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Home（https://congosentinel.com/） World & Diplomacy（https://congosentinel.com/category/world-diplomacy/） How Verquin Keeps Brazzaville’s 1940 Memory Alive
World & Diplomacy（https://congosentinel.com/category/world-diplomacy/）
How Verquin Keeps Brazzaville’s 1940 Memory Alive
by Bosco Mbemba（https://congosentinel.com/writer/bosco-mbemba/） October 29, 2026
written by Bosco Mbemba（https://congosentinel.com/writer/bosco-mbemba/）
October 29, 2026
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A Pas-de-Calais commune revisits 27 October 1940
Eighty-six years after Charles de Gaulle issued the Brazzaville Manifesto, a modest commune in France’s Pas-de-Calais department has once again chosen to remember it. On 27 October, Verquin marked the anniversary with wreaths laid at the foot of a stele devoted to that historical moment, followed by the unveiling of a plaque recognising the town’s membership of the “Villages et villes sages” federation. Local authorities attended, as did a representative of the embassy of the Republic of Congo in France (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville).
The gathering took place in the communal cemetery, around a memorial inaugurated on 15 November 2019 by the former mayor, Thierry Tassez, who died on 2 February 2025. Elected officials, diplomats and guests came together to pay tribute to Free France and to the African fighters who helped resist Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Brazzaville as a capital of Free France
The date carries considerable weight. On 27 October 1940, speaking from Brazzaville, General de Gaulle restated his resolve to continue the fight against Nazi Germany. The city, which became one of the capitals of Free France, thereby acquired a central place in that chapter of history, one that illustrates how the African continent contributed to the defence of the ideals of liberty.
That momentum found institutional form in the creation of the Council for the Defence of the Empire, which brought together military, civilian and religious figures. Among them were Generals Catroux and de Larminat, Admiral Muselier, Governors Eboué and Sautot, Colonel Leclerc, Medical General Sicé, Professor Cassin and the Reverend Father Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu. The roll call is a reminder that the wartime project of Free France was, from its earliest stages, articulated in part on Congolese soil.
Congolese diplomacy and a shared heritage
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Rodolphe Adada was represented by the minister-counsellor of the Congolese embassy, Armand Rémy Balloud-Tabawé. Speaking on the ambassador’s behalf, he described this legacy as a bridge between France and the Republic of Congo, and stressed the need both to preserve this common memory and to pass it on to younger generations.
He also referred to initiatives under way in Brazzaville to promote the sites associated with this history, notably the Centre for Training and Research in Dramatic Arts, which is linked to the 1944 Brazzaville Conference. Such efforts, he suggested, serve a dual purpose: safeguarding historical heritage and reinforcing ties between the two countries. The emphasis on physical places suggests that memory, in this view, needs anchors as well as speeches.
A small town’s claim on universal memory
On behalf of the municipal council, Verquin’s mayor, Sylvie Bauvais Tassez, welcomed the presence of the Congolese embassy’s representative and thanked participants for their loyalty to this annual act of remembrance. The great pages of history, she observed, are not the preserve of capitals and large cities alone.
Explaining why a commune of 3,496 inhabitants would raise a stele dedicated to Brazzaville, she argued that historical memory is a universal heritage which any community may take upon itself to guard. She also paid tribute to Thierry Tassez, who initiated the project and whose commitment allowed it to come to fruition.
The argument is not merely rhetorical. A plot of land has been donated to host a twin stele in the Republic of Congo, a gesture intended to consolidate the bonds between the two peoples by giving tangible form to their common history. Should it materialise, the memorial would establish a striking symmetry: a French village commemorating a Congolese city, and a Congolese site answering in kind.