After the words, the actions to bring the memories to life. The Trocadéro gardens will host the future National Memorial to the Victims of Slavery, in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, the ministry responsible for Overseas Territories and the City of Paris announced on Thursday.
President Emmanuel Macron committed on April 27, 2018, on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the signing of the decree to abolish slavery in the French colonies, to have such a memorial erected in the capital.
Following a meeting held at the ministry on September 20, the Trocadéro gardens were chosen to host the Memorial. “The symbolic significance is strong since it is a site where the Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed and signed in 1948 and where the Museum of Man is located,” underlined the ministry and the City of Paris in a press release.
“A universal tribute”
The memorial should “highlight nearly 200,000 names of slaves freed in 1848 in Guadeloupe, Guyana, Reunion, and Martinique,” he said. “This architectural work will pay universal homage to the memory of the four million slaves of the former French colonies”, but also “to the memory of the millions of victims of trafficking and slavery around the world”, according to the ministry .
A competitive bidding procedure must be launched by the State, in collaboration with the City of Paris, in order to award the site to “artists and landscapers”.