23rd March 1846.
The 1845 will contains familiar place names, which have survived to this day.

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An article written by Reine-Claude Grondin, Historian

 

The official recognition of slavery in Reunion in 1983, 135 years after its abolition, gave credit to the idea that the silence surrounding this chapter of our past was the fruit of a deliberate policy of collective amnesia, orchestrated by the former landowners and their descendants.

 

 

Indeed, the history of slavery, written exclusively by these actors, disseminated a watered-down version of slavery that created for the literate public the myth of a model colony, rendering invisible the violence of the system of slavery. The narrative of this history, exploited for the purposes of French colonial expansion, was paramount among the restricted number of readers up to the mid twentieth century. In the absence of any elite originating in the emancipated slaves following 1848, there was no alternative narrative to that of the aristocratic memory.

However, the absence of official recognition did not prevent the survival of private and family memories, dynamic and heterogeneous like a patchwork quilt. The mobilisation of this memory following the third generation of descendants of emancipated slaves created, in the present period, a past that had been deprived of a narrative up to the 1970s-1980s.

 

 

That decade marked the start of collective approval of the fact of slavery, but there remained a conflict of memories maintained through a segmented vision of Reunion’s past, reflected through the image of the places of memory. In fact, the fact of slavery impacted the entire social edifice, bringing about a transformation of an anthropological character and making the whole Reunionese population the heirs of a specific socio-economic system. It is thus the role of historians to carry out the work of writing this past, from which each person can extract the elements of his or her own lineage.

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Since 18th May 2023, the Registers identifying enslaved persons in the former French colonies (1666-1880) have been listed in the international register of the UNESCO “World Memory” program. Among these documents are collections conserved by the Reunion departmental archives.

Since 2021, the Departmental Council of Reunion had officially been supporting the application to be listed, piloted by the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery, and is today delighted to announce that the process has been successful.

 

 

 

The aim of UNESCO ‘World memory’ is both to conserve the extraordinary documentary heritage of humanity and also to facilitate access to these documents. Under the auspices of the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery, France and Haïti had jointly proposed an emblematic corpus of documents naming enslaved persons in the former French colonies (17th century-1848). These documents are taken from several sources: Catholic certificates, registers of emancipation, censuses and registers of fugitive slaves.

The system of slavery denied the civil existence of these persons and the registers represent the rare written traces which give these people an element of individuality and humanity. They present undeniable historical and social interest, in the currently developing context of family research and quest for identity.

The listing in the ‘World Memory’ grants international recognition for the heritage value of these documents and the work carried out by the different institutions.

 

 

 

 

 

For several decades now, the Reunion departmental archives has been carrying out the work of classification, restoration, digitisation and enhancement of these sets of documents: the emancipation registers, held since 1832 and the 1848 special registers are available online, and can be accessed and appropriated by the general public. They were presented physically for the first time to the public during several exhibitions (1998: Regards croisés sur l’esclavage (Comparative visions of slavery) 1794-1848; 2013: Les Noms de la liberté, 1664-1848: de l’esclave au citoyen (The names of liberty, 1664-1848: From slave to citizen); 2019: Le jour de l’abolition. Dissiper la brume (Abolition day. Dissipating the mist).

 

 

 

 

Through its long-term work in this field, the Departmental Council of Reunion demonstrates the unfailing will to make the complex heritage linked to the memories of slavery available to all.

Psycho-dynamic and anthropological perspectives of the historical traumatism of slavery on Reunion island

An article written by Émilie FONTAINE, Doctor in Psychology

 

The objective of this research is to bring a new reflection around the historical trauma of slavery in Reunion and its psychological impact on the local population.

The aim will be to analyse how the Reunionese person reinterprets this history and rebuilds an individual and collective identity through the inheritance between generations and the recollections present in the collective unconscious.

How to apprehend, from a psychodynamic and anthropological perspective, the expression of intergenerational violence in filiation links, and possibly to see the emergence of pathologies associated with them, in the given cultural context and thus to apprehend the subject as a whole , by integrating its historicity.

Read the article

 

Key words: violence, trauma, trans-generational transmission, slavery, filiation

 

For the 18th National day for the memory of slavery, the slave trade and abolition and in partnership with the Foundation for the memory of slavery, the Villèle historical museum is adding to its collections 25 Visual works by Karl Kugel, created for the second French edition of the novel by Gustave Oelsner-Monmerqué, Schwarze und Weiße. Skizzen aus Bourbon (Blacks and Whites. Sketches of Bourbon island), co-edited by the Villèle museum and the University of Reunion in 2017.

 

 

 

 

A convinced abolitionists and an attentive observer of the Creole society he discovered when staying on Bourbon island from 1842 to 1845, Gustave Oelsner-Monmerqué, a Franco-German journalist, has left us with a novel where the narrative of the fiction intertwines with the reality of a period scarred by the question of slavery.

Karl Kugel, a photographer and visual creator, accepted to read between the lines of the work to rise to the challenge of creating images representing these two facets of the novel.

 

 

 

To discover the visual representation of Noirs et Blancs, esquisses de Bourbon

Kartyé Lib Mémoire & Patrimoine Océan Indien with their partners the High Commission for Human Rights, the Forum for reflection Afrospectives, the Museum of Black Civilisations and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience are organising an international symposium on the topic of “Museums faced with slavery: the challenge of reconciling accounts of a common heritage” on Reunion island, to be held at the auditorium of the Auguste Lacaussade Media Centre in Saint-André from 12th to 15th April 2023 and on 16th April 2023 at the Centre et Cie Ismaël Aboudou in Saint-Denis.

 

The Symposium, held in the context of the International Decade of Persons of African Origin (2015-2024) declared by the United Nations, will bring together researchers, museum and heritage professionals, managers of sites and places of memory, teachers and lecturers, as well as artists, from different regions around the world.

The objectives of the symposium are to have a better understanding of the impact of the work of Toussaint Louverture and the Revolution in Haiti in different regions of the world and notably the Indian Ocean, to exchange experiences and proven practices in the field of interpretation and representation of slavery in museums, to discuss new approaches that could be applied with the aim of developing federative accounts of this common heritage and exploring opportunities and means of collaboration, as well as partnerships between museums.

The roundtables on museums will be organised around the following three topics:
– Silence, ignorance and knowledge of slavery;
– Critical analyses of experiences and existing practices around representations and interpretations of slavery;
– The museum as a place of reconciliation: new approaches and museum practices.

The roundtables will be open to associations and ex officio members of the public who have expressed an interest, subject to the number of places available. A restitution of the work carried out will be made available to the general public immediately following the event.

In order to promote the Creole language and enable the whole Reunionese population to access the Internet Slavery Portal, the Villèle museum, working in close collaboration with Lofis la lang kréol (Creole language bureau) has started work on translating its content.

In order to facilitate accessibility, we are also offering visitors an audio version of the texts written by our researchers.

This year, we are presenting the Creole translation of the articles published under the section entitled ‘The Plantation Society’.
The work will continue throughout the year 2023.

Lofis la lang kréol La Rényon (Reunion Creole Language bureau) was set up in 2006 with the aim of “working towards the knowledge, observation and promotion of the Reunion Creole language in the context of harmonious French-Creole bilingualism.” Since then, it has continued its work of promoting our Reunionese language by organising encounters, exhibitions and cultural events. Our association also carries out important work of structuring the language through research and publications on the spelling, grammar and vocabulary of kréol rényoné (Reunionese Creole).

To this aim, Lofis la lang kréol responded favourably to the request made by the Departmental Council, wishing to offer the Reunionese population a Creole translation of the museum’s publications, such as the pamphlet presenting its three museums having the status of ‘Musée de France’, already issued, and now the texts of the Internet Slavery Portal produced by the Villèle museum.

Once again, this year’s 20th December celebrations will be truly festive 20 Désanm celebrations!

As it has done since 2018, the Departmental Council will celebrate the abolition of slavery:
• by bringing together the population of Reunion around this important date in our history, on a site that is emblematic of the system of slavery, the very site where, in a few years time, will be inaugurated the Villèle museum having a new function and telling the history of slavery and the estate;
• by welcoming personalities and experts from France and from Indian Ocean countries, in order to share this commemorative event.

 

 

 

 

 

The programme for the 2022 celebrations promises to be rich and dense. It will be an opportunity to show that the project for the future museum is making progress (the archaeological dig), to disseminate new historical facts (Edmond Albius is the personality we have decided to honour this year), to promote the heritage we have received from the period of slavery (the Creole language, the Maloya, Creole cooking) and simply to share the celebration of freedom. The 20th December celebrations started in advance, with History Day organised on the site, the organisation of the Villèle cross-country race, the presentation of trophies for races dedicated to maroonage … all leading up to the climax of the celebrations on 19th and 20th December.
Hoping that this edition will be as successful as those in the past, both solemn and fraternal!

Cyrille Melchior,
President of the Departmental Council

 

 

Consult the program

Designed by the Reunion Departmental Archives and the Villèle historical museum, the exhibition presents one of Reunion’s most illustrious historical figures: Edmond Albius, contributing hitherto unknown elements of his life.

 

 

 

 

Edmond was a slave belonging to Pierre Ferréol Edme Bellier de Beaumont, who initiated him into horticulture and botany. In 1841, at the age of 12, Edmond discovered the process of artificially pollinating the vanilla flower, thus contributing to the development of an economic activity that was to be behind the renown of the island, in the same way as coffee.

We have very few documents about his life. Most of our information about him comes from the correspondence of Mézières-Lepervanche and Féréol Bellier, as well as documents from the archives.

The exhibition can be visited in the gardens of the Villèle museum as from 19th December 2022 and accessed online, in its English, Portuguese and Reunion Creole translations.

 

Visit the exhibition

The Foundation for the Memory of Slavery, in partnership with the Education Authority of Reunion, is holding a seminar entitled “History, Memory and Heritage of Slavery”, to take place on 5th and 6th December.

Conferences, exhibitions, documentary resources and teaching tools will be presented to teachers of all subjects registered for the seminar, which will be deliberately cross-disciplinary: slavery will be studied through different viewpoints – historical but also artistic – and will involve music, visual arts and comic strips. The wealth of the program will make it possible to confront different viewpoints and the topics covered will also include indentured labour.

 

 

The seminar will be held at heritage and cultural venues made available by our partners of the Regional and Departmental Council: the Departmental Archives in Saint-Denis for the first day, followed by the Villèle museum and the Stella Matutina museum in the west of the island for the second day.

Consult the program of the seminar

 

 

The 2022 edition of Indian Ocean history week, which started at the media library in Saint-André on 21st November, will end on Saturday 26th November at the Chapelle Pointue of the Villèle historical Museum.

 

 

 

 

 

Organised by the Indian Ocean international historical association (AHIOI), in partnership with the Departmental Council of Reunion, the final day, devoted to the conference entitled ‘New approaches to slavery’, will act as the scientific landmark for the Gran 20 desanm (Great 20th December) celebration.

The conference will be the opportunity for specialists on the history of Indian Ocean islands (Reunion, Madagascar and Mauritius) to take stock of research being carried on slavery in the region.

 

Consult the program for the day

The Villèle historical Museum is presenting the ‘archaeocapsule’ exhibition entitled ‘The archaeology of colonial slavery’, displayed on the first floor of the mansion from 17th September to 30th November 2022, in connection with the archaeological digging to take place on the site of the museum as from mid-October 2022.

