The city of Paris inaugurated its very first park in northeastern Paris honouring a revolutionary Black woman named Solitude, who had been instrumental in fighting for the rights of Black slaves in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
This follows after statues of colonial figures were taken down in the US and UK in the wake of Black Lives Matter Movement. Instead of taking down the statues, the French have opted to honour more of lesser-known historical figures. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, opened the park to the public on Friday, and stated in her address that a statue of Solitude is to be erected in the park to acknowledge her contributions in the Guadeloupe resistance movement.
Solitude was born around 1772, as the daughter of an African slave who had been raped by a white sailor on the ship bringing her to the Antilles, according to newspaper Le Monde. She had actively fought against racism and slavery in the Guadeloupe resistance movement while being pregnant. She had been put to death at the gallows a day after she gave birth.
France abolished slavery in 1794 but it was reinstated back by Napolean. It was once again abolished in 1848. Guadeloupe, a part of France, saw protests earlier this year against racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the US.