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Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana: Is “Miss Black France” Acceptable?

Fabienne Flessel — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:47:03 +0000

While French people are still in the midst of the presidential elections with its second round coming up on May 5-6th 2012, another vote buzzed last week: the “Miss Black France” [fr] contest.

The home page of the event scheduled on Saturday April 28, 2012, says [fr]:

Célébrons la Beauté Noire!

Let's Celebrate Black Beauty!

The Official Poster of Miss Black France

The “About” section of the Facebook page [fr] of the contest explains:

Les jeunes femmes noires vont enfin avoir leur élection. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui très peu représentée en France – et en tout cas pas dans les concours de « Miss » que l’on connait –, la beauté noire va pouvoir être mise en avant à sa juste valeur.

L’élection Miss Black France est ouverte à toutes les jeunes femmes françaises ou étrangères vivant en France, de métropole, des DOM-TOM ou d'Afrique, âgée…s d’au moins 16 ans, sans autre critère que l’élégance et le charme.

Black young women are eventually going to have their election. Black beauty, which has been very little promoted in France up to this date -at least, not in the usual ‘beauty pageants'- will be showcased there.

All young women, French nationals or foreign residents, natives of France, the French Overseas Regions or Africa are eligible if they are at least 16 years old and with no other criteria than elegance and glamour.

This introduction to the genesis of this pageant has raised many questions among French people and bloggers, among which Bondamanjak from Martinique [fr], who wonders:

Dérive communautariste ? Acte militant ? Impérialisme yankee ? Bizness ?

Excessive communalism? Activist move? Yankee imperialism? Business?

These questions are justified by the founding motto of the French nation, according to which all citizens are equal and cannot be distinguished on account of ethnicity or religion. In this perspective, having a national contest based on the ethnicity of the pageants seems heretical to many netizens.

A post published on a Martinican blog People Bo Kay explains both points of view [fr] and where the division lies.

Supporters of the pageant advocate the need for more visibility [fr]:

mettre la lumière sur ces femmes noires extrêmement nombreuses que l'on voit peu dans les médias.

cast the light on these extremely numerous Black women, who are little represented in the media.

En France, les seules miss noires que nous avons connues étaient soit métissées ou originaires d'outre-mer. Il n'y a jamais eu de filles issues de parents sénégalais ou algériens. Ces filles là ne se reconnaissent pas encore dans le concours de Miss France. Elles pensent qu'il n'est pas pour elles et donc s'auto-censurent.

In France, the only Black pageant winners that we have ever known were either mixed-raced or natives of the French overseas regions. There has never been any girls from Senegalese or Algerian parents. They cannot identify with the Miss France pageant yet. They think it is not made for them and become self-conscious to the extent of self-censorship.

This last point was made by historian and specialist of cultural diversity matters, François Durpaire [fr], during an interview on French national channel, France 2.

One of the cons to this pageant was that to some, it symbolizes reverse discrimination - the most recurrent question being, “What if a fair blonde French young woman wants to participate?”

A comment published following the post at Bondamanjak says [fr]:

La couleur noire n'est ni une identité, ni une classe cela est ridicule de faire une quelconque différence face à une miss blanche. Le combat qu'on doit mener n'est pas à ce niveau. Contruisons avant une communauté unie , solidaire défendant notre mémoire pour contruire une vraie identité.

The color black is not an identity, nor a social class. It is ridiculous to make any difference with a white contestant. Our struggle does not belong there. Let's build a united and self-reliant community to defend our collective memory and our true identity.

Although this beauty pageant has been very controversial and triggered much division among people over its legitimacy, one thing make people come together: why use the adjective “black” in French, instead of “noire”.
The answer is that black sounds more like a marketing success than “noire”.

The results of the pageant are published along with the picture of the winners on this post at People Bo Kay:

A 21-year-old marketing student from Senegal, Tiah Beye was crowned ‘Miss Black France 2012′ along with her two runners-up, 22-year-old, Ivorian-born Romy Niaba and 23-year-old, Aissata Soumah from Guinea.