The INRAP and the Reunion Department of Cultural Affairs have decided to pool their means and skills with the aim of disseminating the ‘archaeocapsule’ focusing on the archaeology of slavery during colonial period, the common objective being to share and communicate archaeological knowledge and its contribution to history. The exhibition, set up by the INRAP, will be disseminated over the whole of the Reunionese territory by the DAC, the aim being to encourage awareness among the public.

 

 

Archaeology now plays an essential role in the history of slavery. From the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Indian Ocean, archaeological digs and research, carried out in the Caribbean, in Guyana, Reunion, Africa and mainland France, have profoundly modified the approach to servitude during the modern and contemporary periods. For the last 30 years or so, the data resulting from preventive archaeology, collected across the sites of future construction developments have turned out to be an exceptional source of information when it comes to studying and documenting the system of slavery, which led to the prosperity and moulded the identity of a large number of our modern societies. Such data contributes new information that is additional to the written sources mainly produced by the State, traders and landowners and which are therefore incomplete, univocal and biased.

 

Archaeology contributes to all aspects of the history of slavery: the state of health of the populations and living conditions of the slaves, housing and daily life on the estates (mostly sugar estates), domestic manufacture (ceramics, pipes etc.), burial, religious practices and worship. Even resistance and maroonage – runaway slaves settling outside the spaces controlled by the master – are now recorded, thanks to archaeology.

The ‘archaeocapsule’ The archaeology of Colonial slavery presents a selection of eight examples of archaeological finds linked to the topic of slavery, highlighting the relevant challenges facing the society.

The exhibition also integrates three vertical banners: “Did you say archaeology?” “Caution: fragile heritage” and “Archaeological heritage: common property to be conserved”, which have been adapted to the Indian Ocean by the regional archaeological department of the DAC (Reunion Department of Culture) from an exhibition designed by the sub-department of archaeology of the French Ministry of Culture, with the aim of explaining archaeology to the general public.

Read the article “The archaeology of fugitive slaves in Reunion” by Anne-Laure Dijoux

 

Acquired in 2020 by the Reunion Departmental Library, this collection of short stories is a precious testimony on the society on Bourbon island during the years that preceded the abolition of slavery.

 

 

We have very little information concerning this work, only 50 examples of which were printed. The same can be said for its author. We know that he contributed to a newspaper in Laval, L’Echo de la Mayenne, and that he probably lived on Bourbon between 1840 and 1850: his name is listed in the 1847-48 census of slave owners in Saint-Benoit.

The publisher, whose preface indicates the confidential character of the publication, enriched the texts with intricate decorations. Even though the author expresses a number of prejudices in fashion at the time, the work has an additional precursory character in that some of its dialogues and accounts are written in Creole.

Composed of a frontispiece representing Bras-Canot, seven short stories essentially on the topic of fugitive slaves, as well as five letters in which the author gives an account of his wanderings through the island’s society and landscapes. The book presents a collection of previously unpublished literary texts and historical accounts, published a few years before the abolition of slavery, some of them appearing in the press in mainland France.

Consult the book

 

 

 

On 4th February 2021, Prosper Eve, university professor and member of the scientific committee of the Foundation for the memory of slavery, gave a public lecture based on the acquisition of the collection of short stories.
Du nouveau sur l’esclavage à l’île Bourbon ou Regard d’Auguste Logeais sur l’esclavage à l’île Bourbon au début des années 1840: A new light on slavery on Bourbon island or Auguste Logeais’ vision of slavery on Bourbon island in the early 1840s.
Retransmission of the lecture

 

In 2022 will be celebrated the 30th anniversary of the exhibition Les Anneaux de la Mémoire (Circles of Memory), at the castle of Les ducs de Bretagne.

 

The event had an important impact and contributed to creating a general movement of recognition and analysis of the past of commercial ports and, more widely, of the role played by France in the slave-trade and colonial slavery. The French law entitled ‘la loi Taubira’, passed in de 2001, marked an important stage in this recognition on the international scale, in the same way as the Durban conference, organised by UNESCO in the same year.

The 1992 exhibition, set up with a resolutely historical perspective, benefitted from the expertise of a large number of researchers working on these questions and also from the results of an important international conference organised by Serge Daget at the University of Nantes in July 1985.

For the last 30 years or so, scientific research on slave trades, different forms of slavery and abolitions has made remarkable progress. The bibliography around these topics is now considerable and it seems the right time to take stock, without failing to mention current research tendencies and possible perspectives.

These are the ambitions of this international conference, organised by the CRHIA and the Anneaux de la Mémoire association in Nantes.

 

 

From 11 to 13 May 2022
Salons Mauduit, 10 rue Arsène Leloup, 44 100 NANTES
Entry free of charge
Visitors are advised to register (on line): https://urlz.fr/hvv7
Attendance at the conference through Zoom: registration essential until 10th May: https://urlz.fr/hvv7

Download the programme

Françoise Guimbert, the Maloya singer, died at her home on 25th March 2022, at the age of 76.

Her life was an example of perseverance.

The musician, nicknamed ‘the godmother of the Maloya’, was born in a poor family of Saint-Benoît. She completed primary  school, then at the age of 12 went to work as a housekeeper.

Gifted and determined, the composer, songwriter, singer and percussionist had her first musical success in 1978 with the song ‘Tantine Zaza’, which she recorded with René Lacaille at the Studio Royal in Saint-Joseph.

‘Tantine Zaza’: an interview with Françoise Guimbert conducted by Laurent Pantaléon in 2018

 

She then created the group Voulvoul, consisting of 18 musicians and male and female dancers. At a time when the Maloya scene was largely dominated by men, she was the first woman to set up a Maloya group on the island.

In 2001, recording her album Paniandy, Françoise Guimbert became known outside Reunion.

In 2014, she was made Knight of the Legion of Honour, at the same time as the musician Firmin Viry.

In 2016, on the stage of the Cité des arts, Françoise Guimbert celebrated her 45 years of performance.

Like every year since 2018, on the very site of our historical museum. Like every year, the celebration will be solemn, cultural, festive and popular.

With the permanent features (the slave-camp, concerts in the chapel, onstage performances etc.), as well as new ones (showcased percussions, South Africa-Reunion mapping etc.), the 2021 program, offering a whole range of musicians, associations, historians etc., is an invitation to step back in time and plunge into the memory of slavery in Reunion, notably through the island’s artistic, cultural and culinary traditions.

In addition, since the event was born thanks to the departmental project of setting up Reunion’s only cultural establishment focused on the world of the estate and the history of slavery, each year, the Great 20th December celebration is an opportunity for the Departmental Council to present the next stage of this major project.

On the first floor of the former mansion, which is to house the project, will be presented a new version of the outline sketch selected by the competition jury in 2020, as well as the model of the future museum.

The public will then be able to discover the content being prepared, with the ongoing creation of the Atlas of Reunion and of Slavery, the new version of the Reunion Slavery portal, now translated into Portuguese, the latest objects in the collection purchased by various cultural establishments and an artistic residency around the Maloya that has been opened.

Prefiguring what will become a centre of history, memory and culture, we are continuing our long-term work of setting up partnerships of various kinds, on the local, national and international levels.

In the meantime, time for festivities, time to celebrate freedom, time for the Great 20th December celebration for the whole of Reunion.

Cyrille Melchior,
President of the Departmental Council of Reunion Island

 

 

On the programme of the event

 

A MUSEUM FOR TOMORROW
UN MIZÉ POU TANTO, POU TALÈR, POU DOMIN

On the first floor of the former mansion will be displayed and made accessible to the public different aspects of the museum project. These are in the process of being set up, are being constantly added to and all of them reflect the choices made in the context of this Departmental Council project.

 ‘Un mizé pou tanto, pou talèr, pou domin’

Model of the museum project

After the presentation of the outline sketch selected by the jury in 2019, the model will be presented during this Great 20th December celebration. An evolving concept, it will give greater depth to dissemination of information to the general public.

 

‘Nou fé lo plan, nou prépar nout zarlor’

Within the perspective of the richest possible presentation of the history of slavery in the future museum, the Departmental Council is giving a new impetus to its policy of enriching the related collections.
In 2021 will be presented the latest acquisitions: historical books, coins and also a token coin of the Stella Matutina museum (Regional Council), as well as percussions from the Saranghi museum.

 

EXHIBITION OF THE WORK
‘Peuple infini’ (Infinite People)

Over a period of three and a half centuries, history has brought to our island groups of people from Europe, Africa, Madagascar, Asia and other Indian Ocean islands, all bringing with them deeply rooted and ancient traditions.
Contemporary Reunionese society still aims at being a place of welcome and of encounters between millennial civilisations, associated within a single destined community.
The fruit of an artistic residency organised by the Indian Ocean historical image library, the work of interpretation carried out by the artist Lionel Lauret is based on historical portraits and images illustrating the settlement of Reunion island.
The Ico‑nomad emphasises the rich and diverse iconographic historical sources of settlement on Reunion, against a rhythmic background of music created by Rodolphe Legras and Doc Legs.
This immersive display plunges the visitor into History through images, animated thanks to the use of contemporary animation processes.

Projected en several movable screens

 

EXHIBTION
‘Tambour battant’ (Beating drum) by Jack Beng-Thi

La Réunion tambour battant
‘The eruptions of the Piton de la Fournaise extend the territory with their flowing, then hardening, lava.
The Indian Ocean erodes the lava that with its continuous rhythmic beat. The sea pummels the coral reef and the cliffs, smoothing them out, again and again, the sand and pebbles banging together.
The cyclones hollow out the mountain slopes, rain lashes at the roofs of the houses, drumming on the tin sheets, at times hardly a patter then the downpour surrounds humans with its mass of water: it’s the dull throbbing of a huge drum;’

‘Some of the musicians playing Maloya : Granmoun Lélé, Granmoun Bébé, famille Baba, le Rwa Kaf ,Firmin Viry, famille Gado, famille Ramouche, les Batis kabaré, Mamo, Simon Lagarrigue, Nathalie Natiembé, Françoise Gimbert, Alain Péters,
Christine Salem, Danyèl Waro, Ann O’Aro, and all the others, in their yard, in their house.’

‘The persistent roll of the drums beats out their stubborn rhythms.’
Extract of the artist’s presentation text

 

MAPPING ON THE FAÇADE OF THE MUSEUM
Reunion – South Africa

A five-minute presentation will be screened on one of the façades of the former mansion, inspired by a mingling of images and messages extracted from historical documents from Reunion and South Africa.
A work created by Frédéric Brun-Picard.

 

THE SHOP
Focus on the novelties!

 

 

 

Journal d’habitation de Madame Desbassayns – tenu en son absence par un employé : 1815‑1817 (Diary of the estate of Madame Desbassayns, recorded in her absence by one of her employees: 1815-1817)/ transcription of the manuscript by Christel de Villèle; notes and additional documents by Alexis Miranville. Published by Les éditions de Villèle, 2021
Work distributed by the associations Cercle des Muséophiles (Association of Museum-lovers) and Kan Villèle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vali pour une reine morte / Boris Gamaleya. – Les éditions Wallada, 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

SLAVERY DAY DURING HISTORY WEEK

 

 

 

27TH NOVEMBER
Organisation: AHIOI: Indian Ocean International Historical Association
President: Prosper ÈVE
Topic: ‘Slavery’
Venue: Villèle Museum
● Presence of contributors – opens of the public – with external speakers
● Retransmission on the History and Memory of Slavery portal
An intellectual event

Already available in French and English, this unique website on the topic of slavery will be available in Portuguese as of 2021.

