Blacks and whites, sketches of Bourbon island

Gustave Oelsner-Monmerqué

Critical edition and translation from the German by Marlène Tolède, Gabriele Fois-Kaschel and Julie Dumonteil. 
Creation and layout of images by Karl Kugel
Published by Riveneuve, Villèle museum 2021

Original title: Schwarze und Weiße. Skizzen aus Bourbon
Original edition: Schlodtmann, Bremen, 1848

The novel Black-and-White is set in the French colony of Bourbon, a remote Indian Ocean Island, today called Reunion. The author, experiencing the daily life of the Creole society, militates for the total and urgent abolition of slavery. The original text, written in German, was published in Germany at the start of 1848. In the same year was signed the decree implementing complete abolition of slavery by the provisional government of the French Second Republic. One and a half centuries later, following a number of ups and downs, the work is today available to readers in the French language. Thanks to its original character, the work will fulfil the expectations of anyone, specialist or not, interested in a period that represented a turning point in the colonial history of France and of slavery. 

Gustave Oelsner-Monmerqué (1814-1854) was a journalist, writer and Franco-German diplomat.  He wrote the novel during his stay on Reunion from 1842 to 1845. It was partly published in 1847 in the review Magazin für die Literatur des Auslandes and then in its entirety in the town of Bremen the following year.  The translation from the German, presentation and layout of the text are by Marlène Tolède, Gabriele Fois-Kaschel and Julie Dumontreil. 

Karl Kugel, visual artist and photographer who has received several awards, has been working for several years on the memory of slavery, as well as the links between Indian Ocean Territories and Mozambique, notably through the martial arts.