For nearly three years, the Memorial ACTe – Caribbean Center for Interpretation, Expression and Research on the Slave Trade – was the scene of a merciless struggle between its executive director (a Guadeloupean woman appointed in 2019), certain employees and the structure’s board of directors. Some people logged on to Kariculture to find “crunchy” information, and were surprised that we had never covered this topical issue concerning a cultural mecca in Guadeloupe. We decided not to. We did not want to write articles in three languages (French, English and Spanish) – which would then be understood almost everywhere in the world – to show only very negative aspects of a place destined to honor the memory of our ancestors. This issue was already covered by other colleagues… However, if Kariculture did not report on this matter, we should not believe that the eyes of the world were not focused on the Memorial ACTe, inaugurated in May 2015 by former French President François Hollande and visited by Reverend Jesse Jackson in July 2015, who described the MACTe as “the most complete and accomplished museum dedicated to slavery in the world”.
We will not support here any of the people involved in this serious crisis at the Memorial ACTe; our opinion on this administrative, financial, cultural, political and judicial matter, we prefer to keep it to ourselves.
What about the spiritual dimension?
In all this hullabaloo, who thought of the spiritual dimension that such a building, with its very evocative name, could have? Clearly, no one did it. This memorial or museum was built to pay tribute to the millions of human beings torn from their native land, Africa, chained to ships to go to work not only in the Caribbean, but throughout the rest of the New World, to enrich men and nations.
When we see what happened at the MACTe, we would be tempted to say that African slaves must be “turning in their graves”… except that many of them were not buried, many died during the crossing and their bodies were thrown into the sea…
How would these human beings react if they saw how a place built to commemorate them, to pay tribute to them, to cultivate their memory, to soothe their physical and moral suffering turned into a filming location for a reality TV show? After each episode of this bad soap opera, we heard or read that famous expression that some members of the local press used as a punchline: “Case to follow”. That reminds me that my radio teacher – a journalist at France Inter – hated it because, he said, “this expression is not at all professional” etc.
It’s hard to imagine that the souls of these human beings can rest in peace in such an atmosphere.
Some tenants of the Résidence where the MACTe is located in Pointe-à-Pitre said they heard voices, footsteps and even the sound of machinery at night, as if the Darboussier sugar factory had never closed its doors. Do we now also hear the cries of discontent or the weeping of slaves caused by this “fratricidal war” between their descendants? Or have the slaves become indifferent to all this?
Often, in order to explain the disagreements between Guadeloupeans, some claim that these are the legacy of slavery, caused by the difference between the more “degraded” situation of field slaves and the more “protected” situation of house slaves. But the Guadeloupeans who tore each other apart at the MACTe are educated or belong to the country’s elite.
Celebrating peace
The Memorial ACTe, which has been on life support since its inauguration eight years ago, is far from reaching its objectives, and really didn’t need such publicity. When it opened, they had talked about 300,000 visitors a year, including thousands from the Caribbean, but some people, completely out of touch with reality, are unaware that many Caribbean people are even unable to place our archipelago on a map; moreover, they had not taken into account the difference in living standards between the islands…
Today, the MACTe attracts barely half the expected visitors. The most popular event is the Colombo Festival (an Indian culinary dish, sold quite expensive that day), the MACTe welcoming the organizers as to silence criticism of certain people from Guadeloupe’s Indian component questioning the creation and cost of such a building (over 80 million euros) for African slaves…
Are there any plans to hold a major ceremony in the form of a popular show to celebrate peace in this cultural and historical site?
