PARIS, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) — France is to make May 10 a memorial day to mark the abolition of slavery, French President Jacques Chirac announced on Monday.
“From this year I would like mainland France to honour the memory of slaves and commemorate the abolition of slavery,” the president said in an address to a government-appointed Committee for the Memory of Slavery.
“Slavery fed racism. When people tried to justify the unjustifiable, that was when the first racist theories were elaborated. Racism is a crime of the heart and the spirit … which is why the memory of slavery remains a living wound for someof our fellow citizens,” he said.
“A country’s greatness lies in accepting all of its history, with its glorious pages but also those steeped in shadow,” Chirac said, adding that France should be proud of its history.
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