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Anti-racism activists tear down statue of wife of French emperor Napoleon

Anti-racism activists tore down a statue of Napoleon's empress Josephine and another colonialist figure in the overseas French territory of Martinique, the latest test of President Emmanuel Macron's vow not to erase controversial monuments.

Published: 27 July 2020 12:10 CEST
Anti-racism activists tear down statue of wife of French emperor Napoleon
Photo: AFP

A statue of Josephine de Beauharnais, who was born to a wealthy colonial family on the island and later became Napoleon's first wife and empress, was attacked by a crowd of people wielding clubs and ropes, according to an AFP journalist in Fort-de-France on Sunday.

The emperor reintroduced slavery in French colonies in 1802, eight years after it had been banned under the French Revolution.

Josephine's statue had already been decapitated nearly 30 years ago, and never been repaired since.

A short distance away, the activists also destroyed a statue of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, the trader who established the first French colony on Martinique in 1635.

The emperor's wife Jospehine was born on the Caribbean island of Martinique. Photo: AFP 

In a video posted to social media last week, activists warned the statues would be targeted unless officials had them removed by Sunday.

A police source said the government's top official for the Caribbean island ordered law enforcement not to intervene, though he denounced in a statement “unacceptable actions by a violent minority.”

The debate on France's colonial past has been revived in part by fresh protests against racism and police brutality in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement that has rocked the United States.

On May 22, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery on Martinique, activists toppled two statues erected in honour of Victor Schoelcher, the lawmaker whose decree outlawed slavery across France in 1848.

Another bust of Schoelcher, on the nearby French territory of Guadaloupe, was sawed off and stolen last week, local media reported Saturday. It was later found alongside a road some 40 kilometres away.

Critics say that instead of playing up the role of whites, France should honour the black figures who braved prison or worse in their push for emancipation.

But Macron warned in June that France would not take down statues or names of controversial figures, while denying that he was attempting to deny either racism or the country's colonial past.

“The Republic will not wipe away any trace or any name from its history… but lucidly look at our history and our memory together,” he said in a televised address.

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POLITICS

Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Violent unrest has disrupted daily life on the French Pacific island of New Caledonia - leaving several dead and prompting president Emmanuel Macron to declare a state of emergency. Here's a look at what’s happening, why, and why it matters so much to France.

Published: 15 May 2024 14:45 CEST
Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Two people have been killed and hundreds more injured, shops were looted and public buildings torched during a second night of rioting in New Caledonia – Nouvelle-Calédonie, in French – as anger over planned constitutional reforms boiled over.

On Wednesday, president Emmanuel Macron declared a state of emergency as the violence continued, with at least one police officer seriously injured.

What began as pro-independence demonstrations have spiralled into three days of the worst violence seen on the French Pacific archipelago since the 1980s. 

Police have arrested more than 130 people since the riots broke out Monday night, with dozens placed in detention to face court hearings, the commission said.

A curfew has been put in place, and armed security forces are patrolling the streets of the capital Noumea.

So, New Caledonia is a French colony?

New Caledonia is, officially, a collectivité d’Outre mer (overseas collective). It’s not one of the five départements d’Outre mer – French Guiana in South America, Martinique and Gaudeloupe in the Caribbean and Réunion and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean – which are officially part of France.

As a collectivité, New Caledonia has special status that was negotiated in 1988 that gives it increasing autonomy over time and more say over its own affairs that the French overseas départements.

Home to about 269,000 people, the archipelago was a penal colony in the 19th century. Today its economy is based mainly on agriculture and vast nickel resources.

What has prompted the riots?

This is about voting rights.

Pro-independence groups believe that constitutional reforms that would give the vote to anyone who has lived on the island for 10 years would dilute the vote held by the indigenous Kanak people – who make up about 41 percent of the population, and the majority of whom favour independence.

New Caledonia’s voter lists have not been updated since 1998 when the Noumea Accord was signed, depriving island residents who arrived from mainland France or elsewhere since of a vote in provincial polls, enlarging the size of the voting population.

Proponents of the reform say that it just updates voting rolls to include long-time residents, opponents believe that it’s an attempt to gerrymander any future votes on independence for the islands.

The Noumea Accord – what’s that?

It was an agreement, signed in 1998, in which France said it would grant increased political power to New Caledonia and its original population, the Kanaks, over a 20-year transition period. 

It was signed on May 5th 1998 by Lionel Jospin, and approved in a referendum in New Caledonia on November 8th, with 72 percent voting in favour.

The landmark deal has led to three referendums. In 2018, 57 percent voted to remain closely linked to France; in October 2020, the vote decreased to 53 percent. In a third referendum in 2021, the people voted against full sovereignty with another narrow margin.

And that’s what the reforms are about?

Yes. The reforms, which have been voted through by MPs in France, but must still be approved by a joint sitting of both houses of the French parliament, would grant the right to vote to anyone who has lived on the island for 10 years or more. 

President Emmanuel Macron has said that lawmakers will vote to definitively adopt the constitutional change by the end of June, unless New Caledonia’s political parties agree on a new text that, “takes into account the progress made and everyone’s aspirations”.

Autonomy has its limits.

How serious is the unrest?

French President Emmanuel Macron urged calm in a letter to the territory’s representatives, calling on them to “unambiguously condemn” the “disgraceful and unacceptable” violence.

New Caledonia pro-independence leader, Daniel Goa, asked people to “go home”, and condemned the looting.

But “the unrest of the last 24 hours reveals the determination of our young people to no longer let France take control of them,” he added.

This isn’t the first time there’s been unrest on the island, is it?

There has been a long history of ethnic tensions on New Caledonia, starting in 1878 when a Kanak insurgency over the rights of Kanaks in the mining industry left 200 Europeans and 600 rebels dead. Some 1,500 Kanaks were sent into exile.

Clashes between Kanaks and Caldoches in the 1980s culminated in a bloody attack and hostage-taking by Kanak separatists in 1988, when six police officers and 19 militants were killed on the island of Ouvea.

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