End of the memorial controversy? The City of Lille announced this Thursday that it had placed a plaque at the foot of the Louis Faidherbe monument, which sits in the city center. She wishes to “express her position, disapproving the action of General Faidherbe, particularly during the colonial conquests and as governor of Senegal”.
Since 2018, the statue of this general has been subject to criticism from associations who see, in this character, a brutal and racist colonizer. Why 2018? It was the bicentenary of the birth of this French soldier, born in 1818, in Lille. Some demonstrations demanding the debunking of Faidherbe began to take place at this time. In June 2020, the words “Colon assassin” were even tagged on the statue, in the middle of the night.
“The requirement of the duty of truth”
For those who don’t know, Louis Faidherbe is a military figure who preserved the region from the Prussian invasion in 1870. But he was also one of the main players in the colonization of Senegal where he was governor.
The city of Lille then promised to put up an explanatory plaque. This will be done in the coming days*, announced the town hall. A desk will recall “the context in which the monument to General Faidherbe was erected in Lille, while disapproving, in the name of the requirement of the duty of truth, and in the name of the right to their History for the colonized peoples, his action as governor of Senegal, and during his brutal and repressive conquests of this region, made up of looting, exploitation and crimes,” explains the town hall, in a press release.
The city also indicates that it has carried out documented work based on “exchanges carried out with historical associations and the curators of the museums of the city of Lille, historians and academics from France and Saint-Louis du Senegal, with which Lille has been twinned since 1978.
Additional elements of historical understanding and a bibliography will be accessible via a QR CODE positioned on the desk.
* This Thursday noon, the plaque had not yet been affixed.