It all began with an archive: the detailed report, published in a periodical of the time, of Louis Joseph Vallentin’s trial, an enslaver who appeared before the Assize Court of Pointe-a-Pitre criminal court in 1842 for the premeditated murder of one of his slaves.
This text contained a treasure: the transcript of the words pronounced by the slaves who came to testify in their master’s trial. I decided to bring back these fragments of memory to the ones they belong: the workers of an old sugar factory that lies on the Island of Marie Galante, Grand Anse.
The men of Grand Anse seize and embody these words, and give back to life a forgotten memory. Against erasure and oblivion, they break the silence of Negroes …