Guadeloupe: A Cuban-born Mulatto, Mayor of Paris

Fabienne Flessel — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:57:13 +0000

Guadeloupean blogger B.World Connection posts about the release of a book about the first non-white Mayor of Paris, who accomplished much towards secularity and social progress in the 19th century French Republic, yet fell into complete oblivion until now.

Martinique, Guadeloupe, France: MP Letchimy Against Minister Guéant

Fabienne Flessel — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:27:50 +0000

Bloggers and mainstream journalists around the French-speaking blogosphere have been buzzing once more about French Minister of Home Affairs, Claude Guéant. He is notorious for suggesting extreme right-wing policies about national identity, religion and immigration, as confirmed by this headline [fr] from French mainstream information website Le Monde:

Claude Guéant, habitué des polémiques

Claude Guéant, serial controversy-maker

which covers different ideas developed by Guéant like:

La ‘croisade' en Libye

‘Crusade' in Lybia

Pas de 'signes religieux' pour les “usagers du service public”

No ‘religious symbols' for ‘users of public facilities and administrations'

One of his extremely controversial ideas regarding the visas delivered to foreign graduates in France has been discussed here on Global Voices.

With the tense atmosphere of the upcoming French presidential elections, every word uttered by front-rank politicians from all parties are closely examined and judged - no surprise, then, that this sentence from Guéant in a meeting organized by a right-wing students' union on January 6, 2012, has unleashed a fury among the public opinion:

Toutes les civilisations ne se valent pas…

All civilizations are not equal…

The reactions have been numerous and varied, some agreeing and others vehemently disagreeing - even in his own political family - but to this day the most memorable response has come from Serge Letchimy, a left-wing MP from Martinique, French West Indies, who condemned Guéant's words and ideas in a letter published on his own blog [fr] and read before all the MPs:

Vous nous ramenez, jour après jour, à ces idéologies européennes qui ont donné naissance aux camps de concentration, au bout du long chapelet esclavagiste et colonial.
Monsieur Guéant le régime nazi, si soucieux de purification, si hostile à toutes les différences, était-ce une civilisation ? La barbarie de l’esclavage et de la colonisation, était-ce une mission civilisatrice ?

You bring us back, day after day, to these European ideologies which gave birth to the concentration camps as a conclusion to a theory started with slavery and colonialization.
Mr Guéant, was the Nazi regime, obsessed with purification and hostile to differences, a civilization? Was the barbarity of slavery and colonization part of a civilizing mission?

Here [fr] is the video showing Letchimy reading his letter, the content of which caused a wave of indignation among the right-wing MPs and members of the French Government, who left the benches of the French National Assembly under the pretext that Letchimy was outrageously associating the Minister with the Nazi regime. They later asked for official apologies, to show their support to Claude Guéant.

However, his words visibly inspired a movement of opposition against the Minister of Home Affairs among French West Indian and French bloggers and readers alike. In a post at Montray Kréyol [fr], renowned Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau explains why Letchimy's ideas deserve to be defended.

M. Letchimy a donc vu juste et a dit ce qu'il fallait dire comme il fallait le dire.
Et il a fait honneur non seulement à la Martinique mais à la France et à son Assemblée Nationale toute entière. Car enfin, sans lui, le « célébrant des civilisations supérieures » serait venu, se serait assis, aurait écouté je ne sais [quelle] politiquerie, et serait reparti sans que rien ni personne ne lui trouble la conscience.

Letchimy got it right and said what needed to be said just how it needed to be said.
By doing so, he honored not only Martinique but also France and its whole National Assembly. Indeed, had he not spoken, the “celebrator of the superior civilizations” would have come, sat down, listened to political questions and left the place, with his conscience unquestioned by anyone or anything.

