Communiqué Fondation Lilian Thuram en anglais

Our societies need to integrate the rather simple idea that a person’s intelligence, the language he/she speaks, his / her physical capacities, what he/she likes or dislikes is not determined by this person’s skin colour, neither by his/her gender, religion or sexual orientations. Everyone is capable to learn anything, for better or worse.

“The question of gender inequalities is eminently political. This model of inequality lies at the core of all other modes of inequality.”

                               Françoise Héritier, member of the foundation’s scientific committee

“We possess a unique origin: we are all originally Africans, born three million years ago, and this should encourage our fraternity.”

                               Yves Coppens, member of the foundation’s scientific committee

The activities of our foundation rely on its scientific committee’s expertise. Its members are Françoise Héritier (†), anthropologist, Yves Coppens (†), paleoanthropologist, Marie Rose Moro, child psychiatrist, Doudou Diène, lawyer, special rapporteur to the UN on contemporary forms of racism (2002-2008), Evelyne Heyer, human populations geneticist, Ninian Hubert Van Blyenburgh, anthropologist and didactician, Elisabeth Caillet, museologist, Michel Wieviorka, sociologist, Françoise Vergès, politologist, Tzvetan Todorov (†), philosopher and historian, Pierre Raynaud, engineer in the development of public policies, Pascal Brice, diplomat, Pascal Boniface, geo-politologist, Pascal Blanchard, historian, Patrick Estrade, psychologist, André Magnin, curator.

Amongst the initiatives taken since the launch of our foundation in 2008:

• Workshops in primary, secondary and high schools as well as universities in France and abroad, involving lectures and debates.
• Curating of the touring exhibition “HUMAN BEING”, in collaboration with l’Association Les Petits Débrouillards.
• National competition “Nous Autres” aimed at younger children (5-12) in order to deconstruct racism in a playful and pedagogical way in class. Using fine arts, music or film pupils produced pieces illustrating the importance of defending equality.
• Publication of Mes étoiles noires, de Lucy à Barack Obama, (Ed. Philippe Rey 2010, Ed. Points 2011), which received the Seligmann Prize against racism, 2010. Translated into Spanish (Ara Libres, 2012), Italian (ADD Editore, 2013), Portuguese (Tinta da China, 2013), and Swedish (Vaktel Förlag, 2015). We are seeking a publisher for our English translation.
• Solidarity co-publishing of Mes étoiles noires by 12 publishing houses (2014) from Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry, Haiti, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Senegal and Togo, a partnership with the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.
• Publication of Notre Histoire (Delcourt, vol. 1 & 2, 2014/2017), a graphic novel adapted from Mes étoiles noires.
• Publication of Tous super-héros (Delcourt, vol. 1 & 2, 2016/2018), a graphic noval.
• Pedagogical tool “Nous Autres”, a multimedia program for teachers to educate children against racism, available online on the foundation’s website.
• Publication of  « Le Manifeste pour l’égalité» (ed. Autrement, 2012, J’ai Lu 2014), translated into Italian (ADD, 2014).
• In collaboration with Jean-Christophe Victor and TV channel ARTE, production of two contributions for the geopolitical series “Le dessous des cartes” : Mémoires du racisme et Zoo Humain (mars 2012).
• Curating the exhibition “EXHIBITIONS, the invention of the savage”, Musée du quai Branly, Paris (Nov. 2011- June 2012), Lilian Thuram as general curator, Pascal Blanchard and Nanette Snoep as scientific curators. The exhibition received the Globe of Cristal for Best Exhibition of the Year. Toured to Cité du Miroir, Liège, Belgium, under the title “Humans Zoos, the invention of the savage” (Sept. 2016- Feb. 2017).
• Sponsoring of DEMOS orchestras at the Paris Philharmonic since 2014.
• Supporting activities fighting against racism and defending human rights.

The foundation is supported by CASDEN, MGEN, the FC Barcelona Foundation and Lilian Thuram.

France 98 Association, Football FondAction and the Seligmann Foundation are patrons for the exhibition “Human Being”.