History

The whitening of colonial troops

In 1944, France removed its African soldiers from the front lines, erasing their role in the Liberation. Discover the story behind the “whitening” of...

The forgotten history of the guadeloupean and haitian deportees in Corsica

In 1802, under the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, hundreds of Guadeloupeans and Haitians were torn from their homeland and forcibly sent to Corsica. Their...

Louis Guizot, France’s first black mayor

Born in the fire of Saint-Domingue and executed by guillotine during the height of the Terror, Louis Guizot became France’s first Black mayor in...

Jean-Jacques Alain, a martinican mayor of the city of Saint-Louis in Senegal (1829–1848)

Jean-Jacques Alain, also spelled Alin, was born in 1777 in Le Lamentin, Martinique. Following the French Revolution, he migrated to Senegal, where he would...

Camille Mortenol, the Man Who protected Paris

First Guadeloupean to enter Polytechnique, an unsung hero of World War I, Camille Mortenol embodies the colonial paradox: loyalty without recognition, excellence without legacy. A...

Carlota LucumĂ­: The woman who shook the colonial order

Carlota LucumĂ­, an enslaved woman of Yoruba origin, led one of the most powerful anti-slavery uprisings in Cuban history in 1843. From Matanzas to...

The Shadow of Slavery and the Flame of Freedom

They defied the impossible. From Henry “Box” Brown’s postal escape to Eliza Harris’s icy river crossing, these enslaved people orchestrated escapes as brilliant as...

The pearl incident: When 77 enslaved people defied slaveholding America

On April 15, 1848, seventy-seven African American slaves boarded the Pearl, a schooner meant to carry them to freedom. This escape— the largest ever...

1960: Senegal or the shattered sovereignty

On April 4, 1960, Senegal became independent. A look back at the broken hopes of the Mali Federation, between thwarted pan-Africanism and fragmented sovereignty. There...

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