Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
EDITORIAL
AS history’s first system of globalization, the transatlanticslave trade and the slavery born of that trade constitute the
invisible substance of relations between Europe, Africa, theAmericas and the West Indies.
In view of its human cost (tens of millions of victims), theideology that subtended it (the intellectual construction of culturalcontempt for Africans, and hence the racism that served to justifythe buying and selling of human beings as, according to thedefinition of the French Code Noir, “chattel”), and the sheer scaleof the economic, social and cultural destructuring of the Africancontinent, that dramatic episode in the history of humanitydemands that we re-examine the reasons for the historical silencein which it has for so long been swathed. In this matter it is vitalto respond to the claim voiced by Nobel Prize winner Elie Wieselthat “the executioner always kills twice, the second time throughsilence”.
Hence, the issues at stake in the Slave Route project areessentially: Historical truth, peace, development, human rights,memory, intercultural dialogue.
The challenge that this project, whose approach is resolutelyscientific, has set the international community is to link thehistorical truth concerning a tragedy that has been wilfully maskedto the concern to illuminate the intercultural dialogue born of theenforced encounter between millions of Africans, Amerindians andEuropeans in the Americas and West Indies, as well as in thoseoverlooked areas of slavery, the Mediterranean and the IndianOcean.
In the final analysis, the Slave Route project is a return to thefuture. The scientific investigation and ethical inquiry into thehistory of the slave trade and slavery aim to clarify the evolutionof the societies that are concerned, here and now, to build a truepluralism, one that is not only an acknowledgment of diversity butalso the recognition, promotion and respecting of that diversity,and that hence takes into account the interactions generated byhistory, geography and culture.
Doudou DièneDirector, Department of Intercultural Dialogue
and Pluralism for a Culture of Peace
Contents:
Background and objectives of the project 2
Structure 2
Institutional meetings 3
Activities and special events 3
Financing 6
Cooperation with the media 6
Map of the slave routes 8
The education project 10
Publications 12
The International ScientificCommittee 13
What they said 15
The newsletter provides a brief accountof the activities carried out under TheSlave Route project along with furtherinformation about the project’s variouspartnerships.
N E W S L E T T E RNo. 1 - September 2000
La route de l’esclave ● The Slave Route ● La Ruta del Esclavo
Revolt and rebellion:the other side of the slave trade and slavery.Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route
AO
It wasand thinitiatoGeneraapprov1993, tSlave Rlution cially Ouida
While reflectmovemtions afocusenomencally transatMedite
The Stwofolhand, tby brinthe isIndianslave ting ththeir modus
other, objectively to highlight its himself a former Director-
2
Slave House on Gorée Island (Senegal),©Éditions Gacou.
BACKGROUND
ND OBJECTIVESF THE PROJECTon the proposal of Haitie African countries, thers of this project, that thel Conference of UNESCOed, at its 27th session inhe implementation of Theoute project (27 C/Reso-
3.13). The project was offi-launched in 1994 in
h, Benin.
the concept of a routes the dynamics of theent of peoples, civiliza-nd cultures, that of slave
s not on the universal phe-on of slavery but, specifi-and explicitly, on thelantic, Indian Ocean andrranean slave trades.
lave Route project has ad objective: on the oneo put an end to the silenceging to universal attention
sue of the transatlantic, Ocean and Mediterraneanrade and slavery, elucidat-rough scientific researchunderlying causes and operandi, and, on the
consequences, and in particularthe interactions between all thepeoples of Europe, Africa, theAmericas and the Caribbean con-cerned thereby.
1
The supand follactivitiesDepartmDialogueCulture directionwho is dSlave Roteam.
2. TSci
Composappointeby the UNESCScientificby Mr A
General of the Organization. TheCommittee, which is not an inter-governmental body, works inclose collaboration with the pro-ject’s Secretariat at UNESCO. Itis responsible for ensuring that anobjective, consensual approach istaken to the Slave Route issue,and for advising UNESCO on
STRUCTURE. The Secretariat
ervision, coordinationow-up of the project’s are undertaken by theent of Intercultural
and Pluralism for aof Peace, under the
of Mr Doudou Diène,irectly in charge of Theute project, and of his
he Internationalentific Committee
ed of some 40 membersd in a personal capacityDirector-General ofO, the International Committee is chairedmadou-Mahtar M’Bow,
the project’s main lines of empha-sis. The Committee is multi-disciplinary, and its membersinclude experts from Africa, theAmericas, Europe and theCaribbean.
3. The national committees
In order to mobilize the popula-tions concerned, including intel-lectuals, researchers, artists andscientific institutions, and toensure their involvement in theproject, a number of nationalcommittees, networks of re-searchers and scientific institu-tions, have been set up. Theirmission is to ensure that the SlaveRoute project reflects the histor-ical, real-life experience and thespecific problems of the countriesconcerned by the slave trade,slavery and its consequences.
Since the launching of the pro-ject in 1994, the InternationalScientific Committee has heldfour sessions:
1. Ouidah, Benin, 6-8 September1994(Launching of the project byMr Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, PresidentNicéphore Soglo of Benin andthe members of the InternationalScientific Committee).
