Coping with the Past in Former French and British Slave Trade Ports. Local and National Variables in the Making of Memory Policies

In this article, four cities are compared: Nantes, Bordeaux, Liverpool, and Bristol. They have in common a difficult past as slave trade ports and the fact that they have launched policies of memory to recognize this past. Based on empirical data, the article offers a medium range comparison, suited to identifying the factors that explain the stark differences between the policies of memory of the four cities. The goal of the analysis is to assess the impact of territorial factors and of national ones in the making of a specific local policy of memory. Some of the differences can be explained by local parameters, such as the level of politicization of the memory issue, or its association to other areas of local policy. Other differences can only be derived from a non-local factor: the impact of national ideologies of identity. British local actors base their memory actions on multiculturalism and the recognition of a “black community” while French local actors refuse such an association, in line with the prevalent national “color-blind” perspective. In this respect, it appears that local authorities remain strongly dependent on ideological frameworks that are set at the national level.