reconnecting

From Case-Pilote to Nantes : The story of a slave's descendant's quest for identity
Entering the great history of slavery and colonization through the small door, through the small places that seem insignificant, those whose historical uses we have even forgotten. To use buildings and places as an archive. Sometimes psychologist, historian, archivist, numismatist, landscaper or simply passionate about history, the floor is given to these connoisseurs to "visit" the complex history of the slave trade and colonization from particular places in Nantes. These podcasts are produced by Pop Média, on an initiative of the director Guillaume Ploquin and the architect-anthropologist Rossila Goussanou.

Episode 3: In 2011, the overseas territories digitize and put online part of their national archives, including civil registers dating back to 1848, the date of the abolition of slavery in Martinique and access to citizenship for former slaves. This is what will allow Monique Arien-Carrère from Nantes to discover, a few months later, the individuality act of her great-great-grandmother, Antoinette Arien known as Agouzou. The doubt is no longer allowed on the servile origin of her ancestors. This podcast looks back at her quest for identity and the memory troubles that accompany it, between denial, taboo and the search for truth. It also shows how historical accounts from overseas are mixed with memories of the slave trade in Nantes.

Pour aller plus loin :

Monique Arien-Carrère, La Trace. Agouzou, femme esclave, Paris, Éditions de l’Institut du Tout-Monde, 2021.

Aimé Césaire, "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal", Volonté, n°20, Paris, 1939.

Edouard Glissant, Traité du Tout-Monde (Poétique IV), Paris, Gallimard, 1997.