28/07/2022
The 14 July this year, was the National Day of France held to commemorate the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress for political prisoners and freeing them.
The celebrations were held at the residence of the French Ambassador to Uganda H.E Jules-Armand ANIAMBOSSOU in Nakasero. The day is celebrated with a solemn mixture of military parades in Paris, easygoing dancing and fireworks all over the world.
Storming of the BastilleShare IntroOn 14 July 1789, a state prison on the east side of Paris, known as the Bastille, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob. The prison had become a symbol of the monarchy’s dictatorial rule, and the event became one of the defining moments in the Revolution that followed. This article reporting the events of 14 July was published in an English newspaper called The World, a few days after the event took place. A medieval fortress, the Bastille’s eight 30-metre-high towers, dominated the Parisian skyline. When the prison was attacked it actually held only seven prisoners, but the mob had not gathered for them: it had come to demand the huge ammunition stores held within the prison walls. When the prison governor refused to comply, the mob charged and, after a violent battle, eventually took hold of the building. The governor was seized and killed, his head carried round the streets on a spike. The storming of the Bastille symbolically marked the beginning of the French Revolution, in which the monarchy was overthrown and a republic set up based on the ideas of ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ (the French for liberty, equality and brotherhood). In France, the ‘storming of the Bastille’ is still celebrated each year by a national holiday.
Photography: Nicholas Bamulanzeki
Ambassade de France en Ouganda - Embassy of France in Uganda Rt Hon Robinnah Nabanja Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia