In the Martinican village of Trois Ilets there are two museums-the Musée de la Canne and the Musée de La Pagerie-with radically different approaches to the representation of the island’s historical and cultural legacy. The Musée de la Canne (Museum of Sugar Cane) seeks to represent the collectivity. It focuses on the masses of people brought forcibly to the island to plant a single highly profitable crop for the international market. The Musée de La Pagerie is built on the ruins of the birth home of Josephine Tascher de La Pagerie, who left her homeland to marry Napoleon Bonaparte and become Empress of France. It celebrates exceptional singularity. The two form part of the heritage tourism that has become quite popular in the Caribbean as an alternative to resort tourism. Both are built on the remnants of old plantations and their manicured lawns and beautifully landscape gardens seek to make the reality of plantation life palatable to groups of visitors-some of which are already imbued with the insidious “romance” of the plantation. Both seek to underscore the accuracy of their representation of history through a strict adherence to historical detail and a wealth of objects, photos, and documents that attest to the truth behind their version of the narrative of history.
As two museums in dialogue-both because of their proximity to each other and their occupying spaces previously dedicated to the cultivation of sugar (The Musée de la Canne was built on the ruins of the Vatable Plantation, one of the oldest in the region)-they speak to two different and irreconcilable narratives of history. One is harsh and painful; the other alluring and seductive. One reminds us of the harshness of the exploitation of thousands of enslaved Africans; the other celebrates the lightheadedness of a giddy girl who through sheer luck became-as a quimboiseur had predicted, plus que reine (more than a queen). As a representation of Martinican history, I’d opt for the Musée de la Canne.