2. Matanzas, Cuba, 4-6 December1995(Definition of priority activities).
3. Cabinda, Angola, 6-8 November1996(Setting up of institutional andresearch networks to be respon-sible for carrying out the project).
4. Lisbon, Portugal, December1998(Review of the implementation ofthe project and, in particular, thenature of the networks, and thequestion of the ideological andlegal foundations of slavery andthe slave trade).
The pwere pCuba, the InCommin Lisbfor thethrouggrammgramm
Many other events generated bythe project have taken placethroughout the world:
1. Erection of a monument to“The Cimarrón” in El Cobre,Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) in 1997.
2. Ceremonies in April and May1998 (lectures, symposia, sem-inars …) to commemorate thehundred-and-fiftieth anniversaryof the abolition of slavery byFrance and in the French West
3
ACTIVITIESAND SPECIAL
EVENTS
INSTITUTIONALMEETINGS
roject’s main prioritiesroposed in Matanzas,
in 1995, and reviewed byternational Scientific
ittee at the 1998 meetingon. The overall structure project’s implementationh its different pro-
es is presented in a dia-atic form overleaf.
Indies.
3. The International Day for theRemembrance of the Slave Tradeand its Abolition was marked inseveral countries on the first twooccasions, in particular in Haition 23 August 1998 and in Gorée(Senegal) on 23 August 1999.Cultural events and debates wereheld.
By his circular letter CL/3494 of29 July 1998 addressed toMinisters of Culture, the Director-General of UNESCO invited allMember States to organize eventson 23 August of each year.
Monument to The CimarrónEl Cobre, Santiago de Cuba (Cuba)(Photo: Alberto Lescay Merencio, sculptor)
4
THE SLAVE ROUTE:PLURAL AND COMPLEMENTARY
EDUCATION AND TEACHING PROGRAMME
The silence surrounding the slave traderelated initially to history and education.
This programme, which is structuredaround an international Task Force, isfuelled through the preparation ofnational programmes and by the resultsof scientific research.
UNESCO’s Education Sector, throughthe Coordinat ion Unit of theAssociated Schools Network, isresponsible for running the educationand teaching programme, in closeliaison with the Department ofIntercultural Dialogue and Pluralismfor a Culture of Peace.
The programme is linked to the scien-tific programme, inasmuch as theresearch carried out under The SlaveRoute project fuels the preparation ofteaching materials.
The “triangular” character of theTransatlantic Intercultural Slave RouteEducation project was illustrated by theholding of three subregional workshops:the first in St-Croix (United States VirginIslands), from 2 to 5 December 1998;the second in Nantes (France), from28 to 30 January 1999, and the third inAccra (Ghana), from 15 to 19 February1999.
PROGRAMME ON THE MEMORY
OF SLAVERY AND THE DIASPORA
The ignorance that surrounds the slavetrade makes it one of the most radicalforms of historical negationism. For thepurpose of keeping alive the memory ofthat trade, the Slave Route project islaunching two sub-projects: the culturaltourism programme focused on theSlave Route and a programme to setup museums of slavery.
Following the Accra Declaration of4 April 1995, UNESCO and the WorldTourism Organization (WTO) have beenworking together to launch the CulturalTourism Programme in Africa and theCaribbean. The main objective of thisprogramme is to identify, restore andpromote sites, buildings and places ofmemory linked to the slave trade andslavery in order to develop a touristtrade focused on remembrance and topromote economic developmentthrough tourism.
The programme to set up museumsof slavery in countries wishing to do sois concerned with the tangible andintangible heritage of African peoplesand of the diaspora. It represents theother aspect of the duty of memory.
PROGRAMME ON THE PROMOTION OF LIVING CULTURES
AND ARTISTIC AND SPIRITUALFORMS OF EXPRESSION
The slave trade, which lasted for overfour centuries (from the sixteenth to thenineteenth), was the most massivedeportation in history. “It generatedin te ract ions between Af r icans ,American Indians and Europeans onsuch a scale that a crucial issue for thethird millennium is perhaps beingdecided today in the ferment of theAmericas and the West Indies: culturalpluralism, that is, the capacity andpotential for cohabitation inherent inpeoples, religions and cultures of dif-ferent origins, the recognition of thewealth of distinctive features and thedynamics of their interactions” (DoudouDiène).
The goal of the programme is to pro-mote cultural and artistic activitiesand forms of spiritual expressionborn of the interactions of the slavetrade in the Americas and Caribbeanthat are bound up with African trad-itions, that is, the intangible commonheritage of African, Amerindian andEuropean peoples whom the slavetrade forced to live together in pluralsocieties.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME
The backbone of The Slave Route project is the scientific programme on the slave trade(transatlantic, in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean), and slavery.
This programme is carried out through thematic research networks, as for example:
The development of an African diaspora: the slave trade in the Nigerian Hinterland (1650-1900);The ideological and legal basis of slavery and the slave trade;The diaspora: languages and forms of artistic expression;Religions;Slavery, economy and labour;Maroonage and forms of resistance;Impact of the slave trade on Senegambia;Women and slavery;Slavery in the Mediterranean;Bantu culture in the Americas and the Caribbean: languages, religions and society;Documentary sources: archives, oral traditions, iconography;Slavery in the Indian Ocean;Slavery, race and society;Archaeological research (on land and underwater);Slavery, museums and exhibitions;Slavery, tangible and intangible heritage and cultural tourism focused on remembranceof the past;Slavery and interculturality.