The Villèle historical museum is located at the heart of a site emblematic of a specific period in the history of Reunion, that of the plantation society that centred around the growing of coffee, cotton and sugar-cane.

Set up in the late 18th century by the Panon-Desbassayns spouses, the Villèle estate evokes a way of life where the prosperity of the masters was dependent on the work of slaves.

In line with its scientific and cultural focus, the Villèle museum now defines itself as a museum representing the history of both the estate and of slavery on Reunion. In this respect, it offers visitors the experience of immersion in the life of a 19th-century colonial property, as well as proposing tools enabling them to understand the period of slavery.

In this age of digital communication, the museum has set up a website dedicated to these topics. It was inaugurated on 20th December 2018, for the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Reunion.

The website is an important addition to the museum’s cultural offer and acts as a specialised resource centre. It currently contains 46 articles written by researchers (historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnologists, economists and jurists).
A living tool for transmitting knowledge, it is constantly updated through new contributions. With this in mind, each year specialists are asked to provide new articles.

In order to link up the Villèle museum to places and establishments evoking the history of slavery and the slave trade around the world, in 2019 was launched the English version of our website entitled ‘The Plantation society, history and memory of slavery on Reunion.’

On 20 December 2021, we publish the Portuguese version and thus open the “Slavery Portal” to the Portuguese-speaking world.

As part of the research project entitled “Repairs”, a team from the International Research Centre on slavery and post-slavery of the CNRS (French national scientific research centre) has traced the compensation money awarded to and paid out in former French slave-owning colonies in the 19th century, information published in a database, the first of its kind.

After abolishing slavery for the second time on 27th April 1848, in 1849, France granted compensation to former slave owners under the colonial empire in Reunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Senegal, Nosy Bé and Sainte-Marie in Madagascar. Through this controversial measure, The French State attempted to preserve its economic interests in the colonies where French ownership was in danger, due to the settlers threatening to abandon the territory. 126 million French francs were set-aside for this purpose, in the form of subsidies granted immediately (6 million francs) and annual payments of 6 million francs over a period of 20 years, the amount varying from colony to colony. These amounts represented a large proportion of public funds. At the time, the national income was approximately Fr.10 billion, so Fr. 126 million corresponded to 1.3% of the national income. Currently, the national income of France amounts to approximately €2,100 billion, so if the same percentage were to be applied, the subsidy would amount to €27 billion.

The research has made it possible to show that these subsidies were not just limited to the important landowners: over 30% of the beneficiaries were persons of colour, owners of a few slaves (in these societies, salaried work did not exist). In addition, certain legal deeds changed hands to make it possible for former owners to pay their debts: a person could thus become holder of such deeds as a creditor, but without ever having been a slave owner. The findings of research carried out over two years on the basis of tens of thousands of archived documents, this database will be evolving and collaborative, to be completed as research continues to be carried out all by the users who wish to enrich the biographical and genealogical data by submitting source documents.

Consult the database

With its new buildings and increased resources and following the important restructuring works launched in 2018, the museum will become a reference and a scientific and documentary expertise centre focusing on its main topics.
In the context of this perspective, the museum is launching a mapping project: The Atlas of the estate and slavery on Reunion island.

The project will take several years to be achieved. Visitors to the museum can follow its progress by consulting the maps displayed in the room on the first floor of the mansion, maps which will be regularly added to.

Initially available in digital format, the Atlas will ultimately be produced in a paper version.

The Atlas: a tool for acquiring knowledge, a way of presenting History

The objective is to gather together all the scientific elements around the topic, to transcribe the related data and to use maps to represent the way in which the estate and slavery, so closely linked, contributed to shaping the territory of Reunion, through its landscapes, its buildings and social organisation.

Slavery: a system of subjugation and exploitation

Slaves, defined in the Code Noir (the legal document regulating slavery) as ‘mobile goods’, were a social group subjected to a political and economic system that deprived them of any form of freedom and forced them to carry out economic functions with no compensation other than housing and food.

On Bourbon / Reunion, during the period when the island was a colony, slavery was both the determining factor and the consequence of the development of the society and the plantation economy which gave rise to the large estates.

The estate: a space of production and servitude

Referred to in the Caribbean as the ‘plantation’, in the former Spanish colonies as the ‘hacienda’ or in Brazil as the ‘fazenda’, on Bourbon/Reunion island, the ‘habitation’ or estate was a rural agricultural or agro-industrial production structure of the colonial society.

On Bourbon / Reunion, different types of the estate were developed, notably:
-Food-crop estates (production of food crops)
-Coffee-growing estates (speculative coffee production)
-Sugar-cane estates (growing of sugar-cane)
-Sugar-producing estates (growing of sugar-cane and sugar production)

To be able to function, these estates needed a workforce which, until 1848, essentially consisted of slaves.

The map below shows all the sugar-producing estates existing on the island between 1785 and 1848. In fact, it was on the last type of estate that the majority of the slaves were to be found.

 

The historian Marcel Dorigny, who specialised in the studying the transatlantic slave trade, from the colonial period of slavery to the abolitionist movements, died on Wednesday 22nd September 2021, aged 73

 

 

Marcel Dorigny, emeritus professor, lectured at the department of history of the University of Paris-VIII.
His research focused on the various currents of 18th-century French liberalist movements in the 18th century and during the French Revolution, mainly in colonial contexts: the role played by slavery in liberal doctrines during the 18th-century and the first half of the 19th century, as well as anti-slavery and abolitionist ideologies and the Société des amis des Noirs (Society of the Friends of the Blacks).

General Secretary of the Société des études robespierristes (Society for the study of Robespierre) from 1999 to 2005, director of the journal Dix-huitième siècle (18th century), member of the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (Historical and scientific works committee), member of the Comité de réflexion et de proposition pour les relations franco-haïtiennes (Committee for the study of Franc-Haitian relations), presided by Régis Debray, he was also a member of the Comité pour la mémoire de l’esclavage (Committee for the memory of slavery).

The digital portal Société de plantation, histoire et mémoires de l’esclavage à La Réunion (The plantation society, history and memories of slavery in Reunion), pays him homage.

 

Read the article by Marcel Dorigny, published on the Website:

20 décembre 1848 : l’abolition de l’esclavage à la Réunion

 

Bibliography:

L’esclavage : illustrations et caricatures, 1750-1870 / Philippe Altmeyerhenzien, Marcel Dorigny. – La Crèche: Geste éditions, 2021: 1 vol. (184 p.); 26 cm.

Grand Atlas des empires coloniaux : premières colonisations, empires coloniaux, décolonisations, XVe – XXIe siècles / Marcel Dorigny, Jean-François Klein, Jean-Pierre Peyroulou…[et al.] ; cartography Fabrice Le Goff. – Second edition. – Paris: Éditions Autrement, 2019. – 1 vol. (287 p.); 28 cm. – (Autrement. Série Atlas. Mémoires, ISSN 1254-5724)

Les abolitions de l’esclavage : 1793-1888 / Marcel Dorigny. – Paris: Que sais-je? DL 2018. – 1 vol. (126 p.): illustrated; 18 cm

Arts & lettres contre l’esclavage / Marcel Dorigny. – Paris: Ed Cercle d’art, printed 2018. – 1 vol. (239 p.): illustrated in colour; 25 cm + 1 pamphlet

Atlas des esclavages : de l’Antiquité à nos jours / Marcel Dorigny, Bernard Gainot; cartography Fabrice Le Goff. – Paris: Autrement, printed 2013. – 1 vol. (96 p.): maps and illustrations in colour, tables, graphics, cover illustrated in colour; 25 cm. – (Collection Atlas-mémoires, ISSN 1254-5724)

Atlas des premières colonisations: XVe – début XIXe siècle : des conquistadores aux libérateurs / Marcel Dorigny; cartography Fabrice Le Goff. – Paris : Le grand livre du mois, 2013. – 1 vol. (96 p.): maps and illustrations in colour, tables, graphics, cover, illustrated in colour; 25 cm.

Anti-esclavagisme, abolitionnisme et abolitions: débats et controverses en France de la fin du XVIIIe siecle aux années 1840 / Marcel Dorigny. – Sainte-Foy [Québec]: Presses universitaires de Laval, 2008. – 1 vol. (39 p.); 15 cm. – (Mercure du Nord. Verbatim)

Révoltes et révolutions en Europe et aux Amériques: 1773-1802 / Marcel Dorigny. – Paris: Belin, 2004. – 173 p.: illustrations, cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm. – (Belin sup. Histoire)

La Société des amis des Noirs, 1788-1799 : contribution à l’histoire de l’abolition de l’esclavage / Marcel Dorigny, Bernard Gainot. – Paris: Ed. UNESCO: Edicef, 1998. – 429 p.: illustrated, cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm. – (Mémoire des peuples)

Couleurs, esclavages, libérations coloniales, 1804-1860 : réorientation des empires, nouvelles colonisations, Amériques, Europe, Afrique / under the direction of Claire Bourhis-Mariotti, Marcel Dorigny, Bernard Gainot… [et al.]. – Bécherel: les Perséides éditions, DL 2013. – 1 vol. (413 p.); 23 cm. – (Le monde atlantique)

Les mondes coloniaux à Paris au XVIIIe siècle : circulation et enchevêtrement des savoirs / Anja Bandau, Marcel Dorigny and Rebekka v. Mallinckrodt, Ed.- Paris : Ed. Karthala, printed 2010. – 1 vol. (297 p.-[8] p. de pl.) : illustrations in colour, cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm. (Hommes et sociétés)

Les traites négrières coloniales : histoire d’un crime / under the direction of Marcel Dorigny and Max-Jean Zins ; presentation, Daniel Voguet. – Paris: Ed. Cercle d’art, printed 2009. – 1 vol. (263 p.): illustrations black and white and colour, cover illustration; 27 cm

Les Lumières, l’esclavage, la colonisation / Yves Benot; texts collected and presented by Roland Desné and Marcel Dorigny. – Paris: Ed. la Découverte, 2005. – 1 vol. (326 p.): cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm. – (Supporting texts: Histoire contemporaine)

1802, rétablissement de l’esclavage dans les colonies françaises : aux origines d’Haïti : ruptures et continuités de la politique coloniale française, 1800-1830: proceedings of international conference held at the University of Paris VIII on 20, 21 and 22 June 2002 / organised by the Association pour l’étude de la colonisation européenne (Association for the study of European colonisation) and under the patronage of the Slave Route program of UNESCO; under the direction of Yves Bénot and Marcel Dorigny. – Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2003. – 591 p.: illustrated, illustrated cover; 24 cm

Haïti, première république noire / under the direction of Marcel Dorigny. – Saint-Denis: Publications of the Société française d’histoire d’outre-mer (Society for the history of overseas France); Paris : Association pour l’étude de la colonisation européenne, 2003. – 264 p.: illustrated, cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm

La France et les Amériques au temps de Jefferson et de Miranda / publication directed by par Marcel Dorigny, Marie-Jeanne Rossignol. – Paris: Société d’études robespierristes, 2001. – 173 p.: cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm. – (Collection Études révolutionnaires; 1)

