Martinique/ The Territorial Collectivity of Martinique and the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery commit to a partnership

Published on 25/05/2023 | La rédaction

Martinique

The President of the Executive Council of the CTM, Serge Letchimy, and the President of the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery, Jean-Marc Ayrault, signed a letter of intent this Tuesday morning (May 23).

While the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery came to Martinique for the May 22 commemorations, a rapprochement took place this Tuesday morning with the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique.

Serge Letchimy, President of the Executive Council and Jean-Marc Ayrault, President of the Foundation signed a letter of intent to establish a lasting partnership between the two institutions.

Concretely, it is a question of "cooperating to promote the transmission to the greatest number: of the history of slavery in Martinique and of the cultural heritages resulting from this history, in order to better respond to the challenges of citizenship and cultural diversity", says the MTC.

This framework partnership agreement is based on five areas that will be developed into a program of actions, crossing the strategic orientations of the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery and the fields of competence and expertise of the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique: education, citizenship, culture, research and digital.

Knowledge and reconciliation

For Serge Letchimy, President of the Executive Council, this is an essential step towards reconciliation.

In this emblematic place that is the house of Césaire, it is necessary to call upon all possible forces and especially all the words, all the poems that are needed and especially all the concrete actions. And it is perhaps that which will allow us to reconcile, whatever our history, our origin. And this will translate into new local development strategies, with a very strong feeling of double belonging: both French and European, but also Martiniquan.

In line with the missions of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de l'Esclavage, Jean-Marc Ayrault believes that knowledge of this history, everywhere and by everyone, allows for a better understanding of today's issues.

Our ambition, Serge Letchimy and myself, is that this history of the slave trade, of slavery, of the terrible exploitation that it represented, that this crime be known by all. Not only in Martinique, Guadeloupe or Reunion, but of all French people, wherever they live. It is our history and it also challenges us towards the present and not only towards the past. It allows us to understand the mechanisms that lead us to inequalities, injustices, discriminations, racism and how to fight them and overcome them

Source: rci.fm/martinique


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