Guadeloupe: Celebrating the Nation · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Flying in the face of Guadeloupe's status as a French Overseas Department, Convention pour une Guadeloupe Nouvelle writes (Fr): “A nation must live its past in order to be inspired by it. … We will [therefore] celebrate the birth of the Guadeloupean nation in October. It is indeed during the months of October and November 1801 that for the first time, after the long night of slavery, Guadeloupeans discovered that they are a people and rejected the colonial slave system. The Guadeloupean army seized power on October 21, 1801 and designated … an interim government. We demand that all the heros of the time be treated with pomp and that a national mausoleum be erected.”