Grégoire et la cause des Noirs : combats et projets, 1789-1831 / under the direction of Yves Bénot and Marcel Dorigny; collection of articles prepared in collaboration with the Association pour l’étude de la colonisation européenne (Association for the study of European colonisation) – Paris: Société française d’histoire d’outre-mer, 2000. – 398 p.: cover illustrated; 24 cm

Esclavage, résistances et abolitions: [proceedings of the 123th national conference of the Congrés national des sociétés historiques et scientifiques (Historical and scientific societies), modern and contemporary section, Fort-de-France, 6-10 April 1998] / [organised by the] Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (Committee for historical and scientific research); under the direction of Marcel Dorigny. – Paris: Éd. du CTHS, 1999. – 1 vol. (575 p.): cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm

De l’esclavage aux abolitions : XVIIIe-XXe siècle / Jean Métellus, Marcel Dorigny. – Paris : Cercle d’art, cop. 1998. – 175 p.: illustrated black and white and colour, cover illustrated in colour; 30 cm

Léger-Félicité Sonthonax : la première abolition de l’esclavage : la Révolution française et la Révolution de Saint-Domingue : [conference Paris, 7-8 September 1990] / [organised by the Association Mémoire de Léger Félicité Sonthonax]; texts collected and presented by Marcel Dorigny
– Saint-Denis: Société française d’histoire d’outre-mer ; Paris : Association pour l’étude de la colonisation européenne, 1997. – 173 p.: cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm. – (Bibliothèque d’histoire d’outre-mer. Nouvelle série. Études; 16)

Les abolitions de l’esclavage : de L. F. Sonthonax à V. Schoelcher : 1793-1794-1848 /proceedings of international conference held at the University of Paris VIII les 3, 4 and 5 February 1994 ; organised by the Association pour l’étude de la colonisation européennne (Association for the study of European colonisation); texts collected and presented by Marcel Dorigny. – Saint-Denis: Presses universitaires de Vincennes; Paris : UNESCO, 1995. – 415 p.: illustrated, cover illustrated in colour; 24 cm

The Departmental Council announces the launching of an atlas of slavery on Reunion, to mark the 20th anniversary of the law dated 21st May 2021, aimed at recognition of the slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity and prefiguring the future Villèle museum.

 

Présentation

• At present there is no atlas devoted to slavery on Reunion. However, the atlas is an essential tool for understanding the way in which slavery had an impact on the territory, men and women and their memory, in different fields of the society.

Why an atlas?

• An atlas is a collection of maps making it possible to localise and carry out a spatial reading of historical facts. It provides an understanding of the evolution of the latter, chronologically and geographically.

Comprehensive information

• The atlas will indicate the physical and symbolic locations linked to slavery:
– Former estates
– Places of maroon settlements (escaped slaves)
– Places and objects of memory
– Material and immaterial heritage
– Toponyms or elements of slavery in the landscape
– Public structures of research and culture (archives, university, museums, resource centres etc.)
…

• The atlas will indicate all available identified information linked to each location.

A modern and accessible tool

• The atlas will be digital, freely open for online consultation, dynamic, intuitive and interactive.
• It will be added to as research and knowledge progress
• It may be published in the form of a physical atlas

A federating and collaborative tool

• Carrying out such a project is a complex process. It necessitates the scientific, cultural, technical and material collaboration of a large number of partners (the field of research, academic societies, associations etc.).
• It also requires the collaboration of the public.
• In all these fields, it also requires the collaboration of the French State, local government bodies, scientific and cultural institutions, foundations and private companies as sponsors.

Calendar

2021: Taking stock, drawing up of documentary corpus
2022: Mapping
2023: Putting on line / inauguration of initial content

Research work, a book, an exhibition, theatre plays, a film etc. The story of the slave Furcy, who was freed and then spent his life struggling to obtain the status of a man born free, continues to inspire our contemporaries.

 

In 2019, to close the commemorations of the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the Departmental Council of Reunion presented at the Villèle museum, the museum of the history of the estate and of slavery, an original exhibition entitled ‘The strange story of Furcy Madeleine 1786-1856’. The exhibition was granted the label of ‘Exhibition of national interest’.

A 52-minute film, entitled Furcy, le procès de la Liberté (Furcy, the trial for freedom), written and directed by Pierre Lane, came out in 2021. It was broadcast through the channel ‘Outre-mer 1ère’ on 13th May, in the context of the national day of commemoration of the slave trade, slavery and their abolition and to mark the 20th anniversary of the French law entitled ‘loi Taubira’.

A 27-year-long legal struggle

In 1817 on Bourbon island, the slave Furcy dared challenge his master Lory concerning his status of slave, claiming to have been born free of Madeleine, his Indian mother who should have been freed when she travelled to France several years previously.

For over a quarter of a century, from 1817 to 1843, Furcy struggled to have his freedom recognised. His long combat first of all led him to be sent to prison on Bourbon island, then to Mauritius island, initially as a slave then as a freed slave and finally took him to Paris, where his claims were eventually recognised by the French legal system.

How was all this possible? What sort of person was Furcy?

The documentary presents the itinerary of this man of exceptional qualities. The narrative is deployed on the basis of archival documents (letters, memoranda, minutes), as well as accounts by historians and animated comic strips.
The story of his extraordinary life in Reunion, Mauritius and Paris is pieced together little by little like a puzzle, with all its unexpected turns of event, its mysteries and also its ambiguities.

It is the story of a man who stood alone, at the heart of the turmoil around slavery, a system which crushed the lives of millions of persons. It is the story of a man standing firm with his convictions: he wanted justice to be done, the story of a man claiming his membership of the human race, his emancipation, his uniqueness as a human being. It is the story of a man named Furcy who, after so many trials and tribulations, took on a new name: Furcy Madeleine, an act of dignity refused him for so many years.

 

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FURCY, LE PROCÈS DE LA LIBERTÉ
Written and directed by Pierre Lane
Produced by Fabienne Servan Schreiber and Estelle Mauriac (Cinétévé)
In co-production with Gao Shan Pictures and France Télévisions
The film was available on France.tv replay until 12/06/2021

Read more

The historian Hubert Gerbeau, a pioneer in the field of research on slavery in Reunion, died on 3rd April 2021. The Departmental Council of Reunion pays tribute to him.

 

 

“Hubert Gerbeau, historian, an eminent specialist on the history of slavery on Bourbon island, has died. On a personal level and on behalf of all the elected members of the Departmental Council, I wish to pay tribute to his memory and communicate our heartfelt condolences to his family.

At the University of Reunion, where he contributed to the intellectual development of several generations of students, and even after leaving the University, during his entire teaching career and after retiring, Hubert Gerbeau worked unceasingly, carrying out research and publishing documents with the aim of widening the knowledge of slavery on our island.

There is no doubt that his pioneering, rigorous scientific work, reflected in his many publications and his thesis on slavery on Bourbon in the 19th and 20th centuries, presented in 2005, will remain a reference.

The Department Council had a number of rich and open discussions with Hubert Gerbeau. As a result, after being a member of the organising committee for the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1998, in 2018 he accepted the title of honorary member of the Scientific Committee for the future Villèle museum, Museum of the estate and of slavery.

The digital portal ‘History and memories of slavery in Reunion’, to which he contributed, now pays tribute to Hubert Gerbeau.”

Cyrille Melchior,
President of the Departmental Council of Reunion

 

 

 

Read the article by Hubert Gerbeau published on the website

The Illicit slave trade on Bourbon island in the 19th century

 

Bibliography:

Scientific works:

Martin Luther King / Hubert Gerbeau. – Paris : Éditions universitaires, 1968. – 166 p., 20 cm

Les esclaves noirs : pour une histoire du silence / Hubert Gerbeau. – Paris : A. Balland, impr. 1970. – 1 vol. (216 p.) ; 23 cm

Brèves réflexions sur le sort de la femme esclave à l’île de La Réunion au 19e siècle / Hubert Gerbeau. – Saint-Denis : [s.n.], 1973. – 1 vol. (19 p.) ; 30 cm

Des minorités mal connues : esclaves indiens et malais des Mascareignes au XIXème siècle / Hubert Gerbeau. – [Aix-en-Provence] : IHPOM, 1978. – 1 vol. (84 f.) ; 30 cm

La traite esclavagiste dans l’océan Indien : problèmes posés à l’historien, recherches à entreprendre / Hubert Gerbeau.
– [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1978. – P. 193-217 ; 30 cm

Presse et esclavage à l’île de La Réunion au temps de l’émancipation / Hubert Gerbeau ; [textes réunis par]Jean Antoine Gili et Ralph Schor . – Paris : publications de la Sorbonne, 1988. – P. 41-49 : couv. ill. en noir et en coul. ; 30 cm

Les esclaves noirs : pour une histoire du silence : 1848-1998, 150e anniversaire de l’abolition de l’esclavage, Île de la Réunion / Hubert Gerbeau. – [Saint-Denis] : Conseil général de la Réunion ; Saint-André : Océan éd., 1998. – 195 p. ; 22 cm. – (Collection 20 désanm)

De l’esclavage / Hubert Gerbeau, Issa Asgarally, Jean-François Reverzy. – Saint-Denis (La Réunion) : Grand Océan, 2005.
– 1 vol. (104 p.) ; 21 cm

L’esclavage et son ombre : l’île de Bourbon aux XIXe et XXe siècles / Hubert Gerbeau ; sous la direction de Gérard Chastagnaret. – Université de Provence 2005. – Thèse de doctorat d’État Histoire

Les esclaves noirs : pour une histoire du silence / Hubert Gerbeau. – Paris : les Indes savantes, impr. 2013, cop. 2013.
– 1 vol. (203 p.) : couv. ill. ; 24 cm

 

Literary works:

Swèdjana (le fou d’Afrique). – Paris : Flammarion, 1980. – 157 p.

Nostalgies de couleurs : suite de textes / sur des dessins de Raphaël Ségura ; préface de Gilbert Aubry. – Saint-André (Réunion) : Océan Editions, 1990. – 108 p.

Visions et visages : suite de textes accompagnant l’exposition de 40 tableaux de Jean-Jacques Martin organisée dans les locaux du Port Autonome de Marseille (2001).

Le Voyageur : conte. –  In La Corne de Brume, n° 2, 2003, p. 70-84.

Noc. –  Paris :  Editions Le Bretteur, 2004. – 228 p.

LIA. D’un paradis l’autre. –  Paris, Les Indes savantes,  2006. –  352 p. – (Collection du cannibale)

La Négresse de paradis. –  Paris : Les Indes savantes, 2011. –  216 p. – .  (Collection du cannibale)

Foutu foot. – Saint-Denis : Édilivre, DL 2015. – 1 vol. (107 p.) ; 21 cm

 

Publications on the Internet:
http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/gerbeau_hubert/gerbeau_hubert.html

“L’Océan Indien n’est pas l’Atlantique. La traite illégale à Bourbon au XIXe siècle.” Un article publié dans Outre-Mers, revue de la société française d’Histoire d’Outre-mer, n° 336-337, décembre 2002, Paris, p. 79-108 (coordination du dossier thématique “Traites et esclavages: vieux problèmes, nouvelles perspectives ?” par Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau, p. 1-282).

“Maladie et santé aux Mascareignes: une histoire aux prises avec l’idéologie”. Un article publié dans l’ouvrage sous la direction de Jean-Luc Bonniol, Gerry L’Étang, Jean Barnabé et Raphaël Confiant, Au visiteur lumineux. Des îles créoles aux sociétés plurielles. Mélanges offerts à Jean Benoist, pp. 557-574. Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe: Ibis Rouge Éditions, GEREC-F/Presses universitaires créoles, 2000, 716 pp.

“La famille Mabit dans les Hauts de la Réunion. Une contribution au mythe insulaire”. Un article publié dans De la tradition à la post-modernité. Hommage à Jean Poirier, pp. 257-265. Textes réunis par André Carénini et Jean-Pierre Jardel. Paris: Les Presses universitaires de France, 1996, 1re édition, 487 pp.

“LES INDIENS DES MASCAREIGNES. Simples jalons pour l’histoire d’une réussite (XVIle-XXe siècle)”. Un article publié dans l’Annuaire des pays de l’Océan indien, XII, 1990-1991, pp. 15-45. Éditions du CNRS / Presses universitaires d’Aix-Marseilles, 1992.

“La liberté des enfants de Dieu. Quelques aspects des relations des esclaves et de l’Église à la Réunion”. Un article publié dans Problèmes religieux et minorités en Océan indien. Table ronde IHPOM, CHEAM, CERSOI. Sénanque, mai 1980, pp. 45-95. Institut d’histoire des pays d’outre-mer, Université de Provence. Études et documents, no 14, 1981.

“Des minorités mal connues: esclaves indiens et malais des Mascareignes au XIXe siècle”. Table ronde sur “Migrations, minorités et échanges en Océan Indien, XIXe-XXe siècle”, Sénanque, 1978, Études et Documents, Aix-en-Provence, IHPOM (Institut d’Histoire des Pays d’Outre-Mer), Université de Provence, n° 11, 1979, p. 160-242.

 

 

The current health crisis has highlighted the need to encourage links between citizens by offering more and more accessible content, wherever the person is located.
Consequently, the Departmental Council of Reunion proposes celebrating the GREAT DIGITAL 20th DECEMBER using digital tools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kabar la parole: Celebration of the spoken word
A public debate to gather the ideas of Reunion citizens for the new Villèle museum.

 

 

 

The Villèle museum now defines itself as being the museum of the estate and of slavery in Reunion. This new identity is reflected in the ongoing restructuring process of the museum site and a reorganisation of its museography.

On 20th December, on the site of the museum, will be held an event baptised Kabar la parole (Celebration of the spoken word), the aim being to gather visitors’ wishes concerning the future museum, its organisation and content. The process will take the form of audio and video recordings of the ideas expressed.

Members of the public can also express their ideas between 20th December 2020 and 31st January 2021, using the ephemeral website dedicated to this operation.   www.kabarlaparole.re

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibition ‘Slavery on Bourbon island’

For the occasion of the great 20th December 2020 celebrations, the Villèle museum showcased the exhibition entitled ‘Slavery on Bourbon island’, designed and set up by the Departmental Archives of Reunion.
The exhibition, which traces the history of slavery on Reunion, targets schoolchildren, as well as the public in general.

Discover the exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Exhibition ‘Kosa i lé le Kan ?’ (What is the camp?)

An exhibition designed by Prosper Eve, with the collaboration of Alexis Miranville and the Kan Villèle Association, presenting all aspects of ‘the camp’ – the place where the slaves lived on the estate.

To find more

 

 

 

 

 

 

Symposium ‘New approaches to slavery.’ Villèle museum – 28th December 2020

In the context of the Indian Ocean History Week, on 28th November 2020, the International Indian Ocean History Association, in partnership with the Departmental Council of Reunion, presented the history of the estate and of slavery, with a symposium at the Villèle museum entitled ‘New approaches to slavery.’

You can replay the resulting discussions, which brought together researchers working in Mauritius island, Madagascar, Mozambique, Paris, Germany and Reunion, who shared their visions and experiences around the two main topics treated: ‘Slavery in slave-trading countries’ and ‘Abolition, reparation and heritage’.

First part of the conference
Second part of the conference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loisirs. Nouvelles de Bourbon (‘Loisirs’. Short stories of Bourbon island )
by Auguste Logeais

This year, the collections of the Departmental Library of Reunion have been enriched with a collection of short stories edited in 1845 by the publishing house P.A. Genesley-Portier (Laval).

 

 

We have very little information concerning this book, only 50 examples of which were printed. The same can be said for its author. We know that he contributed to a newspaper in Laval, L’Echo de la Mayenne, and that he probably lived on Bourbon between 1840 and 1850: his name is listed in the 1847-48 census of slave owners in Saint-Benoit.
The publisher, whose preface indicates the confidential character of the publication, enriched the texts with intricate decorations. Even though the author expresses a number of prejudices in fashion at the time, the book has an additional precursory character in that some of its dialogues and accounts are written in Creole.
Composed of a frontispiece representing Bras-Canot, seven short stories essentially on the topic of fugitive slaves, as well as five letters in which the author gives an account of his wanderings through the island’s society and landscapes. The book presents a collection of previously unpublished literary texts and historical accounts, published a few years before the abolition of slavery, some of them appearing in the press in mainland France.

Consult the book

 

 

 

 

 

FET KAF, live celebration organised by the Foundation for the memory of slavery

To celebrate the Fet Kaf, a public holiday to commemorate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Reunion, the Foundation for the memory of slavery is holding a commemoration this Sunday at 2 PM (Paris time), 5 PM Reunion time, in the form of an exceptional live event presented by Sébastien Folin.

A voyage of one and a half hours through the history, culture and society of Reunion with the aim of understanding the traces left by the period of slavery and that of post-slavery following 1848.

 

With Jacqueline Andoche, anthropologist; Jean Barbier, curator of the Villèle museum; Jérémy Boutier, researcher; Gilles Gauvin, history teacher; Mémona Hintermann-Afféjee, journaliste; Maya Kamaty, musician; Carpanin Marimoutou, lecturer in literature; Michèle Marimoutou, historian; Ann O’aro, artist; Jean-François Rebeyrotte, researcher; Christine Salem, musician.

Tune into Facebook account of the FME

 

 

 

Preventive Arcreology, a homage to Wilhiam Zitte
‘ Heritage and creation’ residency by Philippe GAUBERT, at the Villèle museum

Before this exhibition paying homage to Wilhiam Zitte, Philippe Gaubert, the artist in residency, set up to work in two highly symbolical spots of the Villèle museum: the Chapelle Pointue (chapel) and the former slave hospital.

Chapelle Pointue (chapel)
In the Chapelle Pointue, it was decided to offer visitors an installation combining image and sound and evoking the wandering soul of Wilhiam Zitte. The voice of the latter is to be heard and photographs by the artist in residency are projected onto a screen suspended above the altar.
The pictures taken by P. Gaubert, the earliest of which date back to the 1990s, show W. Zitte both in a private and public context.

The installation is completed by the stations of the cross designed by W. Zitte and created by Madagascan women embroiderers in 2007: a creative work funded by the Regional Department of the French Ministry of Culture and intended for the Church of Grand îlet (Salazie). This remarkable work of art is on loan from the diocese of Saint-Denis, Reunion.

Former slave hospital
In this heritage building is screened an original documentary, entitled ‘Omaz à Wilhiam Zitte. Arkréolozi préventive’ (Homage to William Zitte. Preventive arcreology) in which his friends pay homage to him. The video sequences created during the workshop entitled ‘Hommage to Wilhiam Zitte’, created by the students of the Higher School of Art of Reunion are also screened. A selection of original works by the artist, as well as reproductions taken from public and private collections, are presented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the occasion of the ‘Gran 20 desanm 2020’ (Great December 20th, 2020), the Villèle Museum is welcoming the exhibition ‘Slavery in Bourbon’ conceived and produced by the Departmental Archives of Reunion Island.
This exhibition, tracing the history of slavery in Reunion Island, is aimed at a school audience and the general public.

 

 

Slavery, practiced at all times and places, started to grow gradually in the beginning of the 17th century in the Mascarene Islands. The 1723 letters patent, better known as the Black Code (‘Code Noir’), form the legislative framework in effect until 1848. In it, slaves were considered movable properties.

The sources of the trade have changed over time. India was occasionally concerned, like the west coast of Africa. The two main sources were Madagascar and the eastern coast of Africa. Networks were formed with the participation of local chiefs.

The manumission is a liberality of the master rewarding in general good service. It is subject to conditions. The freedman must be able to provide for his needs.

One of the responses to oppression is escape or ‘marronnage’ (‘maronage’). An infra-society, a ‘society of silence’, even a ‘kingdom of the interior’, with ‘kings’, ‘queens’, have supposedly been formed in the inner mountains.

The masters had different perceptions of the slaves depending on their origin. ‘Creole’ slaves (born on the island, sometimes for several generations), were generally the most appreciated.

The first abolition of slavery (1794) failed in the Mascarenes, against the resistance of the owners. The slave trade was theoretically prohibited in 1817, and effectively in 1830.

The abolition was decreed on April 27th, 1848 and officially declared on December 20th in Reunion Island by Commissioner for the Republic Sarda Garriga. More than 62,000 people obtained citizenship. The question of their insertion arises.

Albert Jauze,
Doctor of modern history, Curator of the exhibition

As part of the Week of the History of Indianoceania, the International Historical Association of the Indian Ocean, in partnership with the Department of Reunion Island, is offering on November 28, 2020 at The Villéle Museum, history of the estate and of slavery, an international conference entitled ‘Slavery. New approaches’.

 

 

 

As usual, the last day of the Week of the History of Indianoceania will be devoted to the theme of slavery. Thus, the International Historical Association of the Indian Ocean, is contributing to the commemoration of the abolition of slavery by France in Reunion Island on December 20, 1848.

The rule that has been imposed on researchers is to renew knowledge about this iniquitous system of exploitation of human beings by human beings.
This year, colleagues from Mozambique will deal with the issue of slave trade from their country.
Mr. Jean-François Cany, who brilliantly defended in September his thesis entitled “Religions and servitudes. Theory, ethics, salvation: origins and dialectical structure of ideologies of servitude around an island of the Indian Ocean” at the University of Reunion Island, will have the opportunity to continue his reflection on this theme with which he is very familiar.

Prosper Eve,
President of the International Historical Association of the Indian Ocean Indien

 

 

Due to the current health crisis, it will take the form of a video conference and will be broadcast live on the Villèle Museum’s Slavery digital portal.

Discover the programm

 

In a resolution voted on Friday 19th June, the European Parliament recognised slavery as a ‘crime against humanity’.

 

Following the proposal of MEP Younous Omarjee, this designation was part of an 11-page resolution on demonstrations against racism, with the following title : ‘Black lives matter’, a reference to the slogan of the US-based world movement against racism and police violence.

In his speech to the European Parliament, Younouss Omargee said :

“We must see that this event is the result of centuries of black domination in the United States and unequal conditions in Europe. Let us bear in mind that our own European history has always swung like a pendulum between barbarity and civilised behaviour. Despite all reason, despite the Enlightenment, it was nevertheless in Europe that the very worst theories of racial hierarchy were born, created to justify conquests, slavery, colonisation and the Holocaust.”

The proposal was ratified by a large majority : 493 votes in favour, 104 against and 67 abstentions :

“The European Parliament calls on institutions and Member States of the European Union to officially recognise the injustices of the past and the crimes against humanity committed against black people and people of colour, declaring that the slave trade be a crime against humanity and calling for December 2nd to be designated as the European Day for the Commemoration of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. We encourage Member States to include the history of black people and people of colour in their school curricula.”