On No apologies, no disciplinary measures, full support to Mr Letchimy” and “Petition in support of Serge Letchimy” [fr].

Coincidentally or not, this controversy took place a couple days before Claude Guéant visits Martinique and Guadeloupe, in order to launch the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in the Overseas regions of France. Grabbing the opportunity to show their ideological and political opposition to the Minister, two Guadeloupean political personalities, a left-wing Minister of Parliament and a Senator, released a statement [fr], published by Caraib Creole News:

Nous avons été informés de votre prochain déplacement en Guadeloupe et nous sommes au regret de vous faire savoir que nous ne pourrons vous y recevoir.

We have been informed of your upcoming visit to Guadeloupe and we regret to let you know that we will not welcome you here.

They conclude their statement with a reminder of a similar decision made by the late Aimé Césaire in 2005.

En décembre 2005, afin de marquer son indignation suite au vote d’une loi reconnaissant « le rôle positif de la présence française outre-mer », Aimé Césaire avait refusé de rencontrer le ministre de l’Intérieur de l’époque, Nicolas Sarkozy, en déplacement en Martinique. Nous avions alors tous, outre-mer, salué la portée de son geste.
Nous choisirons par conséquent, en toute modestie, de lui emboîter le pas.

In December 2005, in order to signify his indignation after the vote of a law acknowledging “the positive role of the French presence overseas” Aimé Césaire refused to meet the then Minister of Home Affaires, Nicolas Sarkozy who was visiting Martinique. In the overseas regions, we all recognized the importance of this decision.
We will therefore, with all due modesty, follow his path.

The conclusion is worth noting since Aimé Césaire was the political mentor of the MP Letchimy and his letter to Mr Guéant was highly inspired by Césaire's “Discourse on Colonialism“.

The thumbnail image used in this post is by UMP Photos, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit UMP Photos' flickr photostream.

Martinique: All together around Creole

Fabienne Flessel — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:59:44 +0000

The Creole language in the Caribbean and the cooperation between islands were recently discussed during the Creole-speaking Regions Days, as explained in this post on Tous Créoles [Fr Cr/Fr]. One of the most debated issues was a visa waiving program between the French Caribbean islands and the rest of the West Indies.

Antigua, Guadeloupe: From the Common Past

Fabienne Flessel — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:50:25 +0000

For the past decade, the tight historical and geographical bonds between the West Indian islands of Antigua and Guadeloupe have been analyzed by historians. A recent conference entitled “Antigua: From the Amerindians to an Independant Nation” [Fr] was organized in Guadeloupe by the group Yo Té Pou Nou Sé. Bloggers at PerspeKtives [Fr] explain the importance of this project.

Caribbean: the meaning of identity

Nicholas Laughlin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:59:53 +0000

Creative Commess hosts a blog symposium “about Caribbean people, about West Indian people, about our contemporary experiences … ranging through race & identity to culture, mental health to constructs of beauty and more,” with contributions from seven Caribbean bloggers.

Latin America, Caribbean: Increase in Food Prices

Silvia Viñas — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:53:26 +0000

Bloggings by Boz writes: “The FAO reports that February 2011 was a yet a new high on food prices. This has led to several warnings from organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean including ECLAC [Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean] and the IICA [Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture] that commodity markets are volatile and several countries are very vulnerable to price swings and food insecurity issues.”

Jamaica, Guadeloupe, T&T, U.S.A.: MLK Day

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:50:47 +0000

“Dr. King's importance lies in his challenge to expand our moral imagination”: Geoffrey Philp and other regional bloggers pay tribute to the late American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Global: The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Lova Rakotomalala — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:59:39 +0000

August 23rd is The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. By selecting this date in 1998, The UNESCO wanted to mark and help remember the tragedy of the slave trade and slavery. For the occasion, a series of events are organized in different regions of the world by various organisations for the promotion of human rights.

