Memorial

Each year, on 23rd May, the association Comité Marche du 23 mai 1998 - CM98 organizes, in collaboration with numerous other associations, a series of events to honour the victims of colonial slavery, which is now known as Limyè ba Yo (recognition-reconciliation).

In the build up to the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, over one hundred different associations and individuals responded to a call to organize an event to honour their slave ancestors to formally mark this historic occasion.

On 23rd May 2008, CM98 created an itinerant memorial that displays the lists of names that were given to the newly-freed population following the abolition of slavery in 1848. Between 1848 and 1862, French officials renamed some 160,000 people in Guadeloupe and Martinque, often creating names that attested to the contempt in which these newly formed citizens were held by the state.

In 2006, CM98 created a 'Genealogical and Historical Working Group for Antillean Families' ('Atelier de généalogie et d’histoire des familles antillaises', or AGHFA). The purpose of this working group is assist Antilleans in researching their family history by discovering links to their ancestral past and its roots in the history of slavery and emancipation. In doing so, they aim to create family connections and engage in a process of healing by creating a clearer sense of Antillean identity in the present.