As soon as the school year got underway, 3rd graders were treated to a particularly enriching encounter.
The school’s “art in all its forms” project continued with a visit from a writer, Mr. Georges A. Bertrand.
History and storytelling were discussed for 2 hours.
The author presented his novel “Les Déracinés de la Grande Île”, bringing to life the heroes of the Black Army who came to fight, sometimes without choice, alongside France in the First World War.
A tiny, almost unknown part of the history of the First World War was revealed with emotion and intensity.
The students realized that freedom has always been the ideal of all peoples, and that the dreams and aspirations of the book’s two heroes were, and still are, relevant today.
A big thank you to our history-geography teacher, Madame Isambert, for this privileged meeting, and we’re sure that the students will remember this enriching moment for a long time to come.
Georges A. Bertrand is a writer, art historian and photographer.
In all three fields, he works on the transition between Asian and European cultures.
To this end, he travels extensively to meet people and the arts, from Morocco to Indonesia.
His latest novel, “Les Déracinés de la Grande Île” (Le Lys Bleu éditions) tackles the never-before-treated subject of the Malagasy riflemen during the First World War.
From the ideals of a youth fighting for Madagascar’s liberation from colonial rule to the mud of the trenches, from the fragrance of the jacarandas to the shifting sands of the Atlantic coast, five years in the life of two friends – one from the highlands, the other from the southern plains – form the backdrop to this novel.