On May 21st, 2001, France officially recognised the slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity through legislation called the Taubira law, named after the Guyanese Member of Parliament who first initiated the bill and then presented it in the French National Assembly.

Organised by the Villèle Historical Museum, in partnership with the Departmental Archives of Reunion Island, this exhibition retraces the unique history of a slave called Furcy.

 

In 1817, on Bourbon Island (Reunion Island), thirty-one year old slave Furcy brought legal proceedings against his master Joseph Lory before the Saint-Denis District Court, contesting his status as a slave and claiming his ‘ingenuity,’ or rather his freedom of birth.

With the help of his free sister Constance Jean-Baptiste, Louis Gilbert-Boucher, public prosecutor at the Royal Court of Bourbon in 1817, and Jacques Sully-Brunet, a young lawyer and hearing officer at the Royal Court of Bourbon, Furcy embarked on a long fight against colonial justice that would lead him to imprisonment on Bourbon Island, exile in Mauritius as a slave, then freedom and legal proceedings in the highest courts of France.

Furcy’s fight was based on the following arguments: his mother was of Indian origin and not a Negress from Africa; having spent time in France, she should no longer have been a slave. Born after her stay in France, Furcy himself should therefore have been a free citizen at birth.

This trial lasted twenty-seven years, finally ending on December 23rd 1843 in the Royal Court of Paris with the following decision: “Furcy was born in a state of freedom and ingenuity”.

 

Research into Furcy’s story

This exhibition is the culmination of research work carried out by anthropologist and historian Gilles Gérard, who wrote the script.
It is also based on the work of Sue Peabody, an American historian and academic, author of Madeleine’s Children: Family, Freedom, Secrets, and Lies in France’s Indian Ocean Colonies and of researcher Jérémy Boutier, author of a thesis entitled La question de l’assimilation politico-juridique de La Réunion à la métropole, 1815-1906 (Université d’Aix-Marseille) and of several articles on Furcy.

 

The challenges of this exhibition

The aim of the exhibition is to use all available sources to give an insight into the unique, prodigious and complex life of Furcy, even if it means re-establishing facts and breaking down a few preconceptions: he was in fact not a militant abolitionist, and would end up with his own slaves, living the rest of his life in relative opulence.

It also aims to place the strange story of Furcy in the context of the respective colonial societies of Bourbon Island and Mauritius and to put the spotlight on Furcy himself, correcting history’s often misconceived representations of him.

The visit covers the various events of his 27-year legal battle: abuse of power, forged documents, and pressure exerted on Furcy and his family…

Archival documents for each of the four sections of the exhibition are highlighted to support the historians’ arguments, and information boards for each room provide further information and facts.

Alongside this, there is a second section entitled ‘Furcy Today’, with screens showing interviews with the many artists who have addressed Furcy’s story in recent years.

Created by designer Sébastien Sailly, characters are shown as silhouettes throughout the different rooms, helping the visitor to identify all the protagonists of a plot which unfolded across India, Bourbon Island, Mauritius and France: these include Furcy, of which no physical representation is known to this day, his sister Constance, a free black woman, his mother Madeleine born in Chandernagor, Philippe Desbassayns de Richemont, son of Ombline Desbassayns, prosecutor Boucher, and finally Joseph Lory, Furcy’s master…

Characters, places, documents which have been lost and found, doctored papers: no stone has been left unturned in reveal this strange story to museum visitors.

Contemporary resonances of the Furcy case

In Reunion Island, Furcy’s story may have been revealed to us through the work of historian Hubert Gerbeau in 1990, but it wasn’t until Sophie Bazin and Johary Ravaloson (alias Arius and Mary Batiskaf) created Liberté Plastik back in 1998 that Furcy became a symbol of the fight for freedom.

The publication of Mohammed Aïssaoui’s book, L’affaire de l’esclave Furcy, (Prix Renaudot 2010), is another element to be taken into account to understand the appearance in the 2000s of the collective movement Libèr nout’ Furcy, (Free Our Furcy) and the emergence of various creations by artists from here and abroad: Hassane Kouyaté’s play L’affaire de l’esclave Furcy, Fer6 by Francky Lauret and Erick Isana, the draft of an animated film by Laurent Médéa, the song L’or de Furcy by musician Kaf Malbar, or the sculpture by Marco Ah Kiem at the Barachois in Saint-Denis.

 

Liberté Plastik
Arius and Mary Batiskaf
1998

From May 1998 to May 1999, Arius and Mary Batiskaf (whose real names are Sophie Bazin and Johary Ravaloson) toured around Reunion Island with a stage re-enactment of Furcy’s trial, with actors performing from within a cage, travelling around to perform in ten different venues. Conceived and written by Johary Ravaloson, around hundred actors helped to bring this trial to life.
150 years after the abolition of slavery, Furcy’s story painted the hero in a positive light, highlighting the various power struggles which were not always clear.

 

L’Affaire de l’Esclave Furcy
Mohammed Aïssaoui
2010

L’affaire de l’esclave Furcy is a historical essay by French writer and journalist Mohammed Aïssaoui, published in 2010 by Gallimard. The book has received numerous awards, including the 2010 Renaudot Prize for historical essays and the 2010 RFO Book Prize.
It was this fictionalised account by Mohammed Aïssaoui’s that first revealed Furcy’s story and his fight for freedom to the general public.

 

L’Affaire de l’Esclave Furcy
Directed by Hassane Kassi Kouyaté and
Patrick Le Mauff. With Hassane Kassi Kouyaté.
2013

“Hassane K. Kouyaté describes the trial and the research carried out by journalist Mohammed Aïssaoui. As an actor, he plays in turn the many characters of this astonishing affair in a raw and compelling way”. (Jeune Afrique)

 

LorDeFurcy
Kaf Malbar
2014

Hailing from the ‘Cow-Boy’ district of Le Chaudron (Saint-Denis, Reunion Island) Singer Kaf Malbar’s song pays tribute to Furcy’s battle. His popularity, particularly among young people, has helped to spread the story of Furcy across Reunion Island even further.

 

L’affaire de l’esclave Furcy
Tiktak Production
2015

Reunionese company Tiktak Production acquired the rights to adapt Mohammed Aïssaoui’s book, L’Affaire Furcy. Directed by director Serge Élissalde using real images from Reunion Island, the scenes were shot using different techniques developed for the occasion. Furcy’s face is inspired by the features of actor Camille Bessière.

 

Fer6
Written by Francky Lauret, played by Érick Isana
2016

Novelist Francky Lauret creates a dialogue between Furcy and other slaves sharing his cell in the Juliette Dodu prison in Saint-Denis. Alone on stage, Érick Isana takes on the role of each of the characters.

 

Sculpture of Furcy
Created by Marco Ah-Kiem
2018

The sculptor from Ilet Quinquina (commune of Sainte-Clotilde, Reunion Island), and creator of numerous works on the subject of slavery, celebrates the memory of Furcy with a sculpted ensemble piece, erected on the Barachois seafront of Saint-Denis (Reunion Island).

 

A Furcy collection in the Departmental Archives of Reunion Island

Historical research about Furcy has been notably furthered thanks to the purchase of the ‘Furcy Collection’ by the Departmental Council back in 2005. This collection is in fact the documents and papers of Louis Gilbert Boucher, Attorney General of the Royal Court of Bourbon, Furcy’s main supporter.

Learn more

A VALUED PUBLICATION ABOUT SLAVERY IN BOURBON / REUNION ISLAND

In 1998, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the Departmental Archives and Library, the Léon Dierx Museum and the Villèle Museum presented a major exhibition accompanied by a vast catalogue of unpublished heritage documents bearing witness to the slave trade on the island. Twenty years later, the Departmental Council has repeated this project, made better by scientific improvements allowing us to fully understand both the progress made and also the many challenges that remain if we truly wish to collectively shoulder this shared history.

Read the contents table

AN EXHIBITION OF WORK BY REUNION ISLAND’S SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS CREATED BY LIONEL LAURET

In 2018, as part of the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, in partnership with the Departmental Council and the Academy of Reunion Island, a competition was organised as part of the student’s citizenship programme. Using the name of slaves listed in Madame Desbassayns’ will, the pupils were asked to paint a portrait of one or more slaves. 85 public and private secondary schools took part in the event and a collective exhibition of their work was presented at the Villèle Museum.

Devoted to the history of slavery in Reunion Island, this online database is made up of archive documents, images and artefacts from the collections of the Departmental Council’s cultural institutions : the Villèle Historical Museum (MHV), the Reunion Island Departmental Archives (ADR), the Léon Dierx Museum (MLD) and the Reunion Island Departmental Library (BdR).

 

Access is free and unlimited, with content aimed at all types of users: schools, media libraries, local authorities and associations.

It includes:
• More than fifty reference documents from the Departmental Council’s historical collections
• One hundred old pictures showing everyday scenes, portraits and old landscapes.
• An exhibition of the Departmental Archives of Reunion Island, called ‘Les Noms de la Liberté’ (‘The Names of Freedom’)
• Two novels :
Les Marrons, by Louis-Timagène Houat, 1844
Matzingoro ou l’esclave Djoloff, by André Berthet, 1885

 

 

On 23rd May 1998, a silent protest of 40,000 people, mainly from Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and Réunion, took place in Paris between Place de la République and Place de la Nation, marking the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery on 27th April 1848.

Contrary to the official position of the French State until then, namely the promotion of abolitionists working for the cause in Mainland France, the 23rd May protesters first celebrated the memory of their ‘enslaved’ ancestors, oppressed for several centuries in France’s overseas territories. To mark this historic event, the 23rd May 1998 Protest Committee was formed (CM98) at the end of November 1999, its goal being to ensure that slavery and the slave trade in French colonies be officially recognised as a crime against humanity. This was finally enshrined in law on 21st May 2001. The annual commemoration of 23rd May, a national day in homage to the victims of slavery, was officially introduced on 29th April 2008. This was confirmed, like the commemoration of 10th May, by a law passed on 27th February 2017.

Although it benefits from less media coverage than the National Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade, Slavery and its Abolition on 10th May, the commemoration of 23rd May has nevertheless been the subject of events throughout France and its overseas territories for the past 20 years. Initiated and organised by memorial associations in partnership with local authorities, events are generally a combination of remembrance, contemplation (often around a monument erected for this purpose) and cultural expression. For example, on 23rd May 2015, nearly 30,000 people gathered at the Place de la République in Paris to see the exhibition of genealogical charts created by CM98 activists, followed by a big concert of gwoka, bélé and maloya music

To mark the 20th anniversary of the march, the national commemoration of 23rd May 2018, organised by the National Committee for the History and Memory of Slavery (CNMHE), took place at the Ministry of Overseas France in the presence of Mrs Annick Girardin, Minister for Overseas France and Mr Jean Marc Ayrault, former Prime Minister and President of the Mission for the Memory of Slavery, the Slave Trade and their Abolition. Hosted by Mr Frédéric Régent, President of the CNMHE, the ceremony began with the planting of a ‘freedom tree’ in the courtyard of the Ministry of Overseas France, followed by the awarding of a thesis prize and a round table discussion on the theme : ‘Are descendants of slaves still victims of slavery ?’

