Culture Fort-De-France & Area

Chaired by Marie-Lyne Psyché-Salpetrier, this association aims to promote Martinique's traditions and culture through the carnival, one of the strong points of Martinique's heritage. The association, which was founded by Marie-Lyne Psyché-Salpetrier's grandparents and long carried by her mother, "Auntie Jojo", carries out important historical research on the carnival, its origins and its emblematic figures such as Caroline Zié-loli and Mariyann-Lapo-fig. The aim is to safeguard Martinique's heritage.

The Martinique Cocoa Producers' Association was created in 2015 with the aim of relaunching a cocoa sector of excellence in Martinique. It brings together some twenty producers, processors and players in the cocoa industry. Martinique's cocoa was indeed very famous in the 17th century until the European royal courts, before being gradually abandoned in favour of other crops. The Valcaco association aims to revive this crop by integrating every parameter, from the nursery to the dried beans, to make Martinique cocoa a cocoa of excellence.

After identifying the varieties of cocoa trees present on the island, including the amelonado (a crop specific to Martinique) and the trinitario, the association has worked to rehabilitate old cocoa trees (about 30 hectares) and plant new ones on about 20 hectares using selected plant material. It was then necessary to optimize and control production and post-harvest processing techniques (fermentation, drying). The association then drew up a producer-processor charter with the introduction of a minimum price and a quality recognition process. This is a long-term project for the Valcaco association, which is beginning to bear fruit.

Created in 1984, the Direction of Cultural Affairs of Martinique is the decentralized service of the Ministry of Culture. It has several missions: to encourage the establishment of cultural infrastructures, to democratize access to culture for all, to develop Martinican heritage, to position Martinique as a major actor of cultural action in the Caribbean area and to make culture a vector of economic growth.