SHOULD THE MACTe ADOPT A POPULIST ATTITUDE?

  

MACTe flyer / social media, May 2026

 

 

 

SHOULD THE MACTe ADOPT A POPULIST ATTITUDE?

 

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The publicity campaign launched by the MACTe, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this May 2026, is somewhat perplexing. Two things are particularly striking. Whilst it is to be welcomed that the institution has finally publicly acknowledged that its permanent exhibition contains aspects that are problematic to say the least—and which require significant changes to the narrative presented to various audiences—one might well ask why it has taken so long to admit the obvious. This is all the more so given that, from the moment it opened, the MACTe was alerted by a series of questions raised by citizens, specialists and cultural associations, and expressed through various channels: press articles, blogs, social media… These widely circulated articles were brought to the attention of successive directors of the MACTe. Thus, as early as July 2016, I published an article on my blog* which I took care to forward to Jacques Martial (now deceased), who was then in charge of the institution, and to his colleague, the anthropologist Thierry L’Étang, then to Laurella Rinçon who succeeded them, as well as to Isabelle Vestris, appointed Director in December 2024.

 

None of these directors ever bothered to reply to me, although J. Martial told me one evening at a cocktail party that he felt the MACTe was still “too fragile” to respond. Laurella Rinçon, during an informal meeting on site, had assured me that she would entrust me with a task of reviewing all the biases identifiable in this permanent exhibition, specifying that she did not promise to change everything I pointed out. ‘Pawòl an bouch pa chaj’ (Words are not binding), as we say here, contrary to our oral traditions. In the end, I was never entrusted with this audit task. Other projects she dangled before us were nipped in the bud, and her own tenure at the helm of the MACTe ended, as we know, in a debacle.

 

After a long decade of existence, during which many Guadeloupeans still refuse to set foot in this place—which they regard as a temple of historical deception that, in their view, insults the spirits of their ancestors—the MACTe is now issuing a general call to ‘take part in its overhaul’, adding ‘Your opinion matters’!

 

Such an announcement, however spectacular and populist it may be, cannot hide the embarrassing contradictions.

 

Firstly, is it appropriate for the MACTe, whose mission is to inform and educate on a sensitive subject that is currently in the news (the world is discovering with astonishment that the Code Noir has not been repealed), to seek the views of laypeople, as if, despite the ten years that have passed, the institution had no idea of the changes to be made to its permanent exhibition (films, historical and artistic artefacts, the narratives surrounding the objects, the exhibition design, and the relevance or incongruity of the historical figures featured and the overall ‘memorial’ project)? Through a sensationalist request, here are visitors in search of knowledge, placed in a position to tell the Memorial which direction to take. It will be difficult to make people forget that the Institution has never formally acknowledged the reasoned opinions and reservations, expressed since the inauguration, by associations and qualified individuals.

 

Proof, contrary to the sensationalist announcement, that “Our opinion doesn’t count”. It must be acknowledged that the institution remains trapped in a paralysing triple handicap: blindness, muteness and deafness, which are intolerable given the challenges the Memorial should be addressing. Yet this form of arrogance, which is evident even in the disastrous manner in which security guards may greet visitors (I have been subjected to this on two occasions in recent months!)**, effectively leads to a complete loss of credibility for the MACTe.

 

 

In this month of May 2026, a period of commemoration of the abolition of slavery in the French colonies, rather than relying on the unpaid labour of Guadeloupeans (unpaid labour abolished in 1848), shouldn’t the MACTe instead pay a ‘small team’ of specialists with a ‘carte noire’ (the expression ‘carte blanche’ being inappropriate here) to carry out a mission free from all political pressure, the aim of which would be to perform highly precise work with a view to the methodical overhaul of the permanent exhibition, the very heart of the Memorial? To shape a MACTe that truly respects the memory and the struggles against enslavement and its continuation in indentured labour, waged by our ancestors from Indigenous, African and Indian peoples. In such an emblematic place, is it not finally time to put this respect for ourselves, by ourselves, into ‘ACTe’?

 

Jocelyn Valton – AICA South Caribbean, 30 May 2026

 

 

(*) – Jocelyn Valton: ACTe Memorial, Memory Under Control, July 1, 2016

 

https://jocelynvalton.blogspot.com/2016/01/memorialacte-art-memoire-esclavage-la.html

 

 

Following the publication of this article, I frequently responded to requests from various individuals wanting to be accompanied on their first visit to the MACTe (education officials, school principals, doctoral students, etc.). I have also led several generations of students there. I moderated a roundtable discussion with Eddy Firmin-Ano, Bruno Pédurand, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, and Philippe Thomarel, artists of the 2016 exhibition Unexpected Echoes. I led two thematic guided tours as part of the 2019 exhibition The Black Model (MACTe / Musée d’Orsay).

 

(**) – Following these two incidents, the second of which resulted in a security guard's verbal abuse exceeding his authority, and then our being prevented from visiting under ludicrous pretexts (while I was with three people unfamiliar with Guadeloupe), I was astonished, after some research, by the number of reviews denouncing the poor reception that visitors of all origins had received and which they had been expressing for years on various websites. Can the communications department and the management team of the MACTe be unaware of such failings?