France: Activists call out slave trader statues in Paris

Anti-racism groups gathered for a "de-colonial tour" of Paris on Sunday to call attention to monuments and streets honouring historical figures tied to the slave trade or colonial-era abuses.

It was organized by people representing low-income neighbourhoods in French suburbs, home to large communities who trace their origins to former colonies.

Black activist and migrants' rights groups also joined the tour.

The march was supposed to take place on the streets around Paris' Museum of Immigration but was no longer authorized by French police shortly before the start.

Instead, the group walked around a square outside the museum and symbolically renamed a street after each round.

The demonstration was held on the 58th anniversary of Algeria's independence from France after a long and brutal war.

In a call on social networks, organizers of the Sunday's march accused the French government of "ignoring the memory of the people it reduced to slavery or colonized by mass slaughter."

They want France to rename streets and monuments for people who fought against slave trading and colonial crimes.

Algeria was considered the jewel in France's colonial empire and is marking its independence day Sunday with a special funeral ceremony for 24 resistance fighters decapitated by French forces the 19th century.

The fighters’ skulls were brought back to France as trophies and held in a Paris museum for decades until their return to Algiers on Friday.

(Representative Image)