The Negro’s case/Slavery’s Museum on Guadeloupe Island
The Negro population suffered a terrible fate. Some high-hierarchy members of the Church doubted their human nature, setting the conditions for their terrible suffering. Most people do not know, but during the 15th and 16th centuries, the black African continent boasted flourishing and powerful civilizations, a far cry from the Rousseau-like or colonial image of villages with “noble savages.” Crossroads for commerce began in the 16th century in the Gulf of Guinea, which became the largest zone for Negro trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Portuguese, Spanish, English, Dutch, and French established themselves in different areas along the coast, and Ouidah (present-day Republic of Benin) experienced considerable economic growth. The forts or trading posts stored merchandise from Europe and enslaved people. They shipped more than a million captives in the 18th century. The human cargo continued until the 1860s, despite the earlier abolition of the trade.
Bagnères de Bigorre or de Brigadoon?
Bagnères de Bigorre has 7500 inhabitants and lies at 20 km of Lourdes, the town of the Virgen Mary’s apparitions. Submerged in the dawn’s pink light like Brigadoon, the village wakes up in a valley amid glorious mountains every morning. The bells of the svelte 14th-century Church of Saint Vincent chime at 7:00 A.M. in the heart of the town to announce the arrival of a new day. Half an hour later, Ave Maria resounds in its bell tower to thank Our Lady for protecting the little town. At the top of a mountain, a giant statue of the Virgen of Bedat presides over small streets lined up with two-or-three-story ancient and recent buildings of various colors—red, yellow, blue, and white. Their architecture confers them a breathtaking beauty. The creek Adour crosses the townscape and sprays it with the peaceful reverberation of blue water.
