Every time I take the bus into downtown Pointe-à-Pitre, I pass this giant, architectural anomaly.
It sticks out, not just because it’s new, and build over the water, but also because it looks so different from every other building I’ve seen on these islands. Like an alien spaceship without a cloaking mechanism.
It stands behind a block of new housing complexes, which I heard were built as an afterthought to appease the Pointois who were upset government money was being used to build an extravagant museum instead of aiding citizens. Even with brand new apartments, some believe the money would’ve been better served building a new hospital.
But it’s there now, and other teaching assistants have gone and complemented the museum of the history of slavery in the Caribbean on its thoroughness and poignancy. Honestly I would have preferred a tour of a rum distillery (and it’s not too late), but I couldn’t live in Guadeloupe for the better part of a year, pass by it everyday, and not check it out for myself. So, with Friday off and no other plans, I finally made the trek.
First let me say, I approached with my guard up. Part of my procrastination has to do with why I don’t watch movies about slavery or the Jim Crow South. It’s fucking painful. I don’t need to see the abuse of Black bodies to sympathize or imagine the trauma. I am Black. I see myself in those images. I know my living outside of the era of chattel slavery was nothing more than a toss of a billion-sided die. So I was not exactly looking forward to seeing representations of my ancestors subjected to various forms of degradation.
I understand why the French government would commission such a museum. While France generally likes to pretend that racism isn’t a problem it still deals with, it is harder to deny its longer reaching effects when you look at the West Indies. And for the most part, I think the museum did a decent job of presenting a broad range of aspects of Caribbean history and the African Diaspora from colonization onward. I’m still processing my reaction to what I saw. Unfortunately, because no phones or cameras were allowed, I have no photos to post, and no documentation of the exhibits to refer to.
What I do remember is that it was just as graphic in its depiction of violence as I had anticipated. During the first half of the exhibit, discussing the development of the slave trade, patrons are made to walk through a hallway where a drawing of Africans crammed together in the cargo hold of a ship is projected on the floor. I was warned about this beforehand, so when I approached that part of the exhibit, I ran to pass it. I get the symbolism, but like hell was I gonna just stroll through that.
The second half of the exhibit really made me sick. The exhibit on Louis Delgrès featured sculptures of Black bodies arranged like jigsaw pieces. Around this same section, a placard stated that France was the first country to abolish slavery, though the Napoleonic Empire reinstated it. As if they weren’t the same thing and as if it still counts as “abolition” when the same fucked up system of human torture is put back in place eight years later.
Then there was the segment of modern Black history, particularly the Civil Rights Movement in America. Walking from one section to the next involved a bit of a “surprise!” element that was completely unappreciated when the first thing I see upon entering the room is a life-sized mannequin dressed in the full regalia of a KKK grand wizard. Then I saw LED screens arranged on the wall to look like a giant burning cross. Previous sections had me either wanting to cry or puke, but the unexpected shock and terror of seeing that American nightmare made manifest had me almost passing out.
Listen, I’m glad France decided to acknowledge their part in the global atrocity that is slavery. Telling other white folk just how monstrous slavery and colonization were is important. However, it’s not as if swastika-wearing, Hitler-heiling, Confederate flag-waving racists are ever going to pay fifteen euros to learn that Black people are humans too. If France wants to self-flagellate or air its Great White Guilt à la BP, it could at least have engraved its pointless ‘sorry’ on the side of a brand new (or at least renovated) hospital.