The research carried out under this programme serves to fuel the other parts of theproject.
• Mede HIberiaTrade
• MeThe TourisRoute
• TwWTOthe iUNETouriRoutd’Ivoi
• IntCultuAmerHavan1996
• Symand t(Guin
• Rode la nDom(Haiti
• Intthe tmémode l ’(Guad1997
• MeEuropTrade5-8 F
• IntL’esclmémd’au(Maur
• Seminar on The ideological • Meeting of officials in charge of
5
MEETINGS
Memory of slaveryand cultural tourism
eting of Experts in Alcaláenares (Spain) on Then Archives on the Slave, 1995
eting in Accra (Ghana) onWTO-UNESCO Culturalm Programme on the Slave, 1995
enty-ninth meeting of the Commission for Africa onmplementation of the
SCO-WTO Joint Culturalsm Project on the Slavee, Yamoussoukro (Côtere), 10-13 June 1996
ernational Conference onral Tourism in Latin
ica and the Caribbean,a (Cuba), 18-22 November
posium on Oral Traditionshe Slave Trade, Conakryea), 24-26 March 1997
und Table on L’insurrectionuit du 22 août 1791 à Saint-
ingue , Port-au-Prince), 8-10 December 1997
ernational symposium onopic Entre histoire etire des deux rives : la routeesc lave , Le Lamentineloupe), 16-21 December
eting of Experts on Theean Archives on the Slave, Copenhagen (Denmark),ebruary 1998
ernational symposium onavage et ses séquelles :oire et vécu d’hier etjourd ’hui , Por t -Louisitius), 3-9 October 1998
and legal basis of the slave tradeand slavery, Lisbon (Portugal),1998
• Launching of the CulturalTourism Programme on the SlaveRoute in the Caribbean, St Croix(Virgin Islands), 28-30 June 1999
• International Seminar on TheAfrican Diaspora: languages,artistic expression and religion,Kingston (Jamaica) , 23-27February 1999
• Thirty-third meeting of theWTO Commission for Africa,Accra (Ghana), 3-5 May 1999
• Symposium on Esclavage etréparations , Fort-de-France(Martinique), 21 May 1999
• International Symposium onThe Slave Route: The LongMemory, New York (UnitedStates of America), 5-9 October1999
• Symposium on Diasporasnoires, traces et présences del’Afrique aux Amériques et enEurope : de l’esclavage à l’émi-gration, Brussels (Belgium), 2-4 December 1999
sites linked to the memory of thetransatlantic slave trade, Mulin-sur-Mer (Haiti), 28 February–1 March 2000
• Second meet ing on theUNESCO-WTO Cultural TourismProgramme on the Slave Route in the Caribbean, Bridgetown(Barbados), 2-4 August 2000
Promotion of living culturesand forms of artistic
and spiritual expression
• Symposium on Cultural inter-actions, national identities andsociety on the occasion of theFestival of the Caribbean,Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), 4-5 July1997
• Seminar on Africanité ethispanité sur la route de l’esclave,Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), 2-9 July1998
• International seminar onSlavery and the slave trade in thehistory of humankind, Brasilia(Brazil), 18-22 August 1998, 19-20 February 1999
Slaves making music and dancing (Photo: Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route)
• Symposium on L’esclavage etles sociétés post-abolitionnistes,Université des Antilles et de laGuyane, Schoelcher (Martinique)
• S y m p o s i u m o n A f r i c a nDiaspora: languages, artistic ex-pression and religion, Universityof the West Indies, Kingston(Jamaica), 23-27 February 1999
• Festival of the Caribbean:Seminar on Bantuité ibéro-américaine, Santiago de Cuba(Cuba), 3-7 July 1999
Education and teaching
• Meeting of the project’s ExpertGroup, Port-au-Prince (Haiti),20-24 August 1998
• S u b r e g i o n a l w o r k s h o p ,St Croix (Virgin Islands). Launch-ing of the project for the Americasand the Caribbean, 2-5 December1998
• Subregional workshop forexperts, Nantes (France), 28-30January 1999
• Subregional workshop forexperts, Accra (Ghana), 15-19February 1999
• Young people’s forum on the slave trade and the world heritage, Gorée Island (Senegal), 21-27 August 1999
• Subregional seminar on theslave trade in the Indian Ocean,Saint-Denis (Réunion), 27-30September 1999
• Subregional seminar onBreaking the silence concerningthe Teaching of the TransatlanticSlave Trade in the United States,New Orleans (United States ofAmerica), 18-21 August 2000
The prUNESCOcontribuvarious individuaNorwegnational Dand Italsubstantiproject.
W
Cooperakey dimenables tlectuals remain ain its imthe medmajor rotural toulishmenticonogrsources. cles and and partievision bimportan
A numbincludingand Le FJeune AAmina, LLa RevuActualiténewspapinternatMauricieLe SoleilPaulo) apublishinsince 19RepubblpioneerinSlave Ro
Radio
6
FINANCING
oject is financed by’s regular budget and by
tions from countries,institutions and privatels. Norway, through the
ian Agency for Inter-evelopment (NORAD),
y have to date madeal contributions to the
RFI, Africa No. 1, the BBC,Média Tropical, France-Culture,Fréquence Protestante, RadioNova, Radio Nations Unies,WIB New York…
Television
“Thalassa”, FR3 broadcast on The Slave Route (1998), TV5 (1998), CNN-UNESCO, ARTE …
Films
COOPERATIONITH THE MEDIAtion with the media is aension of the project. Ithe general public, intel-and researchers both tobreast of and to take partplementation. Moreover,ia are urged to play ale in the sphere of cul-rism and in the estab- of photographic andaphic documentaryThe publication of arti-interviews in the press
cipation in radio and tel-roadcasts all illustrate thece of such cooperation.
The press
er of French dailies, Libération, Le Mondeigaro, weeklies such as
frique Economie, VSD,e Nouvel Observateur,
e de la francophonie and des religions, and alsoers representing theional press, like Len, the Herald Tribune,(Dakar), O Estado (São
nd Bohemia have beeng articles on the project94. For its part, La
ica (Italy) has played ag role in presenting Theute project.
The project has also sponsoredand given support to variousartistic productions:
• Amistad by Steven Spielberg,1997. Professor Harris, memberof the International ScientificCommittee of The Slave Routeproject, acted as a consultant forthe production.
• The film Beloved by JonathanDemme benefited from the pro-ject’s sponsorship at the time ofits French preview, at the requestof the Gaumont Corporation.
• The film Sucre amer byChristian Lara.
• The television film Schoelcherby Paul Vecchiali, broadcast byCanal + in 1998.
• The French Festival de l’his-toire et de l’image (Rueil-Malmaison, France, 1998).
• The Racines noires 1998Festival provided a venue forrepresentatives of the Black filmindustry.
• The film Allons Marrons byRaymond Philogêne (1998).
• Les illuminations de MadameNerval, documentary by CharlesNajman, broadcast by ARTE in2000.
• Le passage du milieu, docu-mentary by Guy Deslauriers(France 2000).
On the occasion of the hundredand fiftieth anniversary of theabolition of slavery by Francein 1998, the project supportedand sponsored a whole range ofevents (visual arts, dance per-formances, plays, music, poetry,photography exhibitions, liter-ary festivals …), as well as con-ferences, lectures, symposia andseminars organized in Franceand abroad:
• La route de l’art sur la routede l’esclave, a travelling exhibitionof contemporary art, organized bythe Association Culturelle del’Habitation (Fond Saint-Jacques,Martinique);
• Fest’Africa 98, the sixth NorthAfrican arts festival (Lille,France);
• The Middle Passage, a picturebook by Tom Feelings, DialBooks (New York, United States);
• Exhibitions by the Brazilianpainters Carybé and DiasNascimento;
• The trip to Africa for childrenreporters organized by the Labaleine blanche Association.
• Soirées musiques du monde(29-30 June 1998); La marche desenfants, stopover at UNESCObefore going on to the UnitedNations, Geneva, (23 August1998), organized by the Secourspopulaire français.
• People Begin to Fly, exhibi-tion/dance, by the artist Nikunja,Paris, UNESCO (December 1998).
• International tribute to JamesBaldwin, UNESCO (3 Decem-ber 1998).
Key figures from the worlds ofthe arts and sport, includingGrace Bumbry, Gilberto Gil,Liliam Thuram, Susana Rinaldi,Jacques Martial, Danny Glover,Olodum and Ile Aye, are alsotaking an interest in the project,and a number of cooperativeactivities have taken place or areplanned.
Internet
A Slave Route website has alsobeen set up, and may be con-sulted at the following address:http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave/html_eng/index_en.shtml
7
Saint Benedict the African “Il moro”,Patron saint of the city of Palermo (Italy)
CAR
©U
NE
SC
O 2
000
D
THE SLAVEROUTE
ASHANTI
ARADA
BAMBARA
BE
GORÉE Island Ouidah
Cab
Timbuktu
Slave Coast
Ou
G
Elmina
Cartagena
Mexico
Pernambuco
Rio de Janeiro
Montevideo
Buenos AiresValparaiso
Bahia
Veracruz Santo Domingo
La
Accra
Cape Verde�Islands
Canary Islands
Azores�Islands �
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
10%
40%
40%
10%
PUERTO RICO
CUBA
JAMAICA
Nantes
BristolLondon
LiverpoolAm
R
Bordeaux
Lisbon
Charleston
Seville
BE
NIN
GH
AN
A
IBBEAN ISLANDS
400 000
7000
0
SENEGAMBIAGorée
Pernambuco
Bahia
550
000
100 000
100 000
3000
0
CARIBBEAN
ISLANDS
1 700 000
1 30000
0
SENEGAMBIA
GHANA
CONGO
Gorée
Pernambuco
Bahia
Jamestown
700
000
100 000
100 000
GUADELOUPE REVOLT, 1656
CIS
V
EPORTATION FLOWS, 15th-16th Centuries 17th Century
The slave trade represents a dramatic encounterof history and geography. This four-century-long
tragedy has been one of the greatest dehumanizingenterprises in human history. It constitutes one ofthe first forms of globalization. The resultant slavery system, an economic and commercial typeof venture organization, linked different regions andcontinents: Europe, Africa, the Indian Ocean, theCaribbean and the Americas. It was based on anideology: a conceptual structure founded oncontempt for the black man and set up in order tojustify the sale of human beings (black Africans in this case) as a mobile asset: For this is how theywere regarded in the "black codes", which constituted the legal framework of slavery.
The history of this dissimulated tragedy, itsdeeper causes, its modalities and consequenceshave yet to be written: This is the basic objectivethat UNESCO's Member States set for the "SlaveRoute" project. The issues at stake are:historical truth, human rights, and development.The idea of "route" signifies, first and foremost, theidentification of "itineraries of humanity", i.e. the circuits followed by the triangular trade. In thissense, geography sheds light on history. In fact, thetriangular trade map not only lends substance tothis early form of globalization, but also, by showing the courses it took, illuminates the motivations and goals of the slave system.
These slave trade maps are only a "firstdraft". Based on currently available historical dataabout the triangular trade and slavery, they should be completed as the theme networks of researchers set up by UNESCO continue tobring to light the deeper layers of the iceberg byexploiting archives and oral traditions. It will thenbe possible to understand that the black slave tradeforms the invisible stuff of relations between Africa,Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Americas and the Caribbean.
Doudou DieneDirector of the Division of Intercultural Dialogue
F. DOUGLASS*
P. ROBESON*TOUSSAINTLOUVERTURE*
W. E. DU BOIS* A. DUMA
SCHOELCHER*
BOBANGI
LUNDA
BENIN
KONGO
NDONGO
MBUNDUOVIMBUNDU
MAKUA
YORUBA
LOANGO
BOBANGI
binda
LuandaZANZIBAR
Basra
Zabid
Aden SOCOTRA
Sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco��Cheap jewellery etc., weapons��Trans-Atlantic slave trade��Trans-Saharan slave trade��Trans-Saharan slave trade��European or American slave-ship port��Large slave-trade port in Africa��Sorting and distribution centre��Raiding zone��Slave import zone��(Supply source of the �trans-Atlantic slave trade)��Percentage of deported slaves
Marzuq
uargla Tripoli
Palermo
Rome
Veniceenoa
Istanbul
Alexandria
Calabar
Mombassa
Nagasaki
Goa
Karachi
Malaka
CantonMacao
Aswan
QuelimaneTamatave
agos
MADAGASCAR MAURITIUS
Robben�Island
RÉUNION�(Bourbon)
I N D I A N
O C E A N
sterdam
Copenhagen
Rotterdam
EQUATOR
THE SLAVE TRADE AND THE POPULATION �OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENT
Aggregate number of deportees �from the 8th to the middle �of the 19th century for all slave �trades: 24 million at least.
Total African population�in the middle of the �19th century: 100 million
Estimated total size that the African �population would have reached �in the middle of the19th century �in the absence of any slave trade: �200 million
Mos
lem
Trad
ing Posts
BENIN and GHANA are current designations of areas called differently�at the time of the Slave Trade
* Historic personalities who fought against the black Slave Trade, Slaves or �descendants of Slaves (St. Benedict and Pushkin)
7 000 000CARIBBEANISLANDS
VIRGINIA
SANTO DOMINGO1791
Rio de Janeiro
Bahia
Gorée
Buenos AiresMontevideo
700000
GUINEA
ANGOLA
KONGO
Calabar
Cabinda
OuidahElmina
Zanzibar
400 000Luanda
GUADELOUPE 1737
000002
1 900 000
600000
900 000
407 000
MOROCCO
CARIBBEANISLANDS GUINEA
ANGOLA
KONGOCalabar
Inhambane
Cabinda ZanzibarKilwa
IboLuanda
Ouidah
Lourenço-�Marques
�ABOLITION *�IN BRAZIL��
BAHIA REVOLTS (1807 AND 1835)
DENMARK 1792�HOLLAND 1815�ENGLAND 1807�FRANCE 1815�PORTUGAL 1830���
1888
1807
St. DOMINGO
Rio de Janeiro
Gorée
Buenos AiresMontevideo
Elmina
�ABOLITION *�IN USA
ABOLITION *�IN EUROPE
1 900 000
*���
Official date �of abolition
�
Century 19th Century
St.-BENEDICT *the African
A. S. PUSHKIN*
Desi
gn a
ndca
rtogra
phy:
Nancy
FR
AN
ÇO
IS–
Pri
nt:
AR
IZO
NA
GR
AP
HIC
SutocoSlmexcutrthstfr
EdiCMStTrobanst
such teaching being provided on arelatively extensive scale in manycountries of the Atlantic world.Participants also visited such places
slave trade differs in Europe fromone country to another, and par-ticipants were agreed that muchremained to be done in order to
10
“HU
THE ASPnetTRANSATLANTIC
SLAVE TRADEEDUCATION PROJECT
Text byElisabeth Khawajkie,
International Coordinatorof the Associated Schools
(ASPnet) project
bregional workshops broughtgether ASPnet teachers andordinators of the Transatlanticave Trade project, as well asembers of the internationalpert group, in order to reviewrrent teaching on the slave
ade, to add the final touches toe project and to agree on audy programme and jointamework for action.