For this year 2020, which is an unusual year with post-lockdown health measures, the national commemoration of 23rd May will involve a wreath-laying ceremony and a moment of contemplation in front of the monument dedicated to the victims of colonial slavery, created by the sculptor Nicolas Cesbron, at Victor Hugo Square in the commune of Saint-Denis (93) in the presence of Mrs Annick Girardin, Minister for Overseas France, Mr. Laurent Russier, Mayor of Saint-Denis, Mr Serge Romana, President of the Fondation Esclavage et Réconciliation, Mr Emmanuel Gordien, President of the CM98.

Bruno Maillard / Doctor in History
Associate Researcher at the CRESOI Laboratory of the University of Reunion Island
Temporary lecturer at the University of Paris Est Créteil
Member of the Scientific Council of the Foundation for the Remembrance of Slavery

The Departmental Council would like to celebrate the memory of eminent historian Claude Wanquet, who passed away recently.

 

A reputed specialist of the revolutionary and imperial period, he began his career as a writer with the publication of his thesis ‘History of a Revolution: Reunion Island (1789-1803)’. He was subsequently the author of several dozen books and scientific articles devoted to his favourite subject. As Professor emeritus of history at the University of Reunion Island, former president of the International Historical Association of the Indian Ocean (1998-2008), and member of the Academy of Reunion since 1969, Claude Wanquet regularly collaborated with the Departmental Council to make scientific research more popular and accessible to the general public. In 2017, Claude Wanquet agreed to be an honorary member of the scientific committee for the initial plans of the new Villèle Museum.

From today, the Departmental Library of Reunion Island and the Museum’s online portal about slavery in Reunion Island include a homage to this remarkable historian.

The Departmental Council extends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Claude Wanquet.

 

Read the articles by Claude Wanquet published on the site 
Portrait of Henri-Paulin Panon-Desbassayns / Claude Wanquet

 

Bibliography 
Histoire d’une révolution : La Réunion 1789-1803 / Claude Wanquet. – Marseille : J. Laffitte, 1980. – 3 vol. (779 p., 514 p., 622 p.) ; 22 cm.

Des marines au port de la pointe des galets : 1886-1986, centenaire / [Comité du centenaire de la ville du Port] ; [réd. par] Angèle Squarzoni, Claude Wanquet, Élie Fontaine, Edmond Maestri… [et al.] ; préface de Claude Wanquet . – La Réunion : Comité du centenaire de la ville du Port, 1987. – (195 p.): ill.; 21 cm . – (1886-1986 Centenaire).

Fragments pour une histoire des économies et sociétés de plantation à La Réunion / sous la direction de Claude Wanquet. – Saint-Denis : Publications de l’Université de la Réunion, Centre de documentation et de Recherche en Histoire Régionale de l’Université de la Réunion, 1989. – 351 p. : couv. ill. en coul. ; 21 cm.

La Révolution à la Réunion : 1789-1803 : [exposition, Hôtel de ville de Saint-Denis, 1990] / [organisée par le] Musée de Villèle… ; [catalogue de] Claude Wanquet,… ; [préf. de Jean Barbier]. – Saint-Gilles-les-Hauts : Musée historique de Villèle, 1990. – 1 vol. (24 p.) : ill. en noir et en coul. ; 21 cm.

Les Premiers députés de La Réunion à l’Assemblée nationale : quatre insulaires en Révolution (1790-1798) / Claude Wanquet. – Paris : Karthala, 1992. – 1 vol. (237 p.) ; 22 cm.

La France et la première abolition de l’esclavage : 1794-1802 : le cas des colonies orientales Ile de France (Maurice) et La Réunion / Claude Wanquet. – Paris : Karthala, 1998. – 1 vol. (724 p.) : ill. ; 25 cm. – (Hommes et sociétés).

Henri Paulin Panon Desbassayns : autopsie d’un »gros Blanc » réunionnais de la fin du XVIIIe siècle / Claude Wanquet . – Saint-Gilles-les-Hauts : Musée historique de Villèle, 2011. – 1 vol. (335 p.-[32] p. de pl.) : ill. en noir et en coul. ; 25 cm. – (Collection patrimoniale Histoire).

One year ago, the Departmental Council announced the launch of a full year of commemoration for the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery.

From the outset, we specified that the commemoration would include a variety of long-lasting and unifying highlights, such as conferences, seminars, concerts, artist residences, websites and awards. And thus the tone was set all over the island, not only for the month of December 2018, but also for the entire commemorative year. One key event was the ‘Gran 20 Désanm’ festival held at the Villèle museum, beautifully staged and lit up for the evening, with several thousand visitors including dignitaries from Mozambique, the Foundation for the Remembrance of Slavery, and UNESCO.

It was on this occasion that we launched the new construction project of the Villèle Museum: with this ambitious renovation campaign, the museum up in Saint-Gilles-les-Hauts will broaden its scope and now tell not only the story of the buildings, but the history of slavery as well.

Of the many actions carried out in relation to the 170th anniversary of this major historical date for both France and Reunion, most will live on in the future. All of them are intended to improve and inspire the future Villèle museum, which we really hope will meet the expectations of both the Reunionese and visitors to our island.

La plupart des actions réalisées au titre de ce 170ème anniversaire d’une date historique majeure dans l’histoire de la France et de La Réunion resteront. Toutes ont vocation à nourrir et à inspirer le futur musée de Villèle, dont nous souhaitons vraiment qu’il réponde à la demande d’histoire des Réunionnais et des visiteurs qui viennent à la rencontre de notre île.

In the meantime, the commemorative year will come to an end with the 2nd ‘Gran 20 Désanm’.

With a completely new exhibition, entirely devoted to a slave by the name of FURCY, there will also be a presentation of the 2nd edition of the book ‘Comparative Views about Slavery’, the projection of films onto a big screen, audio tours, a ‘mini online museum’, a re-enacted slave camp, and a number of Creole-style kitchens… As well as an artistic programme bringing together more than a hundred artists (musicians, dancers, storytellers, visual artists…).

We really hope that many of you will attend this historic event.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful ‘Gran 20 Désanm’ to you all!

Cyrille Melchior,
President of the Departmental Council of Reunion Island

The name of this mountain pass, an exceptional viewpoint overlooking the North-West of the Fouqué enclosure, the highest caldera of Piton de La Fournaise, has been changed in order to include the name of the slave who first gained access to this area. The spot is now known as ‘Le Pas de Bellecombe – Jacob’.

During an expedition to the volcano in 1768, Governor Léonard de Bellecombe, accompanied by authorising officer Honoré de Crémont and slave porters found themselves at the edge of the area surrounding the volcano. Finding no way to get down, the governor retraced his steps. M. Crémont, more determined, pushed on, promising six pieces of blue cloth to any black who could find their way down the ramparts. After much searching, a slave called Jacob found a passageway and headed down the cliff with M. de Crémont.

Although the governor never went down himself, the site was given his name, Pas de Bellecombe.

On Wednesday 28th August 2019, Michel Vergoz (Mayor of Sainte-Rose) unveiled the plaque in the car park with the new name, Le Pas de Bellecombe-Jacob, thus paying homage to the slave who first gained access to this area surrounding the volcano.

A founding act, for an important project focusing on history and memory / memories

For the Departmental Council, the 20th December this year (2018) will take on an exceptional character. The celebration of 170 years of the abolition of slavery in France directly echoes the main cultural project of the Departmental Council for the current electoral term: the programme for the De Villèle Historical Museum, museum of the estate and of slavery.

We wish to organise an important 20th December celebration at the museum and throughout the island. Solemn and festive, cultural and popular.

This is a commemorative year (December 2018-December 2019) which, in all its aspects, will prefigure the future museum, which we hope will become a scientific and cultural centre of excellence as regards the topics covered, as well as a reference centre for cultural tourism in Reunion.

30 or so researchers, about the same number of artists, associations, town councils, State authorities, sports committees and associations, clubs and partners from the economic sector are already working side-by-side with us in order to:
– enrich and transmit knowledge about slavery in Reunion
– enhance and share cultural heritage elements originating in slavery and the collective memory
– give the actors of history a visible and dignified presence
– include the history of slavery in Reunion in the universal and timeless history of slavery around the world.

Other partners will certainly come to join us, since we should like to involve all the inhabitants of Reunion, so that this year’s commemoration may echo throughout the territory, involving an even greater number of local, national and international partners and that the projects of the Departmental Council may be federating and permanent.

Every day we hear about extremist movements of all sorts developing around the world, as well as about people being excluded, in connection with these movements. Reunion must not sacrifice the ideal of unity that its people have been working to construct, day after day, since the historical act which made this possible: the declaration of the abolition of slavery in 1848. Liberty is not created through a decree, once and for all, but needs to be conquered on a daily basis.

In a spirit of dignity and harmony, we will make sure that the 20th December celebrated in 2018 becomes a truly great 20th December and that the year 2019 becomes a great commemorative year.

Cyrille Melchior,
President of the Departmental Council of Reunion

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The Departmental Council invites all the people of Reunion to celebrate the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery with the artists, researchers, museum curators, associations, institutions, partners from the economic sector and schools.

Exhibition centred on the painting by Alphonse Garreau ‘Allégorie de l’abolition de l’esclavage à La Réunion’ (Allegory of abolition of slavery in Reunion)
With an installation by Matilde Fossy ‘Dissiper la Brume’ (Dissipating the Mist)

A historical confrontation

On 20th December 1848, over 60,000 slaves were freed following a speech given on the Place du Gouvernement square in Saint-Denis by Joseph Napoleon Sarda-Garriga, Commissioner of the French Republic. A year later, the artist Alphonse Garreau, who had settled on the island, painted a picture evoking the event. Today, the work is referred to as ‘Allégorie de l’abolition de l’esclavage à la Réunion’.

The artist’s vision is one of power, order and work. The central character is Sarda-Garriga. The painting expresses a clear message: liberty goes hand-in-hand with the obligation to work. The newly freed slaves in the crowd remain totally anonymous, with no power of expression.

Revisiting ‘Allegory …’ by giving a presence to the slaves widens the meaning of this work, steeped in history. The project of the Léon Dierx art gallery consists in combining history and contemporary art.

‘Dissiper la brume’, an installation created especially for the exhibition by the artist Mathilde Fossy, encourages us to follow the meanders of history. The names given to the slaves in 1848, at the heart of Mathilde Fossey’s artistic expression, reflect present-day patronymics, echoing the painting by Garreau, like a new allegory that takes into consideration the temporality of the last 170 years.

 

A three-part exhibition

The first part consists in lithographs and etchings from the collections of various cultural structures of the Departmental Council, all the works being linked to the denunciation of the slave trade and the servile colonial system. From late 18th-century etchings by intellectuals of the French Enlightenment to etchings linked to the first abolition in 1794, from the many etchings criticising the slave trade during the first half of the 19th century to emblematic paintings commemorating the end of slavery in England and France, the visitor follows the historical evolution of the abolitionist discourse and its expression by various artists, through a selection of original works and reproductions.

The second section focuses on the events which took place in Reunion in 1847-1848, through the works of two artists living on this island during that period: Antoine Louis Roussin (1819-1894) and Adolphe Potémont (1828-1883). Through their lithographs, often satirical, they evoke the end of slavery, abolition and the reactions of the population faced with this historical event during the months that overturned the island’s history. The painting by Alphonse Garreau is displayed in this part of the exhibition. Allégorie de l’abolition de l’esclavage à la Réunion’ (Allegory of the abolition of slavery in Reunion) is conserved at the Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Museum in Paris and has returned to Reunion 170 years after its creation.

