(
MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 30. Representatives ofFrench colonies as well as researchers from different universitiesaround the world made presentations on the topic at the first panelsession on "The Negative Impact of Colonialism, AssimilationPolicies on Local Communities" of the conference "The Road toDecolonization: the Consequences of Assimilation and its Impact onthe Realization of Human Rights" organized by the Baku InitiativeGroup at the UN Office in Vienna, Trend reports.
The presenters discussed the major challenges produced by theassimilation policy. It was asserted that France's colonial policyis focused on population assimilation and cultural denial.
"France wants us - the colonized peoples - to be the 'realFrench people' and deny everything that reminds us of our origins -our mother tongue, our commitment to our land, our ancestralheritage, etc.," the representatives of the peoples affected by theassimilation policy said in strong protest against it.
Furthermore, it was stated that the assimilation policy wasbeing applied to people from Africa, the Maghreb, Asia, theCaribbean, and South America because they were neither white norChristian. France has a policy of lowering individuals by dividingbetween civilized and inferior races, as several French writershave pointed out in their writings.
The session discussed that assimilation is a form ofcolonialism.
"Getting rid of assimilation entails removing colonialism, itsideological dogmas, economic and social institutions, politicalgovernance, and cultural representations. It is an endeavor to showthrough the reconstruction of our society that there is no betterrace, civilization, or selected people. If we wish to survive andcoexist, we must reconsider our position in the world," the Deputyof the Martinique Assembly and member of the Baku Initiative GroupLuke Francis Caroll said.
He noted that assimilation is a means of ideological influence,serving very real political, economic, and strategic interests, butwithout any scientific basis. "Surely the people and countries thathave suffered from this ideology for centuries must be at theforefront of the struggle to fundamentally change humanity's viewof the world and the future. The key here is to change people andthe world, to take concrete steps to get rid of the constantdisrespect," said Francis Caroll.
French minority language researcher Roland Laffitte spoke aboutthe growing problem of racism in his country, police injusticeagainst Arabs and Africans, and the fact that they are subjected tounwarranted police checks. He said that lawyers call it systemicracism. Talking about bias against Muslims, the researcher notedthat this has gone beyond racist movements and has becomecommonplace in the political sphere and media. Roland Laffitteemphasized that the growing Islamophobia in his country isworrying.
The French journalist Jean-Michel Brun, also criticizing hiscountry's colonial policy, elaborated on the atrocities committedin Algeria during the colonial years and pointed out the true aimsof assimilation. Under the pretext of assimilation, he said,colonial peoples had been torn away from their ancestors andtraditions.
The spokesperson for the National Alliance of Guadeloupe,Nathalie Minachi, stated that Guadeloupe is still a country ofmigrants. She noted that Europeans are being settled in Guadeloupewith promises of land and financial benefits to reduce the localpopulation in the country. The people of Guadeloupe are evenforbidden to practice their religion and speak their nativelanguage. Minachi stressed that French colonialism was aimed atdestroying other cultures and languages, which were presented assubcultures.
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