The Transat Jacques Vabre, which since 1993 has linked Le Havre with the Antilles or the American continent depending on the edition, is also called the “coffee route” in connection with its sponsor and also because of the route traveled, which is similar to that of the triangle trade. Synonym for slavery.
“300 years ago, a sailor took the coffee route: Captain Gabriel De Clieu, on board his ship, two small coffee trees, on the way to Martinique,” we can read in the communication for the Transat Jacques Vabre 2023, “one of.” His descendants prepare to make the same crossing. He was given a coffee plant to mark the occasion.”
A story in the context of Anaïs Gernidos, tour guide on the colonial history of Le Havre and member of the Mémoires et Partages association. “Our history as Black people is invisible. I have nothing against the TJV or the Skippers, I really like the atmosphere, but this party is about making people believe that there are no problems with our story.”
“Coffee is slavery, it required free labor. “It is a crime to drive people from their land,” she repeats on the edge of the Quai des Antilles in Le Havre, in front of the monohull boats ready to leave.
“Normandy benefited from the triangular trade. “The dock workers unloaded the coffee in the docks across the street,” says Ms. Gernidos, pointing to the renovated red brick buildings: “They were hangars for coffee, cotton, tobacco, sugar…”.
“Crime”
When asked about the possibility of celebrating this route, the general director of the race, Gildas Gautier, replies: “I was not aware of this controversy, we are organizing a sporting event, it is a reality, but I don’t know.” I have a lot of knowledge about this time,” reads a paragraph in the press kit for the event.
The coffee brand Jacques Vabre, which was also contacted, did not respond.
And Anaïs Gernidos emphasizes that “slaves enriched families who built their social standing and political power on this crime.” Mayors, representatives, knights – the names of these families are honored on the memorial plaques in the streets of Le Havre.
“The last traces” of this history visible in Le Havre, says Éric Saunier, lecturer in modern history at the University of Le Havre. The houses financed by the triangular trade were destroyed by the bombing of 1944, “but they still attract tourists to Honfleur.”
In fact, the entire Upper Normandy benefited from this trade: “The shipowners lived in Le Havre, the crews of the slave ships in Honfleur, their financiers and insurers in Rouen”.
“The slave ships left Le Havre for the African coasts and what is now Angola to fill the ships, and then went towards the Lesser Antilles, i.e. Martinique and Guadeloupe, but especially towards Domingue (Haiti),” he remembers Historian.
Great-granddaughter of the slave
“Le Havre was chosen as the French departure port for coffee and a global coffee exchange was set up there in the 19th century,” explains the teacher, “in total, it is estimated that almost 200,000 slaves were “handled” by Norman ships. Over the entire period, Le Havre was the second largest slave port in France, Honfleur the seventh.
Mortality is dramatic: “It varies greatly, but is estimated at about 10%, making it less significant than that of white sailors who were not accustomed to the climate during the voyage during which it was necessary to protect the slaves , because she “was”. Money’.
Once there, the numbers are reversed. “On the plantation, the life expectancy of a slave is on average seven years,” explains Mr. Saunier, “in the overheated refineries with a hectic pace, the mortality rate is very, very high, they are forced to renew the workshop every year.”
“If this story touches me, it is also because I come from Martinique and am the great-granddaughter of a slave,” concludes Anaïs Gernidos. “During my childhood I wondered where I came from, but we will never know.”