Guadeloupe: Celebrating the Nation

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 ^[1]. 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.”