How Black History month has slowly made its way to France
Black History month took root in the US in the 1920s before becoming a national event by the mid-1970s. Some members of the African diaspora in France have been trying to import it and, in the last decade, have succeeded in establishing a homegrown version.
Issued on:
Officially observed in the US and Canada each February, and in Ireland and the United Kingdom in October, Black History month is a time to honour the achievements and contributions of key African American figures.
Efforts to launch official celebrations in France, met by mixed reception, have had trouble taking off.
In February 2012, a group led by Maboula Soumahoro, professor of African American studies at the University of Tours, held a series of events.
They later renamed the event Africana Days, and set them around 10 May, marking the 2001 law in which France recognised slavery as a crime against humanity.
Africana Days lasted four years.
Then, in 2018, an informal Black History month was launched in Bordeaux, a former slave port, by the charity Mémoires & Partages, founded by Karfa Diallo.
Since then, there have been annual celebrations in Le Havre, Guadeloupe, La Rochelle and Bayonne.
In 2022, the month was dedicated to Josephine Baker, the US-born famous dancer and member of the French Resistance during World War II.
- Defining and celebrating blackness in the face of French universalism
- Enriching the narrative of Black history and culture in Bordeaux
Sixth edition
This year, for the sixth edition, the theme is Portuguese-speaking Africa and "creolisation" with a celebration of the revolutionary Bissau-Guinean politician Amílcar Cabral.
From 3 to 29 February, events are organised across France, with an additional one in Cotonou, a port city in Benin, West Africa.
The program includes round tables, concerts, exhibitions and other cultural events. The main idea is to highlight the links forged between Africa and Europe.
The focus on Portuguese-speaking Africa aims to teach the French public about the richness of cultures and identities that have resulted from colonialisation and other exchanges through history.
The group organised a series of guided tours to address the traces of slavery in Paris last Saturday.
- Artist's quest to honour hidden heroes of fight against French slavery
-
Lisbon street plaques tell story of Portugal's forgotten slave trade
Later in the day, the main event took place in the 18th arrondissement at Maison Muller with conferences, round tables and a photo exhibition.
The exhibition featured photographs by Michelle Correa, vice-president of Mémoires & Partages in Ile-de-France, taken in her father's native village in Guinea-Bissau.
She told RFI that she travelled to her father's village in Guinea-Bissau, a West African coastal country and a former Portuguese colony near Senegal and Guinea.
"My goal was to observe and show the everyday life of members of my family and the village of Capol, through photography, to show these images back in Europe to other Africans, members of the diaspora, and Europeans," Correa said.
She documented some rituals, spiritual practices, weddings and moments of reunions.
In the evening, guests discussed the legacy of Bissau-Guinean politician Amílcar Cabral for the whole of Africa.
The Bissau-Guinean painter Nú Barreto, who showed one of his paintings in Bordeaux and joined the conversation at the Paris event, told RFI that it is important to connect Portuguese-speaking Africans with this chapter of their history and teach Cabral's ideas to the diaspora.
Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands then the ensuing war of independence in Guinea-Bissau.
Deeply influenced by Marxism, he became an inspiration to revolutionary socialists and national independence movements worldwide before his assassination on 20 January 1973, about eight months before Guinea-Bissau's unilateral declaration of independence.
The celebrations continue until 29 February in La Rochelle, Le Havre in France, and in Cotonou in Benin.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe