WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #355 - History, Armelle Mabon: A historian committed to memory (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Armelle Mabon's book, Le Massacre de Thiaroye, evokes not only the chain

of events that led to the massacre, but also the historian's scientific
and personal fight against censorship and omerta. ----- On November 30,
2014, François Hollande, on an official visit to Senegal, gave a speech
that was intended to be the counterpart to the famous "Dakar Speech"
given by Nicolas Sarkozy (and written by Henri Guaino) in 2007. In the
latter, Sarkozy stated that "the tragedy of Africa is that the African
man has not entered history enough." François Hollande, for his part,
paid tribute to the Senegalese riflemen killed by the French colonial
army. If he takes up the story of the mutiny and only acknowledges the
35 official deaths, he has strong words and acknowledges "the terrible,
unforgivable events" and says he wants to "repair an injustice and
salute the memory of men who wore the French uniform and on whom the
French had turned their rifles". Thus François Hollande promises to
return to Senegal all the French archives concerning this massacre. A
historian committed to the recognition of this massacre, Armelle Mabon,
notes that contrary to the commitment made by France, the count is not
there: not all the archives have been transferred, or at least partly
truncated.

Her book Le Massacre de Thiatoye evokes not only the chain of events
that led to the massacre, but also the scientific and personal fight of
the historian against censorship and omerta. Directly targeted in an
"open letter" to the President, her work is publicly challenged by a
doctoral student with strong institutional support. Thus this book is
coupled with an investigation into the "perpetuation of a state lie"
where we learn in particular how to "silence academics".

It is a whole state mechanism that is brought to light here and of which
Armelle Mabon, who was an indirect victim, reveals to us the workings
and persistence some 80 years after the events.

David (UCL Savoies)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Armelle-Mabon-Une-historienne-engagee-pour-la-memoire
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca