The former French president was appearing on a television show focusing on racial issues that have gained particular awareness recently amid the Black Lives Matter protests triggered in the US by the death of black man George Floyd, which sent shockwaves reverberating globally.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked a racism row in France, using the word “monkeys” before weighing in on a controversy over racist language in an interview on French television.
The debate on “Quotidien” touched upon the belated decision to change the French translation of an Agatha Christie novel's title to remove the N-word.
The ex-president continued:
65-year-old Sarkozy then confirmed to the host that he was referring to Agatha Christie's novel “And Then There Were None”.
While the English version of the book's title was changed decades ago from the original “Ten Little N******” to remove the word that was perceived as racist, the French version only had its title changed last month.
At the request of Christie's great grandson, James Prichard, who heads the firm that owns the literary and media rights to her works, the title in French will now be “Ils étaient dix” (“They Were Ten”).
Furthermore, the text of the novel itself will also be revised, as the N-word word appeared 74 times in the French version. It will be replaced with the word “soldat” or “soldier” in the latest translation by Gerard de…
