Today, we gather not only to mark a date in history, but to listen to its echoes.

The abolition of slavery was not simply the end of a system; it was the beginning of a long and unfinished journey. A journey from enforced silence to voice, from dispossession to belonging, from survival to self-definition.

Slavery shaped our nation in profound ways. It tore people from their homelands, stripped them of names and lineages, and scattered them across oceans. For many, history did not arrive in books, archives or government reports but in fragments: carried in language, in music, in food, in faith, and in the body itself. Much was remembered yet much was never told.

And yet, from this rupture emerged something extraordinary: a Creole people. An identity not born of a single origin, but forged through resilience, adaptation, and creativity. Our identity is not confined to nationality alone; it is lived, layered, and shared. It is an identity shaped as much by loss as by imagination.

The ocean that surrounds us reminds us of this truth. It is a source of beauty and sustenance—but it is also a witness. It carried pain, separation, and silence, just as it now carries connection and possibility. It reminds us that history does not disappear; it moves, it returns, it speaks.

Anmenmtan ki nou komemor premye lazournen lesklavaz isi Sesel Ozordi, nou bezwen fran ek nou lekor. Ki si sa laliberte? Eski lesklavaz in vremen gany aboli?

Ou ki dan serten form, inegalite, diskriminasyon e marzinalizasyon, i ankor ekziste atraver nou fason viv kot nou met serten dekote e refize aksepte zot koman enn nou frer?

Nou listwar pa la pou anprizonn nou dan lepase.I la pou ed nou konpran. Pou fer pli byen e onor sa bann ki ti anmenn nou lo zot zepol ver en meyer Sesel. 

Listwar i la pou fer nou rapel, ki nou pase i devret en sours pou dignite e non pa divizyon.Pour nou tir leson e non pa zis kit souvenir. Se pour sa rezon ki lar, dyalog e bann konversasyon ant bann zenerasyon i  enportan.

Zot permet nou ekout pa zis bann leko lepase me osi kree en lavenir ki pli gran ki nou pase. Zot rapel nou ki kantmenm ki nou lidantite ti gany fasonnen par listwar, ki nou lavenir i ranpli avek posibilite.

Ozordi, annan onor lavi bann ki viv anba sistenm lesklavaz.Annou mazin zot kouraz e rezilyans. Annou apresye sa leritaz ki zot in kit pou nou. 

Annou rekonet lafors en pep kin transform soufrans e fer li vin lekspresyon. Kin fer separasyon vin apartenans. 

E annou komet nou lekor, ansanm, pou kree en lavenir kot laliberte i annan son vre plas dan nou sosyete.

Kot nou valoriz nou idantite e kot nou listwar e nou pase i gid nou ver en meyer lavenir.

Mersi.