Quick Facts
Biography
Claude Ribbe (born 13 October 1954) is a French writer, historian, philosopher and filmmaker of Caribbean origin.
Early life and education
Ribbe was born in Paris and is alumnus of the Ecole normale superieure.
Career
Ribbe has specialised in the history of colonialism in the Caribbean. He has also been active in promoting civil rights in France for people of ethnic African and Caribbean origin.
Through his books and films, he has supported the recognition of figures such as Eugene Bullard (Eugene Jacques Bullard), Chevalier de Saint-George, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, in 1793 the first man of Afro-Antilles origin to be promoted to general in the French Army.
In his book Le Crime de Napoleon (2005), Ribbe accused Napoleon of having used sulphur dioxide gas for the mass execution of more than 100,000 rebellious black slaves when trying to put down slave rebellions in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and Guadeloupe. He said this was a model for Hitler's holocaust nearly 140 years later.
In Ribbe's words, Napoleon, then First Consul, was the man who, for the first time in history, 'asked himself rationally the question how to eliminate, in as short a time as possible, and with a minimum of cost and personnel, a maximum of people described as scientifically inferior'.
Books
- Le Cri du Centaure (2001)
- Alexandre Dumas, le dragon de la Reine (2002)
- L'Expedition (2003)
- Le chevalier de Saint-George (2004)
- Une Saison en Irak (2005)
- Le Crime de Napoleon (2005)
- Les Nègres de la République (2007)
- Le Nègre vous emmerde (2008)
- Le Diable Noir (2008)
- Mémoires du Chevalier de Saint-George (2010)
- Eugene Bullard (2012)
Films
- Le Diable Noir (2009)
- The Legendary Chevalier de Saint-George (2011)
- Eugene Bullard (2013)