In the third part, Dissiper la brume (Dissipating the Mist), a work by Mathilde Fossy, takes us beyond the picture itself. The installation invites visitors to wander around a space punctuated by sheets of Plexiglas. The panels have been engraved with the names of slaves freed in 1848, forming a symbolic crowd. The act of making our way between the names also represents a movement between past and present, that each one of us is part of. The choice of the transparent support reflects a desire to strip down, revealing the truth of the event, a certain desire for clarification.

The Villèle historical Museum is an emblematic site representing a specific period in the history of the plantation society, centred around the crops of coffee, cotton and sugar cane.

This former estate, created at the end of the 18th century by the Panon-Desbassayns family, reflects the development of the social and economic organisation of the island up to the 1970s. It evokes the way of life of a family of plantation owners, as well as that of the workers, slaves, indentured workers and small settlers, whose history is linked to that of the masters of the estate.

The purpose of the museum is to reflect the history of the estate through its buildings, gardens, material and immaterial remains, that characterise the site, while at the same time developing a specific museographical circuit focusing on the period of slavery on Reunion island.

In this digital era, setting up a new reference website appeared essential. This digital portal, with direct links to the website of the Villèle historical museum and centred around its collections, its cultural content and its ongoing events, also aims to offer a documentary database consisting of texts by researchers, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and museum curators, brought together within a scientific committee set up in 2018.

Presented as an updated specialised resource centre around the plantation society, the Desbassayns estate, the history and memory of slavery in Reunion, the arborescence of the site enables web users to access the different sections, each dealing with a specific topic: the French East India Company, families of Plantation owners, the sugarcane economy, the Panon-Desbassayns and Villèle families, the slave trade in the Indian Ocean, the Code Noir, indentured workers, chronology of the abolition of slavery, the cultural heritage of slavery, places of memory etc.

A website for the general public

The texts written by the contributors are often illustrated with iconographic documents conserved in the heritage institutions of Reunion or mainland France. They are aimed both at visitors curious to obtain general information, as well as specialised members of the public (school pupils, students, teachers etc.), wishing to carry out more thorough research and obtain information provided by researchers from different horizons.

An evolving website

The ambitious challenge of the website is ultimately, on the one hand to create a reference digital portal, an information tool dedicated to the plantation society and the history of slavery in Reunion and, on the other hand, to give researchers, heritage structures, artists, associations etc. a free space, enabling them to contribute to the progress of research in the field.

Three emblematic traditional instruments used in traditional Reunionese music, manufactured by three musicians, were added to the collections of the de Villèle Museum on 20th December 2018.

The Kayamb

Created by Firmin Viry, this consists of a sound box made of green aloe and the stems of flowering sugarcane, mounted using string and glue, then filled with wild saffron seeds.

 

The Roulèr or skin drum

Manufactured by Stéphane Grondin, this is an oak barrel with either end cut off and circled with metal, with an ox skin nailed onto one end.

 

The Bob or musical bow

Mounted by Johny Bily, this instrument consists of an amplifying box, made out of an emptied calabash, a rattle (kaskavel) out of plaited screw-pine filled with canna seeds, a bow of yellow wood (ochrosia) and green aloe fibre. It is played by striking it with a stick (tikouti) made of doratoxylon wood.

Christine Salem and Deborah Herbert
“From fields of sugar cane to songs of cotton”

Two artists, two voices, from Reunion and from the United States, in a long-term residency at the museum and in the de Villèle neighbourhood (2017, 2018), mingling their musical, human and cultural heritage in a joint repertoire of 15 or so songs.

First performance at the de Villèle Museum on 20th December. Christine Salem (vocals, kayamb), Deborah Herbert (vocals) – Harry Périgone and Zélito Déliron (percussions). The Amadeus choir directed by Lydie Géraud – Lolita Tergémina (vocals and scenography).

 

Jean-Pierre Joséphine called Jozéfinn’

 

Inspired by the specific atmosphere of the museum site, by the lithograph portrait ‘Célimène with guitar’, conserved at the de Villèle Museum, and in homage to the musician (1807-1864), Josefinn’ proposes original compositions, as well as an arrangement of seminal Reunionese music.

In his creation, the musician evokes at the same time the site of the museum, the inhabitants and the natural environment of Saint-Gilles-les-Hauts, his birthplace. From popular culture to Indian Ocean creation. The acoustic guitar of Josefinn’ will be accompanied by percussions, the timbila of Matchum Zango from Mozambique, and Bongani Sotshononda from South Africa on the marimba.

 

 

 

Max Boyer-Vaïtilingom

 

 

After taking part in memorial projects linked to the history of slavery around the world, the artist will devote his residency to coproducing a pictorial fresco and a sculpture around the topic of intergenerational transmission of the memory of slavery.

The de Villèle primary school will welcome this residency, involving pupils, teachers, staff and parents.

 

 

 

Maxwell Southgate, known as MAK1ONE
Extramural creative residency

 

 

 

Pioneer of street art in South Africa for the last 30 years, recognised as one of the founders of the movement, MAK1ONE will perform in the Moraingy arena in Saint-Gilles-les-Hauts. This residency has been made possible thanks to a number of partners: the De Villèle Museum, the town hall of Saint-Paul, the Reunion Moringue committee, the Kan Villèle Association and the NGO Baz Art (Cape Town).

 

 

Born in a South African township, MAK1ONE experienced the periods of apartheid and post-apartheid. His ascendants were Bushmen and Khoi-san. He has exhibited in South Africa, Europe and the United States and will take part in encounters with street artists from Reunion.

 

The website of the Villèle historical museum has been a reality since 2018, thanks to the development of specific software for museum management (Mobydoc) and the resources of the exploitation module Opacweb.

Its content and site arborescence are centred around the museum, its history, its collections and the topics treated, its cultural and pedagogic content and events organised.

www.musee-villele.re

An exhibition reflecting historical knowledge and artistic expression.

A collective work of the imagination created around the names of slaves recorded in the last will and testament of Madame Desbassayns.

– 3300 pupils from 31 junior high schools
– projection of portraits on the facade of the museum, created by the artist Lionel Lauret
– exhibition of artistic works by junior high school pupils on the first floor of the museum until July 2019

An innovative digital, tactile and itinerant cultural tool, ‘Iconotouch’ has been deployed in schools, since the start of the 2018-2019 academic year.

For this commemorative year, Iconotouch offers an exceptional digital experience: users can interact with images linked to slavery, enabling young members of the public to acquire new skills through the use of information and communication technologies.

– Familiarising pupils with the reading of different digital iconographic documents
– Familiarising pupils with the ‘jobs’ done by slaves, the slave trade, fugitive slaves and abolition
– Awareness for pupils around issues of memory, history and citizenship, through local history.

A unique application for mobile phones that can be downloaded for free with quizzes organised around different topics, to test knowledge of the history of slavery.

Aimed at the general public, it is available through the App Store and Play Store platforms.

An evolving application, since December 2018, Kikoné has been proposing 170 questions around six topics linked to slavery: the names of slaves, abolition, work, punishments, culture and beliefs and anthropology-sociology-history.

As from 2019, several hundred other questions will be presented, extended to the history of slavery around the world and through time.

In cooperation with the University of Reunion and the Scientific Committee of the De Villèle Museum, Ph.D. research grants will be set up, funded by the Departmental Council of Reunion

→ 3 grants to be awarded at the start of the 2019 academic year
→ €12,000 per year per student-researcher

On 23rd May 2024, to mark the National Day of Homage to the Victims of Colonial Slavery, the Villèle Historical Museum, in association with the Fondation pour la Mémoire de l’esclavage (Foundation for the Memory of Slavery), is highlighting the sculpture “Les Trois Frères” (The Three Brothers) by artist Sandrine Plante.

The sculpture represents three slaves condemned to death.

“The first one, on the left, whose ears have been cut off, is the oldest of the rebels. Beaten and in despair, he is simply leaning on his brother’s shoulder. The one in the centre is filled with rage. Until he has breathed his final breath he will not give up, for his brothers, for his family. The youngest, though the tallest and strongest, never imagined that things would go so wrong …”
Sandrine Plante

“It is our duty to remember, serving history so that we never forget…
I do not create for aesthetic reasons, but to tell the story…
This is the case with my work, which seeks to represent the cries of the oppressed throughout history. My characters may be life-size or sometimes bigger, telling the story of slavery and division across the earth… this scourge that continues to repeat itself inexorably, affecting more than 30 million people.
As long as I can, I will never cease to express these cries, as a woman of my times, in my country. All of us gathered together on our shared Mother Earth”.
Sandrine Plante

Read the article by Gilles Gérard The slave revolt of Saint-Leu, November 1811

Painting: acrylic on sacking, 1992

In homage to the artist William Zitte, the Memorial room of the slave hospital will open out for one of his works : Piéta, created with Antoine Du Vignaux for the exhibition Tet Kaf/Fet Kaf, which was held at the Villèle Museum in 1993.

“Pièta presents a ‘spiritual African’ who could well represent the third possible way forward, replacing the ‘Faithful African’ subjected through pain and abnegation and the ‘Rebellious African’, whose weapons stoke the continuously burning embers.”

Sculpture/installation (iron, wire netting, cellulose, paint, polish, bronze) 2012

A monumental sculpture installed in the gardens of the museum, below the main house.

“An escaped slave among the vegetation, observing the estate of Madame Desbassayns. We wished to symbolise all the rebels who did not accept to be dominated by masters during their existence and who, in order to survive, decided to escape, the only possibility for those wishing to live as free men. The huge size of the work reflects the mental force of the escaped slaves.”
(Nathalie Maillot & Nelson Boyer)

The international conference entitled “Slavery, a subject of history, the challenge of memory” was the first event to be organised around the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, commemorated by the Departmental Council of Reunion. Organised by the Indian Ocean International Historical Association, it was held from 28 November to 1st December 2018.

Set up in 1960 following the first conference of Indian Ocean archivists and historians, held in Antananarivo, the Indian Ocean International Historical Association (IHIOI) aims to promote historical studies and connected topics focusing on Indian Ocean countries.

The historian Prosper Eve, President of the AHIOI, initiated the Indian Ocean history week, as well as the Association of Friends of August Lacaussade. In 2018, in collaboration with the association and in the context of the celebration of the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, they organised a symposium entitled ‘Slavery, subject of History, challenge of memory.’

He considers it essential for there to be repeated commemorations of the abolition of slavery in France. It is essential to fight against oblivion and so that the ‘place of memory’ of abolition of slavery, and beyond, should not become a ‘place of amnesia’, where only oblivion occurs or has occurred, since their memory may appear disturbing, in the context of the current identity and memory issues.

Beyond the questions raised around memory, such a commemoration also has the objective of revealing, through research and historical studies, the various facets of the historical topic that is slavery and, beyond the national story, defining the traces of our history, through a process that is as scientific as possible.

Finally, the repetition of such a commemoration has a pedagogical purpose, aimed not only at the developing public of schoolchildren and university students, but also at citizens in general, confronted with the presence of the shadow of this crime against humanity in the collective imagination and in the society.

The conference brought together 22 specialists around four topics: the diverse forms of abolition, the hybrid nature of slavery in the Indian Ocean, the post-slavery transition and after slavery.