It is a “Benedictine work” that Jean-Jacques Portel has carried out to learn more about his origins, “a real family history passer”, as Marie Nathalie Jauffrettti, professor at the International University of Monaco qualifies. After three years of genealogical research in the archives, newspapers, historical works and testimonies of his cousins found (those of Bordeaux and those of Toulon), he published the book Black and white.
It is certainly a family saga, but it is above all a century of French colonial history. It all starts with the history of Mr. Laporte, born in 1775, who left for Gascogne to settle in Martinique and “Mam’zelle Éveline”, black slave without surname [la patronymie ne se fera qu’à compter de l’abolition de l’esclavage en 1848, N.D.L.R.]then from their descendants who will travel the French colonial empire of Guyana to Madagascar, from West Africa to Indochina, from Sudan to Tonkin … with returns in Martinique, but also Bordeaux, Ploemel Toulon and the posthumous testimony of Roger Portel, teacher, on the eruption of the Pele, May 8, 1902, that the role of colonial troops during the Great War (1914-1918) and the family diaspora in France or in the USA. It is the story of colonial slavery, but also of the resilience of a family and its successive migrations.
Originally from Aix-en-Provence, installed in Trévoux
Originally from Aix-en-Provence, Jean-Jacques Portel, born in 1950, lived in Paris, Seoul, New York … before settling in Trévoux, where he was a municipal councilor, tourism delegate and member of the Saône Vallée Karate Club, administrator of the Tourist Office.
Like his ancestors, he was a great traveler and also a great witness: winner of the Zellidja Foundation, financial support and advice to young people aged 16 to 20 who undertake to leave alone, at least a month, on the theme of their choice, in the country (s) of their choice. He is the author of travel diaries LAPITS LIFEwritten in 1968 on the Nomads Saamis north of the polar circle in Finland and Norway, followed, in 1969, of Whisky, Whiskey ! In Scotland and Ireland, written in the middle of the civil war in Belfast.