St Croix, Virgin Islands, 2-5 December 1998
xperts, teachers and project coor-nators from Barbados, Brazil,uba, Curaçao, Haiti, Jamaica,ar t in ique , S t Croix andThomas, the Virgin Islands andinidad and Tobago, as well asservers from Antigua, Saint Kittsd Nevis, Ghana and France took
ock of teaching on the slave trade,
of memory as the Christiansted andFredriksted plantations, the WhimPlantation Museum and Salt River(the first land discovered byChristopher Columbus). One ofthe first recommendations of theworkshop was to compile thewritings of the slaves themselves, inorder to draw the lessons from theirsufferings and their struggles.
Nantes, France, 28-30 January 1999
Experts, teachers and project coor-dinators from Denmark, France,Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,United Kingdom, Jamaica, Beninand Ghana gathered together inwhat had been France’s foremostslave-trading port. The municipal-ity of Nantes hosted the workshopin its historic City Hall. TwoNGOs, Anti-Slavery Inter-national and the Baleine BlancheAssociation, were also repre-sented. Participants paid a visit toFeydeau Island, the quarter of theslave traders in the eighteenth cen-tury, where they attended the exhi-bitions Haïti 2000 and Mémoiresdes migrations. Teaching about the
“break the silence” so widely ob-served in certain countries; more-over, the scope of such teaching isstill entirely a matter of individualinitiative. The project timetablewas presented at the workshop, aswas the first version of the an-thology Slave Voices prepared bythe University of the West Indies.
Accra, Ghana, 15-19 February 1999
The Accra workshop, representingthe third point of the triangle,brought together experts, teachersand coordinators from Angola,Benin, Ghana, Mozambique,Nigeria, Senegal, Jamaica, Norwayand France, who exchanged viewson the importance of the project,took stock of the status of teachingabout the slave trade, in particularin Africa, finalized the timetable ofwork for 1999 and discussed itsimplementation. Visits were organ-ized to the places of memory: SlaveRiver, Elmina Castle and CapeCoast Castle, and to two localAssociated Schools where pupilshad prepared for the visitors a showon the subject of the slave trade.
Gorée Island, Senegal, 21-27 August 1999
Over one hundred young peopleand teachers from 35 countriestook part in the InternationalYouth Forum on the WorldHeritage and the TransatlanticSlave Trade held in Dakar (Senegal)from 22 to 26 August 1999.
The launching of the ASPnetTransatlantic Slave Trade Educa-tion project and the organization ofworkshops was made possible by thesupport of the Norwegian Agencyfor International Development(NORAD).
aiti where négritude stood up for the first time”. Aimé Césaire. NESCO Collection – The Slave Route.
A truly triangular exchange
First youth encounter in Norway
Three schools – in Ghana,Norway and Trinidad andTobago – have joined forces on aproject relating to the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights.
Pupils from the El Dorado com-prehensive secondary school inTrinidad and Tobago, theAchimota College in Accra,Ghana, and the Saltdal secondaryschool in Norway are workingon the articles of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rightsand the way in which they areapplied in their respective coun-tries. This scheme should con-tinue to the end of 1999. “We shallstop only once we’ve reviewed allthe articles”, says Jon Moller, theproject’s coordinator, who adds:“it will be only the first achieve-ment of our little triangular part-nership in the matter of thetransatlantic slave trade”.
PROJECT IDEAArticle 4 in my country
No one shall be held in slaveryor servitude; slavery and the slavetrade shall be prohibited in alltheir forms.Universal Declaration of HumanRights, Article 4.
Teachers and pupils taking partin the ASPnet Project are urgedto follow the example of thesethree schools by studying, if notthe Declaration in its entirety,then the manner in whichArticle 4 is applied in their owncountry.
Poem: slavery
Véronique Flory, a pupil in theArron secondary school inGuadeloupe, is the winner of thepoetry competition organized onthe topic of slavery by the poetryclub of the Quatre points car-dinaux. Her poem is reproducedbelow:
The clank of chains echoes in thedistance,
Yes, that’s where suffering is, The black man, the slave, has lost
his dignity.Brave though he be, his whole be-
ing suffers like a tormented beast.He bows his back but grits his
teeth against the master’s whip.The strength of his spirit guides his
footsteps.
The clank of chains echoes in thedistance.
Shapes surface from the pool of mymemory,
Images glimpsed in archives makeme fear the worst.
That age is gone, that leaf isturned, that book is closed.
The clank of chains echoes in thedistance.
11
Elmina Castle, Ghana.
Cross-section of a slave ship, showing how the captives were crammed together between decks. Reproduced from the October 1994 issue of the UNESCO Courier.
Les abde L.F.CollecUNES
La socMarceand BeUNES
La chaune viUNES
L’Afriqet l’Aml’Afriqdeux mElikia UNES
Los CóAmériLucenUNESAlcalá
Gener(UNEVolumSixteenCentuAfrica Centu
ReporThe Athe fiftcenturrepubl
“SlavepunishCourie
“Whenand NUNESNo. 7,
“The Slave Route: a memory in Nantes and by UNESCO
12
PUBLICATIONS
Books
olitions de l’esclavage, Sonthonax à V. Schoelchertion : Memory of PeoplesCO, 1995, 416 p.
iété des amis des Noirsl Dorigny rnard GainotCO/EDICEF, 1998, 416 p.
