On Martinique, an LGBT association campaigns in the midst of a social crisis
Plans of the advocacy group Kap Caraïbe have been stymied by vandalism and homophobic officials.
Martinique is called the Island of Flowers, but it is currently undergoing an intense social crisis that combines LGBTphobic violence and spiraling inflation.
The high cost of living that is impacting the ability of activists campaigning against homophobia to intervene on the ground, while the cost of living continues to rise as acts of LGBTphobic damage persist.
For 76crimes, Brice Armien-Boudré, co-president of Kap Caraïbe, explains what is happening on his island.
A climate of violence allows hatred to be expressed
Brice Armien-Boudré: ‘Between 23 September and the first ten days of October at the Espace Camille Darsières in Fort-de-France, an exhibition called “Lanmou-nou” (which means “our love” in Creole). It featured around ten photos by artists from Martinique, Guadeloupe and the diaspora, celebrated love in all its diversity. This was the first time that photos of affectionate LGBT+ people from the West Indies were dispayed in a public space in Martinique.
Sadly, however, on the night of 8 to 9 October, the event was marred by unspeakable acts of vandalism against a backdrop of social demands and tensions over the cost of living since 1 September, on an island where many people feel that they have been neglected, if not despised, by the authorities in France because they have not been listened to.
As a force for progress in Martinique, Kap Caraïbe is keeping abreast of the social mobilizations against the austerity policies targeting the French overseas territories, but does not endorse the acts of violence that have marred Martinique for the past two months, and which have taken their toll on the exhibition designed by artist Adeline Rapon.
Today, like all Martinicans, Kap Caraïbe has had to adjust its activities, postponing or cancelling certain trips, and favouring teleworking.
For the time being, still reeling from the cancellation of our artistic programme last June and the recent destruction of the ‘Lanmou-nou’ exhibition, we are opting for the utmost caution’.