Mrs Koïchiro Matsuura, then head of UNESCO, articulated the reason for such a celebration, a message that is still relevant today. On their website, Gens De La Caraibe remind us [fr] of the gist of her message:

It is in the following spirit that I invite all of you to organize, initiate and support all activities with youngsters, teachers, artists and intellectuals- that could help awareness of the slave trade and encourage an ethical reflections on its impact and consequences, notably on the new forms of slavery and to promote solidarity with the peoples who have been victimized by slavery.”.

Reso.Net explains why August 23 was the selected date and the objective of the commemoration [fr]:

On the night of 22 to 23 of August 1791, an insurrection started in Santo-Domingo that played a critical role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Toussaint Louverture via Wikimedia Commons- CC license share alike

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA), an NGO that supports human rights learning; the training of activists and professionals and community-building through on-line technologies explains in more details what they hope to achieve on the day [fr] :

Bringing to light all aspects of slavery is essential to constructing an overall dispassionate vision of this tragedy. UNESCO's Slave Route project endeavors to promote such research that helps to explain, understand and reconstruct the threads of sometimes conflicting narratives and fill the silences of the past.

Many activities are scheduled around the world this year. In Nigeria,, an international conference is organized by black Nationalities which will include the participation of Nigeria's president Ebele Jonathan Goodluck. The objectives of the conference are:

To promote general discourse and inter-cultural dialogue among the various peoples of the world with a view to promoting understanding and encouraging the Black race to aspire to greater heights in an increasingly inter-dependent world

In the DR of Congo, Boris Kharl Ebaka on his blog brazzaville-adiac urges his readers to remember [fr]:

The first commemorations of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition happened in many countries, in Haiti in 1998 and on Gorée Island, Sénégal in 1999. Cultural events and debates were also hold; in 2001, le musée de l'Étoffe in Mulhouse (France) joined the commemoration and organised a workshop showcasing fabrics called ” Indiennes de Traite” that were used as currency for salves in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In London, the National Maritime Museum organizes a series of events that will include conferences, dances and film projections, starting at 11:00 am until 4:00 pm:

Trace the history of the transatlantic slave trade through rare and revealing manuscripts from the Museums archive collections.

According to Panafricanfestival, in Trinidad & Tobago, the celebrations already started at the end of July:

One of the most popular highlights of the period is the Emancipation Day parade on the morning of August 1. Some 20,000 participants on the street, and tens of thousands more who crowd the sidewalk, create a spectacle of colour dominated by African motifs, textiles and designs adding visual vibrations to the rhythm of ancestral drums and chants, and modern African musical expressions of the diaspora. Exponents of the African martial art, capoeira, draw spectator attention with their dramatic flips and “sequencias”.

One of the most ambitious poject in terms of eduction in the field was initiated by UNESCO, “Breaking the Silence” spans over several years and involves the participation of schools from 24 countries in Africa, Americas and Europe.

According to the organisation, the goal of projet is :

The goal of the project is increased awareness of the causes and consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade - including modern forms of slavery and racism - through educational exchanges, sharing best practice and developing and diffusing educational material.

The noir au feminin blog notes [fr] that in France May 10th is also an important day as it celebrates the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in France and all its colonial territories:

The decree of april 27 1848 seals the absolute end of slavery in France and all its colonial territories. 158 ans later, on january 2006, French President Jacques Chirac selected May 10 as the Day of commemoration of the abolition of slavery.

On may 9th 2007, in a speech posted on ldh-toulon.net, former international football player now authorLilian Thuram reminds us [fr] of:

The silence of history books and the invisibility of its victims. The duty of remembrance is critical to rehabilitate the resistance, both physically and culturally that its victims displayed. More importantly, it is important to archive the racism that prufundly affected the culture and society where these events happened.

Franck Salin on afrik.com cites French president Nicolas Sarkozy speech on January 10 2008 about the measures he took with respect to this commemoration [fr]:

Slavery and its abolition will be introduced in the new programs for primary schools. Slavery was a tragedy that affected many continents for a long time. It is a deep wound that weighs on all of our consciences. The memories will carry on the weigh of this chapter of history.

In the Dossier du 10 Mai that noir au feminin blog dedicates to this day, Eric Koua describes the condition of women during slavery and the spirit of resistance women exhibited [fr] :

The refusal to be enslaved sometimes meant committing suicide rather than live under these conditions. It also sometimes meant aborting a pregnancy when colonial authorities encouraged marriages and reproduction.

Francophonie: Like Fine Wine, Twitter Experience Gets Better With Age

Lova Rakotomalala — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:51:03 +0000

An unexpected but deliciously nostalgic hash tag, #jesuisvieux, has been trending on the French speaking social media scene. Since July 26th, twitter users have been going down memory lane, posting tweets relating their memories from youth with the hash tag #jesuisvieux ( I am old - men) or #jesuisvieille ( I am old - women). The timeline for the hashtag was filled with often humorous, sometimes sweet updates and provides a good snapshot of the evolution of information technology usage and its demographics.
It is unclear whether the article in the New York Times on July 15 entitled: “Aging Gracefully, the French Way” has anything to do with the twitter trend but aging is certainly on a lot of people's mind in the francophone world and they seemingly embrace it openly.
A few newspapers have collected and curated the best of them. Here is an article by Coline Bérard at L'Express.fr: “Twitter c'est pour les vieux”, (twitter is for old people in English) and Belgian newspaper Le Soir is currently posting and monitoring a live blogging session about the #Jesuisvieux hashtag on the Cover It Live platform.

Screenshot of the #Jesuistropvieux tag on Trendsmap.com

According to Hashtags.org, #jesuisvieux hash tag made up to 0.03% of tweets worldwide on July 27.
Here are a few tweets that have caught out attention:

From @JocelyneRobert in Montréal, Canada:

On ne brimait pas nos élans sexuels avec la menace des ITS mais avec la menace de l'enfer #jesuisvieille

We did not suppress our libido with the threat of STDs but with the the threat of hell #IamOld

Pierre Côté:

J'ai surfé sur le WWW en utilisant NETSCAPE #jesuisvieux

I surfed the web using Netscape

Anna Gueye from Senegal and La Hague, Holland:

#jesuisvieux il y avait des 1ères classes dans le métro #jesuisvieille

There were first class seats in the metro

slim404 in Tunisia:

Le 7 nov. 1987 j'étais content. Mon père m'a dit : “tu va pas à l'école aujourd'hui, on ne sait jamais” #jesuisvieux

On Nov 7 1987, my dad told me:” You are not going to class today, who knows what can happen.

@bravepatrie:

J'ai vu des ministres démissionner quand ils étaient mis en cause dans des affaires. #jesuisvieux

Ministers actually resigned when they were implicated in scandals

Necessepas:

J'ai été amoureuse d'Albator #jesuisvieille http://youtu.be/SpE9Yo9dmIo

I was in love with Captain Harlock http://youtu.be/SpE9Yo9dmIo

Boris:

Je me souviens avoir vu la comète de Halley #jesuisvieux

I remember seeing Halley's comet

sophiedurocher:

Dans ma jeunesse, il n'y avait pas Internet pour que des anonymes qui n'ont pas de vie déversent leur haine et leur mépris. #jesuisvieille

When I was young, There was no internet for no-life anonymous people to pour down their hatred and comtempt

Dugomo:

Voler des 33 tours, c'était quand même plus héroïque que télécharger #jesuisvieux

Stealing LP records took more guts than downloading songs

Kristalynm9:

J'ai déjà imprimer un travail de Cégep sur une imprimante a ruban de Commodore 64 a @tremblay96 #jesuisvieux

I did a print job for CEGEP on a Commodore 64 printer in @tremblay96

fastclemmy:

on est tous le vieux de quelqu'un #jesuisvieux

We all are someone else's elder

Finally Lionel suggests that one of the top contributors to the meme is Global Voices own's Anna Gueye:

lionelchollet:

L'une des toutes meilleures séries #jesuisvieux #jesuisvieille, au niveau mondial, est, sans conteste, celle d'@annagueye http://is.gd/dN00B

One of the best #jesuisvieux #jesuisvieille series worldwide is wihtout a doubt @AnnaGueye's

Martinique, Guadeloupe: French Football Flop now Racial Controversy?

Fabienne Flessel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:54:52 +0000

The French national football team has been through some rough times prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but the past three days have stirred up old issues around “Les Bleus“.

In the buildup to the FIFA World Cup, the honeymoon between the the French football team and French journalists came to an end; the divorce was officially announced when native Martinican player Nicolas Anelka allegedly insulted his coach in the locker room (information unveiled by French main sports newspaper, L'Equipe). Guadeloupean blogger B. World Connection reacted soon after in a post entitled “Nicolas Anelka, kicked out of the French football team” and discussed the player's future [Fr]:

Selon toute vraisemblance, Nicolas Anelka ne revétira plus jamais le maillot de l'équipe de France…A moins que Laurent Blanc arrive à le convaincre de revenir. Au niveau de l'opinion général des français ça sera plus dur.

Nicolas Anelka will most likely never wear the French team jersey ever again…Unless Laurent Blanc [the future coach] succeeds in convincing him to come back. However as far as the French public opinion is concerned, things are going to be more difficult.

Although most French West Indian bloggers condemned Anelka's attitude, they have also been discussing the various issues revolving around the incident.

Some comments to B. World Connection's post [Fr] blame the incident on coach Raymond Domenech:

En voyant ce déferlement médiatique à l'encontre d'ANELKA, je me suis dit c'est clair la chasse aux sorcières à commencé. La FFF et DOMENECK ont besoin d'un bouc émissaire pour sauver la face. Et il vont comme à l'habitude sacrifier un “nègre”.

Looking at the media surge against Anelka, I said to myself that the witch hunt had started. The French Football Federation and DOMENECK need a scapegoat to come out clean. And as usual, they will sacrifice a “negro”.

Blogger Bel Balawou weighs in on this analysis of the coach [Fr]:

Cette équipe de France est dirigée pas un entraineur incompétent, un homme ayant pratiquement rien réussi de lui-même…

This French team is coached by an inept manager, a man who has managed only little by himself…

A disturbing scenario followed this already disastrous situation: The French team went on strike just two days before their final round match against Bafana-Bafana. Their decision opened the door to a giant wave of criticism, some of it along seemingly racist lines.

The once-welcomed multicultural feature of “les Bleus” may now have become their worst flaw. Here is the title of Martinican Bondamanjak's post in reaction to some comments about the team:

Les Antillais de l'Equipe de France sont déjà des Français entièrement à part…

The French West Indians of the French football team are already fully isolated…

Bondamanjak's conclusion came after a radio interview with controversial French philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut, who allegedly said [Fr]:

« Tout ça c'est la faute des racailles de banlieue, même ceux de l'équipe de France et qui n'aiment pas la France ».

“This is all to be blamed on the suburbs scum, even those of the French team who don't like France”.

From a sporting perspective, the failure of the French football team has reached social, cultural and even historical levels. For instance, the use of the term “suburbs scum” to descrbe some of the team's players left Bondamanjak bitter [Fr]:

Tant que les Antillais gagnent ils sont partie intégrante de la “nation arc en ciel”… il n'y a plus de couleurs (ni de culture) NOUS SOMMES TOUS BLEUS…
mais au premier nuage, les “gens des cités” (?) sont rétrogradés en seconde classe

As long as the French West Indians win, they are part of the “rainbow nation”…everyone is colorblind (and culture blind) WE ARE ALL “BLEUS”… but when the first cloud covers this blue sky, “people from the suburbs” (?) are sent back to their second-class [citizenship]”

Similarly, Bel Balawou says [Fr]:

Une équipe sportive, d'ailleurs pas que dans le football où se trouve en majorité des gens issus de la banlieue, des Noirs et des Arabes […] : Cela ne le fait pas !