îne et le lien : sion de la traite négrièreCO, 1998, 591 p.
ue entre l’Europe érique : le rôle de
ue dans la rencontre deondes – 1492-1992
M’Bokolo (General Editor)CO, 1995, 188 p.
digos Negros de laca Española, Manuela Salmoral, 1996CO/Universidad de
al History of AfricaSCO):e V: Africa from theth to the Eighteenth
ry, 1992; Volume VI:in the Nineteenth
ry until the 1880s, 1989
ts and papers, 2: frican Slave Trade fromeenth to the nineteenth
y (first published in 1985;ished in 1999)
Reviews
ry, a crime withoutment”, The UNESCOr, October 1994
East meets West orth meets South,CO Sources, June 1995
unchained”,UNESCO Sources, No. 99, March 1998
“Breaking the Silence: The SlaveRoute, the ASPnet TransatlanticSlave Trade Education project”
Questions and Answers, UNESCO, 1999Cahiers des anneaux de lamémoire. Annual review published jointlyby the Association « LesAnneaux de la Mémoire »
(The Slave Route project),Nantes, 1999, 331 pp. No 1:« La traite esclavagiste, son his-toire, sa mémoire, ses effets ».
The Slave Route (booklet). « LesAnneaux de la Mémoire »,UNESCO, 1998
The Slave Route (map). UNESCO2000.
Work on the plantations. The slave, a working tool. (Photo: Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route)
Basic texts
27 C/Resolution 3.13 (of theUNESCO General Conference)approving the implementationof the interregional project onThe Slave Route.
29 C/Resolution 40 (of theUNESCO General Conference)proclaiming 23 August of everyyear International Day for theRemembrance of the SlaveTrade and its Abolition.
Draft Resolution30 C/COM.IV/DR.9* of 11 November 1999 concerningThe transatlantic slave tradeand slavery: a crime againsthumanity.
155 EX/Decision 3.4.1 (of theUNESCO Executive Board)relating to the Fiftieth anniversary of theUniversal Declaration ofHuman Rights, a duty toremember and to be vigilant.From slavery to the full attainment of human dignity.
Accra Declaration on the jointUNESCO-WTO CulturalTourism Programme The Slave Route, Accra, Ghana, 4 April 1995
INT ALS
CO OF THE TE
• Dr Amformer DiUNESCOCommitte
• Mr Samthe AfricaTiers-mon
• Mr Jaime Arocha Rodríguez,Ph.D., Departamento deAntropología y Centro deEstudios Sociales, Santa Fé deBogotá, Colombia.
• Mr Leslie Atherley, former Director of theUNESCO Culture of Peaceprogramme, Barbados.
• Mr Miguel Barnet, President,Fundación Fernando Ortíz,Havana, Cuba.
• Ms Dany Bebel-Gisler,Committee coordinator forGuadaloupe, Le Lamentin,France.
• Mr A.S. Bekoe, Director,Research, Statistics andInformation Department,Ministry of Tourism, Accra,Ghana.
• Dr Luis Beltrán, Vice-Rector,Relaciones Internacionales,Universidad de Alcalá deHenares, Spain.
• Dr Norbert Benoît, historian,Mauritius.
• Professor Isabel CastroHenriques, Department ofHistory, University of Lisbon,Portugal.
• Mr Yvon Chotard, Presidentof the Association “Les anneauxde la mémoire”, Nantes, France.
• Mr Alberto Da Costa eSilva, Africanist, Rio de Janeiro,Brazil.
• Mr Howard Dodson, TheSchomburg Centre for Researchin Black Culture, New York,United States.
• Mr Quince Duncan,Associación Proyecto Caribe,Santo Domingo de Heredia,Costa Rica.
• Mr Richard Foster, Director,National Museums andGalleries on Merseyside,Liverpool Museum, UnitedKingdom.
• Mr Max Guérout,Association GRAN, Centre dedocumentation et de recherchede la Troisième région maritime,Toulon, France.
• Professor Mbaye Guèye,Faculté des Lettres et Scienceshumaines, Université CheikhAnta Diop, Dakar, Senegal.
• Dr Joseph E. Harris,Department of History,Howard University,Washington, D.C., UnitedStates.
• Mr Laënnec Hurbon,Coordinator of the NationalHaitian Committee for theSlave Route project, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
• Ms Marie-Denise Jean, legalexpert, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
• Professor Robin Law,Department of History,University of Stirling, UnitedKingdom.
13
MEMBERS OF THE
ERNATIONCIENTIFICMMITTEE SLAVE ROUPROJECT
adou-Mahtar M’Bow,rector-General of, President of thee, Dakar, Senegal.
ir Amin, Director ofn Bureau, Forum dude, Dakar, Senegal.
• Professor Jean-MichelDeveau, Professor ofContemporary History,Université de Nice-SophiaAntipolis, Nice, France.
• Ms María Nazaré Dias deCeita, São Tome, Sao Tome andPrincipe.
• Dr Artem Letnev, AfricaInstitute, Moscow, RussianFederation.
• Professor Paul E. Lovejoy,Distinguished ResearchProfessor, Department ofHistory, York University,North York, Ontario, Canada.
• Dr Nestor N. Luanda,History Department, Universityof Dar es Salaam, UnitedRepublic of Tanzania.
• Dr Luz María Martínez-Montiel, Dirección General deCulturas Populares, MexicoCity, Mexico.
• Dr Joseph C. Miller,Department of History,University of Virginia, UnitedStates.
• Professor Harris Memel-Foté, Faculté des Lettres, Artsand Sciences humaines, Abidjan,Côte d’Ivoire.
• Professor the Hon. RexNettleford, Vice-Chancellor,University of the West Indies,Mona, Kingston, Jamaica.
• Mr Nicolas Ngou-Mvé, his-torian, Université Omar Bongode Libreville, Gabon.
• Professor Djibril TamsirNiane, Société africaine d’édi-tion et de communication(SAEC), Conakry, Guinea.
• Professor Bronisaw Nowak,Director, History Institute,University of Warsaw, Poland.
• H.E. Ms Ana María deOliveira, former Minister ofCulture, Member of Parliament,Angola.
• Ms Anne Remiche-Martinow, film-maker, Radio-Télévision belge de la commu-nauté française, Liège, Belgium.
• Professor Joel Rufino DosSantos, Escola de Comunicaçõesda UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro,Brazil.
• Professor Louis Sala-Molins,Professor of PoliticalPhilosophy, Université deToule-le-Mirail, France.
• Dr Wally Serote, Member ofParliament, Cape Town,Republic of South Africa.
• Professor Élisée Soumonni,historian, Coordinator of theBenin Committee for the SlaveRoute project, Cotonou, Benin.
• Mr Wole Soyinka, NobelPrize winner for Literature,Nigeria.
• Dr Leif Svalesen, Norway.
• Dr Hugo Tolentino Dipp,historian, University of SantoDomingo, Dominican Republic.
• Professor G.N. Uzoigwe(Nigeria), History Department,Lincoln University, UnitedStates.
• Ms Sheila S. Walker,Director, Department ofAnthropology, Centre forAfrican and African-AmericanStudies, Austin, Texas, UnitedStates.
• Mr Jean-Claude William,legal expert, former President ofthe University of the WestIndies and Guyana, Schoelcher,Martinique.
• H.E. Mr Olabiyi BabalolaJoseph Yai, Africanist,Ambassador, PermanentDelegate of Benin toUNESCO.
14
Monument erected on the island of Haiti by former slaves in remembrance of their emancipation.(Photo: Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route)
The twiceElie WPeace
It is tagreetheir somedigniuponthe Wpass deporlions moreturieEuroparedwomfamilthe o
degrading slavery until theybreathed their last. Our cultureand our history are converging tobreak the conspiracy of silencethat still shrouds the tragedy ofthe slave trade.Jacques Chirac, Brazzaville,18 July 1996
Its sheer scale and duration makethe transatlantic slave trade thegreatest tragedy in human history.Jean-Michel Deveau, historian
Although slavery is a universalphenomenon, three factors madethe transatlantic slave tradeunique: its duration – almost fourcenturies, the racial identity of itsvictims – black African men,women and children, and itsintellectual legitimization: thecultural denigration of Africa andof Blacks, in short, the construc-
15
Aleksander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837)Russian writer, great-grandson of an Africanrenowned in Russian military and technicalhistory, Abraham Petrovitch Hanibal (1696-1781) (Portrait: Bibliothèque de France)
WHAT THEY SAID
executioner always kills, the second time by silence.
iesel, winner of the Nobel Prize
ime that the West and Africad to look back together atshared past, however painful of its episodes may be. Thety of all concerned depends recognizing a history thatest must no longer ignore or
over in silence: that of thetation of millions and mil-of Africans over a period of than three and a half cen-s. For sugar and coffee,peans and Africans were pre- to tear free men and
en from their lands and theiries, and forced them to crossceans to work in the most
tion of the ideology of anti-Blackracism, and its legal organizationembodied in the “Codes Noirs”(Black Codes).Doudou Diène, UNESCO
It is today more than ever neces-sary to put history back on its feet;our complicity in the slave trade iswell established, and our erringways, our faults of managementand blunders of government, andindeed the predatory conduct ofmany of those in power aremanifest. The inescapable factnevertheless remains: we shallunderstand nothing of the under-development and extreme destitu-tion of sub-Saharan Africa if weturn a blind eye to the scourge thathas blighted her history for overfour centuries.Nicéphore Soglo, 10 November1993
Director: Doudou Diène
Programme: E. Cross-FriasV. Aguiar
Secretariat: M. F. Lengue
Media, audiovisual:R. Harguinteguy
Production: Christian Ndombi
Department of InterculturalDialogue and Pluralism for a Culture of Peace.
UNESCO - 1, rue Miollis75732 PARIS Cedex France
Tel.: : (33.1) 45 68 48 12Fax: : (33.1) 45 68 55 68
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave/htmi_eng/index_en.shtml
