Why France Should Stop Worshipping Voltaire
WHEN A STATUE OF FRANÇOIS_MARIE AROUET was dramatically removed from outside the Académie Française in Paris this August, it was by no means only members of the far-right who expressed their outrage.
On the contrary, self-styled moderates of all political persuasions said the prolific 18th-century writer best known by his nom de plume, Voltaire, should be untouchable. They were incensed when anti-racist graffiti was repeatedly sprayed on the stone depiction because of his links with the slave trade.
In turn, the accusations from those responsible for the vandalism were that Voltaire had personally invested in the French East India Company, founded in 1664 to exploit the products of the New World—a trade that included Africans being bought and sold as commodities for profit.
Voltaire had plenty of enemies, and
