the team

JEAN-MARC AYRAULT

Jean-Marc AYRAULT, former Prime Minister, was the mayor of Nantes from 1989 to 2012. Co-sponsor with Christiane Taubira of the 2001 bill that acknowledged slavery as a crime against humanity. In Nantes, he was the first political leader to acknowledge slavery and the slave trade’s role in the city’s history and to devote resources to it. This led to the "Rings of Remembrance" exhibition in 1992, permanent exhibits at the Nantes Castle Museum, the inauguration of the Abolition Memorial, and more.

The city of Nantes is now acknowledged worldwide for its work on remembrance and history.

He was elected President of the Foundation on 13 November 2019 after having led its precursor for two years.

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DOMINIQUE TAFFIN

Dominique Taffin, archivist-palaeographer, has been a general curator of heritage since May 2012. Of Guadeloupian origin, she was director of the Archives of Martinique from 2000 to 2019. She combines long experience in both archives and museums. Having begun her career as assistant curator at the Overseas Archives (Aix en Provence) in 1985, she then joined the National Museum of the Arts of Africa and Oceania (Paris) from 1992 to 2000. In charge of managing the museum's "colonial" collection, she worked to clarify the relationship between the history of the collections and the colonial situation.

In the Caribbean domain, she has worked on promoting the use of archives in the cultural heritage of the West Indies, as well as on developing good practices through digital technologies. This led to her initiating the Digital Bank of Martinique's Cultural Heritage (2010). Alongside that, she has pursued research in history and promoting research: the author of a thesis on the history of health in Guadeloupe, she has published more than twenty articles and books dealing mainly with the social and cultural history of the West Indies and the colonial situation. She has also organized some dozen exhibitions and symposia, frequently in partnership with organizations and institutions.

President of the Caribbean Archives Association / Association des archives antillaises (CARBICA) from 2010 to 2014, she also has long-standing experience in a non-profit organization, from 1988 to 2018 (Societies of Friends of Archives).

PIERRE-YVES BOCQUET

Pierre-Yves Bocquet is an Inspector General of Social Affairs. After a career in the social sector, he became a discourse and remembrance advisor to the President of France (2014-2017). After returning to the IGAS, he served from 2017 to 2019 as a qualified person on the Board of Directors of GIP-MMETA, the precursor of the Foundation. A music critic who writes under the pseudonym Pierre Evil, he is the author of several books on American music (including Detroit Sampler, 2014), and has made a film for Arte (Black Music - From Iron Chains to Golden Ones, 2008). He has been writing a column in the bi-monthly music magazine Magic since 2017.

ARMELLE CHATELIER

A historian by training, Armelle Chatelier has participated in cultural-studies research on African urban cultures and the history of French colonial representations. She has worked as a cultural engineer in France, West Africa and the Caribbean in fields of heritage, culture and digital humanities. With experience in publishing, audio-visual and training, she has contributed to numerous cultural and remembrance projects on three continents. Heritage, education and communication are at the heart of her career.

AÏSSATA SECK

Aïssata Seck studied political and public communication. As community organizer and politician, she defends the rights of former soldiers from colonial troops. She was key to the naturalization of surviving members of the Senegalese Tirailleurs infantry corps that was pronounced by President François Hollande in 2017.

She is also Deputy Mayor of Bondy (93) in charge of memorial policies.

MAGALIE LIMIER

Magalie Limer worked for many years in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the head of a publishing company. She was, most notably, managing director of an economic and social magazine, RDC Society. Since her return to Paris in 2018, she has worked within the National Committee for the Remembrance and History of Slavery and then joined the Foundation's team.

JEANNY LOMBION

Jeanny Lombion has a doctoral thesis in History and Civilizations, she worked on "Being and Eating Creole: Complexity and Singularity of a ‘Precipitate of the Tout-Monde (All-World)’" at EHESS, where J-P. Goubert was her advisor. She was a teaching assistant at Paris VIII University in the Political Science Department (Sociology - R. Laffargue). She works to enhance knowledge and remembrance of an open, accurate and scientific history of slavery.

DOMINIQUE CRÉANTOR

Dominique Créantor is on secondment from the French Post Office, as part of a corporate volunteering program. She has held the positions of Department Director and Facility Director. She also worked for three years at the University of the French West Indies and Guyane as Director of Financial Affairs. Involved in culture, she plays the "singing drum", a traditional “skin” instrument used in Guadeloupian carnival “skin” bands.