Paul and Jacques, anti-colonial activists

FRANCE.TV – ON DEMAND – DOCUMENTARY

The shadow of Jacques Vergès has somewhat eclipsed that of his brother Paul – outside, of course, the island of Réunion – and even more so that of his father, Raymond. Gilles Cayatte’s rather benevolent film has the great merit of weaving the links between the three men, united by the same militant anti-colonialism.

Dr. Raymond Vergès (1882-1957), French consul in Siam (former name of Thailand), is described as a doctor of the poor, outraged by the incredible poverty of the island, where he returned with two of his children after the death of his mother, when they were 3 and 4 years old. Close to the Communist Party, he was mayor of Saint-Denis, then deputy, and was behind the creation of the department of La Réunion.

His two sons joined the Free French in 1943. “Serve under the orders of a general [de Gaulle] sentenced to death by a legal, if not legitimate, governmentsays Jacques Vergès, It seemed like a huge pleasure to me. »

Mysterious conviction

After the war, Paul (1925-2016) joined his father in Réunion, where clashes were daily. He is accused of having killed the leader of the right-wing opposition with his father’s pistol, but the documentary moves a little quickly on his mysterious conviction, in Lyon, in July 1947, to five years in prison, suspended and immediately amnestied . . “A trial of colonialism had to be made, they didn’t do it”laments the young lawyer Jacques Vergès (1924-2013). Henri Leclerc (1934-2024), who did not hide his sympathy for his turbulent colleague, recounts his speech “absolutely stunning” at the internship conference, this eloquence contest for young lawyers.

The rest is better known. Jacques Vergès defends FLN activists in Algeria, in particular Djamila Bouhired, accused of having planted a bomb in a cafe. His lawyer does not testify about the elements of the accusation, he accuses in turn, because“There is no possible dialogue with the court”and found here the “break the defense”. The activist is sentenced to death. “It is an opportunity for a revolution to adopt the face of a girl”says her lawyer, and an intense campaign forced President Coty to pardon her. METRO^my Vergès converted to Islam, registered at the Algiers bar and married Djamila, with whom he had two children.

In Réunion, Michel Debré, after his fight for French Algeria, was elected deputy in 1963 against the communist Paul Vergès. Accused forty-three times of attacking the integrity of the territory, sedition and press crimes, he fled and lived in hiding for twenty-eight months, before turning himself in and obtaining the charges dismissed in Paris. An autonomy activist, he became a supporter of decentralization and president of the region in 1998, but not without leaving some bitterness among his former comrades in struggle.

Jacques disappeared in 1970, without saying a word. He reappeared eight years later and has cultivated mystery ever since. “I was in myselfsaid the lawyer. It is not a black hole, it is a luminous hole, but it belongs to me. » Returning to France, Jacques Vergès, with his inevitable cigarette, becomes the lawyer of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, of the Baader gang, of Carlos, of Omar Bongo, of the Khmer Rouge, of Klaus Barbie, delighted to be alone against everyone and in war. against a society that hates.