‘Such huge consequences’: pressure mounts on France to act on enslavement reparatory justice

In the French port city of Nantes, once France’s largest departure point for ships that trafficked enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, a new wooden mast rises 18 metres into the sky from the waterside.The Mast of Fraternity and Memory, inaugurated this month, marks a turning point in France’s complicated relationship with the legacy of its history of enslavement – just as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, comes under pressure to make key announcements on a process of reparatory justice.“We’re not responsible for the past, but we are responsible for the present and future,” said Dieudonné Boutrin, a descendant of enslaved Africans who were trafficked from Benin to the French Caribbean island of Martinique.Dieudonné Boutrin: ‘We’re not responsible for the past, but we are responsible for the present and future.’Boutrin, 61, who created the mast, heads the grassroots organisation La Coque Nomade Fraternité, dedicated to “breaking the silence” around slavery and fostering discussion on reparatory justice and community relations.The mast, a permanent, standalone structure, is unlike any other commemoration piece in France: conceived by descendants of enslaved people and built by local students at vocational colleges. Inaugurated this month alongside a new International Federation of Descendants of the History of Slavery,