The new lift bridge [77 meters high and 425 long] that connects the two banks of the Garonne River in Bordeaux [France], started in 2010 and whose work should be completed this year, should be operational in early 2013, and could bear the name of Toussaint Louverture...

Indeed, taking the opportunity of the day commemorating the abolition of slavery [10 May 2012], Vincent Feltesse [Member of the Socialist Party], the President of the Urban Community of Bordeaux (CUB) has proposed that the name of the father of Haiti's independence, figure of the abolitionist struggle and of the struggle against slaver : Toussaint Louverture,be that of this impressive maritime structure signed by the architect Thomas Lavigne. However, Alain Juppé [UMP member] says he prefers rather the name of "Chaban-Delmas' [former mayor of the city for 50 years]. The proposed names will be submitted to the CUB in municipal council, on May 29, which will have to decide.

Bordeaux, like many cities of the Atlantic coast, including La Rochelle and Nantes, have over 10 years "engaged a work of memory, around the links with the slave trade," reminded Mr. Feltesse, stressing that the city "wealth and economic prosperity in the 18th centur is largely due to the triangular trade, the starting point of the slave trade."

For Noël Mamère Ecology Party] Mayor of Begles (Gironde) "the city of Bordeaux, given his past, should repay his debt by giving the bridge the name of Toussaint Louverture."

209 years later, Toussaint Louverture is at the heart of a choice, where is opposed once again, the left and the right of the French policy. Hope that in the eyes of history, he won another well deserved victory, this time in French territory.

HL/ HaitiLibre