28 November 2008
Tunis — Among its many other activities, the Tunisian National Library recently hosted an interesting conference on slavery and its subsequent abolition during the French revolution.
The conference was given by Pr Marcel Dorigny, the chairman of the Association of European Colonisation (1750-1850). The conference which strongly condemned revisionist readings of history, also thrashed out the various political reactions to slavery in France including its enthusiastic abolition in 1794 and its quick reinstatement by Napoleon in 1802, following the revolt of Haiti which proved fatal to island's governor general and slave son , Toussaint- Louverture.
Incidentally, Tunisia was the first Moslem country to abolish slavery in 1846, under Ahmed Bey, an act which was later enshrined in the country's constitution and the advent of the Fundamental Pact in the early 1860's.
At the time, not only black people but also southern Europeans and Christians from the Caucasus, were brought as captives and sold at the Souk "El Berka".
The well- known 18 th century French traveller Peysonnel who had travelled to Tunisia on many occasions, wrote that "Black slaves were treated much more humanely and kindly, better than in the Americas and in Europe. This kindness is probably linked to the religion practised by the majority of Tunisians", he remarked.
The conference, which was attended by a number of scholars and students, also provided an opportunity to rekindle the flame of memory against oblivion and misinterpretations, insofar as this painful episode of human history is concerned.
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