A sport team, incidentally not only in football, where most of the players, Blacks and Arabs, come from the suburbs: […]: It's not right!

According to some bloggers, the reactions against specific players are because of either their background or their religion. Bondamanjak posts this portrait of Nicolas Anelka [Fr]:

Il ne mange pas de saucisson, ne boit pas de pinard. Il est noir, banlieusard et musulman. Il est donc le parfait bouc émissaire le doux mouton noir qui doit être sacrifié pour apaiser la pénible déception offerte par l'équipe de France de football au Mondial en Afrique du Sud.

He doesn't eat sausages, doesn't drink wine. He is black, from the suburbs and Muslim. Thus, he is the perfect scapegoat, the nice black sheep which has to be sacrificied in order to calm down the harsh disappointment caused by the French football team at the South Africa World Cup”.

B. World Connection also publishes a post which suggests that Anelka is a hero [Fr]:

Depuis le temps de l'esclavage, le Nègre n'a jamais cessé de maronner , d'échapper à ses fers, solides ou immatériels, en gagnant les bois, le zyiann…
Nicolas Anelka est de cette race-là…

Since the times of slavery, the Negro has never stopped marooning, escaping from their bondage either materially or spiritually and fleeing to the woods, “zyiann”….
Nicolas Anelka is one of them…

Obviously, the era of the “Black, Blanc, Beur” French society (which means Blacks, Whites and Arabs) inherited from the 1998 FIFA World Cup victory is over.

In conclusion, Gwadaboy, commenting onB. World Connection's post approaches the issue in a more balanced way [Fr]:

Et dire que Zidane a privé la France d'une 2eme coupe du monde avec son coup de boule. Lui il a eu droit aux honneurs de la nation, n'est ce pas monsieur Chirac? Ceci dit Anelka n'est pas excusable,quoi qu'il arrive on doit respecter son entraineur et ses COEQUIPIERS. Après le match on peut rêgler nos comptes mais pas à la mi-temps car “je” pénalise mes potes et mon équipe.

And to think that Zidane deprived France of a 2nd World Cup victory because of his headbutt. He got honors from his country, didn't he Mr Chirac? That being said, Anelka's words cannot be tolerated, in any case he owed his coach and CO-PLAYERS respect. His issues could have been settled after the game but not at half-time because He prejudiced his buddies and his team.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Watching Mexico vs France”, is by Steve Rhodes, used under a Creative Commons license. Visit Steve Rhodes' flickr photostream.

Guadeloupe: The Blogging Priest

Fabienne Flessel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:21:56 +0000

Each week, a Guadeloupean Catholic priest posts his thoughts about religion, society and his everyday life in a blog named Lemoulefatima [Fr].

Guadeloupe: Our first soldier killed in Afghanistan

Fabienne Flessel — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:34:37 +0000

Blogger Gwakafwika expresses [Fr Creole] his sadness with the death of a 27-year-old Guadeloupean native soldier serving in the French Army, in Afghanistan last week.

Martinique: Regional Reactions after Insult

Fabienne Flessel — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:57:48 +0000

Martinican Bondamanjak [Fr] tries to explain the dismissal of Martinican native football player Nicolas Anelka [Fr] after he insulted his coach. Meanwhile, Guadeloupean B. World Connection has re-published [Fr] posts [Fr] about the latest developments.

Guadeloupe: “No to Violence” Day

Fabienne Flessel — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:48:53 +0000

In Guadeloupe, both Bondamanjak and Anba pyé mango-la post the announcement of an event designed to say “Yes to peace, No to violence” on May 8th, 2010.