The Pantheon memorial in Paris is hosting a double exhibition dedicated to those who played a role in the abolition of slavery. It includes rare archival material and contemporary art – all of which relay the message that the fight for freedom should never be taken for granted.
“Dare to Seek Freedom” (Oser la Liberté) is a presentation of archival documents and photos shedding new light on the people who fought slavery, which spanned four centuries and involved three continents.
Created jointly by the Centre for National Monuments (CMN) and the Foundation for Slavery Rememberance, it shines a light on colonial France’s role in slavery and the long fight for freedom.
Although the French revolution of 1789 brought with it the “Declaration of the Rights of Man”, it would take another revolution to put an end to the slave trade in 1831, and yet another to finally abolish slavery, in 1848.
Toussaint Louverture, the man who lead the uprising in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) in 1791, was both the instigator and the icon of the concept of “universal freedom”, that the First French Republic was trying to establish.
However Napoleon Bonaparte, who had major colonial ambitions in the Americas, decided to depose Louverture. He failed to do so and Saint-Domingue achieved its independence on the battlefield and became Haiti in 1804.
The Pantheon, originally the Sainte Geneviève church, was designed by the architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot between 1764-1790, under Louis XV of France.
In 1791, the Constituent Assembly decided to turn the monument into the Panthéon, and to make its crypt the last resting place of the nation’s great men and women.
Well-known names have their place here: among them Abbé Grégoire, Condorcet, Louis Delgrès, Victor Schœlcher, Félix Éboué and Aimé Césaire, also connected to the fight for human rights.
Josephine Baker, the American singer and cabaret performer is only the sixth woman to be honoured at the Pantheon. She was noted for her contributions to the civil rights movement in the United States and her refusal to perform for segregated audiences.
The artist – who also supported the Resistance movement against Nazism in France in World War II – was officially honoured at the monument with a ceremony on 30 November 2021.
Forgotten heroes
The exhibition strives to highlight some of the hidden figures of this long-lasting struggle such as Makandal, Julien Raimond or Olympe de Gouges.
François Makandal was born in West Africa and brought to work on a sugar plantation in Saint-Domingue as a young boy. He ran away and joined a maroon community, where he became a leader. He was executed on charges of murder in Cap-Français in January 1758.
Olympe de Gouges was a radical feminist and one of the first people to fight for equal rights for women. She campaigned against violence and oppression and spoke out against slavery. Her radical ideas eventually led to her death at the guillotine in 1793.
The Pantheon’s high, domed ceilings are adorned with huge banners with the faces of slaves or abolitionists, providing a procession for visitors to pass by as they discover multiple layers of history.
The eye-catching graphic designs painted on silky cloth flags are made by young artist Raphaël Barontini for the parallel exhibition “We Could be Heroes”.
Designed to draw out the lesser-known stories about slavery and the people who fought against it, the artist, from Saint-Denis, north of Paris, has chosen portraits of both historical figures as well as some imaginary ones.
The works are accompanied by scheduled performances involving local Caribbean fanfare groups, and a sound installation.
“These textile pieces will have a narrative dimension and will provide a historical counterpoint," Barontini told the press, adding that he took inspiration from historical paintings of Jules-Eugène Lenepveu, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Jean-Paul Laurens.
Fragile freedom
The joint exhibition is a timely reminder that slavery is not a concept uniquely relegated to the archives, but remains a challenge for countries across the world today.
In 2001, with the “Taubira Law”, France recognised slavery and human trafficking as crimes against humanity, another step towards safeguarding the nation's revolutionary motto "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity).
The United Nations International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is held every year on the 2 December to bring awareness to modern versions of slavery that still affects over 28 million people, nearly 70 percent of whom are women.
The exhibitions "Dare to Seek Freedom" and "We Could be Heroes" run at the Pantheon in Paris until 11 February, 2024.
