this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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France’s president says that making Haiti pay for its independence was unjust (apnews.com)
submitted 1 week ago by Timbits@lemmy.ca to c/world@quokk.au
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French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that historic injustice was imposed on Haiti when it was forced to pay a colossal indemnity to France in exchange for its independence 200 years ago.

Macron also announced the creation of a joint French-Haitian historical commission to ‘’examine our shared past’’ and assess relations, but did not directly address longstanding Haitian demands for reparations.

France ″subjected the people of Haiti to a heavy financial indemnity, ... This decision placed a price on the freedom of a young nation, which was thus confronted with the unjust force of history from its very inception,’' Macron said in a statement.

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[–] alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Once you start looking at reparations for slavery and colonialism, you quickly realize it's a debt that the former colonizers will never be able to repay.

And to be honest, for wrongs that were committed over a 350+ year period, it doesn't make sense to repay a debt within a single lifetime.

So I agree with you, something would be better than nothing.

But it is important to make an inventory on what would be justly owed and what has been paid back to date and in what form. Perhaps this process should also last 350 years.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Once you start looking at reparations for slavery and colonialism, you quickly realize it's a debt that the former colonizers will never be able to repay.

Why, because it would be as financially ruinous as the ones imposed on Haiti were?

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why did you side blur? We dont need that extra width.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I didn't do it; I just grabbed the pic from knowyourmeme.com

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