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France’s president says that making Haiti pay for its independence was unjust (apnews.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

if anyone was curious of how much france needs to pay back:

They approximated that in total 112 million francs was paid in indemnity, which when adjusted for the inflation rate would be $560 million in 2022, but considering that if it had been invested in the Haitian economy instead, it could be valued at $115 billion.

(from Wikipedia)

and obviously, this is only from the debt. reparations for the enslavement of Haitians will cost much, much more

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

iirc most countries agreed to pay huge sums of money to the slavers, not to the slaves, when slavery was abolished