Sépélu

Sépélu (or Cépérou in French) was a seventeenth century indigenous Kali'na chief, or yopoto, in what is now French Guiana.[1] Oral histories recount that he sold or ceded land to the French circa 1643, namely the hill of Fort Cépérou which is now named after him.[2][3] He is also remembered a native leader who resisted colonisation.[4]

In 2003, Christiane Taubira held a competition to rename the international airport in Cayenne. Its previous namesake, Rochambeau, was deemed unfit because his son, Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, had brutally attempted to quell the Haitian Revolution. Four schoolchildren won Taubira's competition with the name Sépélu. However, the airport was eventually named after Black colonial official Félix Eboué in 2012.[5][4][6]

References
  1. Garel de Ayala, Jean-Louis; Yami Wakalima, Nimrote (2022). History of Amazonia: Indianus South Amerikanus Iwahto Ponpë. Paris: Librinova. ISBN 9791040508045.
  2. Briswalter, Marion (December 2010). "Sepelu, ou la place de l'oralité dans l'Histoire commune". Une saison en Guyane (in French). No. 5. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  3. Brett, William Henry (1868). The Indian Tribes of Guiana. London: Bell and Daldy. p. 46. ISBN 0332505170.
  4. Wood, Sarah; MacLeod, Catroina (2018). Locating Guyane. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. pp. 143, 147. ISBN 9781786941114.
  5. "Félix Eboué ou Cépérou: deux noms pour un aéroport qui en a déjà un". Blada.com (in French). 8 April 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  6. Marot, Laurent (21 January 2012). "La Guyane retrouve la mémoire en changeant le nom de l'aéroport". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 10 July 2022.
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