# The 18 May 1879 banquet speech on Africa publicly blesses a civilising colonial conquest

Date: 1879

## The fact

On 18 May 1879, at a Paris banquet commemorating abolition, senator [Hugo](/people/victor-hugo) delivered the Discours sur l’Afrique, a public speech that framed European takeover of Africa as light against a blank map.

It is one event.

## Context

The same career campaigned against the death penalty and for Communard amnesty. Do not rebate it with Les Misérables.

Victor Hugo’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

The speech text as reprinted in Actes et paroles (Monde diplomatique’s public reprint) and independent commentary independently document the 18 May 1879 civilising-conquest language.

Official or archival record: Le Monde diplomatique — Hugo, Discours sur l’Afrique (1879 text) (https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/107/HUGO/18320; Le Monde diplomatique).

## Significance

Abolition-banquet oratory that then assigns Africa to Europe is a [humanitarian-access](/drivers/humanitarian-access) cost for the named continent.

1879 is not 1848’s colonial abolition decree, which he did not write.

Abolition-banquet oratory that then assigns Africa to Europe is a humanitarian-access cost for the named continent.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 18 May 1879 public speech with those tropes. Not established: that he drafted a particular colonial statute or captained a column.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Victor Hugo.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

Contribution type is direct. They are not a public rating.

## People

- Victor Hugo: https://factrail.ai/people/victor-hugo

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access

## Sources

- https://www.licra.org/18-mai-1879-victor-hugo-se-plante-sur-la-colonisation
- https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/107/HUGO/18320

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/hug-afrique-1879