Another path to decolonization: manumission?

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is coming back to you this week at the request of some of its readers in order to develop an idea already formulated in one of our previous emails dated October 1, 2024 entitled:  the situation of New Caledonia, an isolated case? in which we mentioned  the example of Haiti, a former French colony, which after taking up arms, obtained its independence in 1804 by buying its freedom from France  via a debt ¹  which ended in 1952.

Although this solution may seem outdated, it could nevertheless apply to a France that remains with its last overseas territories (colonies) in the past , unfortunately not yet having been able to turn the page on its lost empire. Thus, the desire of the Kanak people to free themselves from French domination would lead to  applying a solution from the past in order to resolve a problem from the past.

This  19th century solution  is, apart from the island of Haiti,  well known to the French authorities  who in 1803 on the orders of Emperor Napoleon I sold Louisiana to the United States  for the sum of 80 million francs at the time.

Like today’s company buyout, the estimate of which is generally based on an operating period of 3, 5 or 10 years, the  calculation of the sum to be paid by Haiti was calculated on  the same principle, namely  10 years of net operating income,  or the sum of 150 million gold francs at the time (around 20 billion dollars today), twice as much as for Louisiana, which was 77 times larger at the time.

We leave it to those interested in this solution to carry out the calculations themselves in order to determine the sums that this would generate for New Caledonia.

It should nevertheless be remembered that  this solution was not really one  and that Haiti did not truly obtain its independence since the island had to go into debt to France for almost 100 years to repay this debt .  France thus managed to maintain its commercial and economic domination, even if it did not have territorial control over its former colony  , until the end of the 19th century,  taking up to 40% of the Haitian government’s revenues in some years. The latter also had to reduce customs duties on French goods by half.

In 2003, the island requested repayment of this debt  from France, which it believes to be the cause of its delay and difficulties.  This request, which remained a dead letter, nevertheless led to the island’s president being ousted from power in an operation orchestrated by France and the United States ² , joint holders of this debt and who in the 19th century viewed with disapproval the creation of a state composed and led by former slaves who had freed themselves.

If the association has allowed itself to address this “solution”, it is because it believes that the solution of federalism is the only solution and that it has already proven itself in the past in New Caledonia. However, it  risks having difficulties to be implemented today given the current French executive being located on the political spectrum completely to the right.  As a reminder, the use of  the concept of federalism was able to take place in New Caledonia in 1988 and 1998 thanks to the presence of a prime minister and/or a president of the socialist republic, therefore of the left.

The  current duo (president / prime minister) brings us back to a situation already known to the Caledonians, namely 50 years ago, at the time of VGE / Chirac,  which had resulted in response to a desire on the part of the Caledonians for more autonomy in a centralization of powers in Paris,  thus leading to a radicalization on the part of the Kanak population  and to the choice by them of independence resulting in the unfortunate events of the 1980s. The desire by the State to bring New Caledonia back into the French fold by recovering the Caledonian powers and competences as proposed in the martyr document and the Nickel plan in 2023 thus had only one logical outcome, already implemented historically, which are the “events” with the insurrection of 2024 and a proclamation again of the independence of New Caledonia planned unilaterally by some for 2025.

1  Compensation of France by the Republic of Haiti — Wikipedia

2  How France Responded to Haiti’s Demands for Reparations – The New York Times  Haiti: How France Forced Its Former Colony to Pay Compensatory Reparations

We wish you a good read and remind you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.

The APROFED association