CIMETIERE DES ESCLAVES ET DES OUBLIES

TRADUCTION
2007 – CYCLONE GAMEDE
Human bones are discovered on beaches after strong swells due to the bad weather during the cyclone. Archeologues working on the site established a correspondance with an old cemetery. Quickly, burials were inhumed and a memorial stele were inaugurated on the 2d of november 2007.
2011 – ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION
The 2011 excavation campain, conducted by the Regional Archeology Service created in 2010, studies 14 burials spread on 7 protected areas, and reveals an organized positionning of the bodies and nails. This discovery is an evidence of the presence of coffins.
This excavation revealed the skeleton of a young woman with sharp teeth. This particularity, sign of her African origins, strongly suggests her condition as an enslaved person.
An ordinance dated 22th of september 1820, issued by the Colonial Administrative Commender, confirms the existance of burials separated from the others because unbaptized, and orders their reunification. This coastal area, located outside the cemetary enclosure, appears to have been used until 1860 for the non catholic burials, enslaved individuals, convicts, victims of suicide, and divorced people.
2012 – A SITE LISTED AS A HISTORIC MONUMENT
By decree dated 26 January 2012, the entire funerary site—comprising the present marine cemetery within its walls and the cemetery discovered outside the enclosure—was granted protection as a Historic Monument ((by the Ministry of Culture of France).
2023 – A MEMORIAL TO THE FOUNDING ANCESTORS
The artwork by Jack Beng-Thi, entitled « Zétoil la souvenans » (Memory star, in creole), won the public call for projects launched in 2013. Inspired by Derek Walcott’s poem « The Sea Is History », the memorial emphasizes “the importance of making the invisible visible.” On the portico, reminiscent of a ship’s sail, a text by the artist expresses the suffering of peoples deported from Africa and Madagascar. The twenty stone markers represent 1% of the estimated 2,000 burials carried away by the ocean.
2025 – A UNIQUE CEMETERY
Inaugurated on 20 December 2025, the gabion wall installed as an extension of the historic enclosure symbolizes the unification of the marine cemetery, built in 1788, with the cemetery of the enslaved and the forgotten, discovered in 2011. It now protects the hundreds of burials interred across more than 2,500 square meters in this area.