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La route de l’esclave The Slave Route La Ruta del Esclavo

NEWSLETTER No. 1 - September 2000

EDITORIAL

S history’s first system of globalization, the transatlantic Aslave trade and the born of that trade constitute the invisible substance of relations between , , the and the West Indies. In view of its human cost (tens of millions of victims), the ideology that subtended it (the intellectual construction of cultural contempt for Africans, and hence the racism that served to justify the buying and selling of human beings as, according to the definition of the French , “chattel”), and the sheer scale of the economic, social and cultural destructuring of the African continent, that dramatic episode in the history of humanity demands that we re-examine the reasons for the historical silence in which it has for so long been swathed. In this matter it is vital to respond to the claim voiced by Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel Revolt and rebellion: that “the executioner always kills twice, the second time through the other side of the slave trade and slavery. silence”. Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route Hence, the issues at stake in the Slave Route project are essentially: Historical truth, peace, development, human rights, Contents: memory, intercultural dialogue.

Background and objectives The challenge that this project, whose approach is resolutely of the project 2 scientific, has set the international community is to link the Structure 2 historical truth concerning a tragedy that has been wilfully masked Institutional meetings 3 to the concern to illuminate the intercultural dialogue born of the Activities and special events 3 enforced encounter between millions of Africans, Amerindians and Europeans in the Americas and West Indies, as well as in those Financing 6 overlooked areas of slavery, the Mediterranean and the Indian Cooperation with the media 6 Ocean. Map of the slave routes 8 The education project 10 In the final analysis, the Slave Route project is a return to the Publications 12 future. The scientific investigation and ethical inquiry into the The International Scientific history of the slave trade and slavery aim to clarify the evolution Committee 13 of the societies that are concerned, here and now, to build a true What they said 15 pluralism, one that is not only an acknowledgment of diversity but also the recognition, promotion and respecting of that diversity, The newsletter provides a brief account and that hence takes into account the interactions generated by of the activities carried out under The Slave Route project along with further history, geography and culture. information about the project’s various partnerships. Doudou Diène Director, Department of Intercultural Dialogue and Pluralism for a Culture of Peace 2

Slave House on Gorée Island (Senegal), ©Éditions Gacou.

BACKGROUND other, objectively to highlight its himself a former Director- AND OBJECTIVES consequences, and in particular General of the Organization. The OF THE PROJECT the interactions between all the Committee, which is not an inter- peoples of Europe, Africa, the governmental body, works in Americas and the con- close collaboration with the pro- It was on the proposal of cerned thereby. ject’s Secretariat at UNESCO. It and the African countries, the is responsible for ensuring that an initiators of this project, that the objective, consensual approach is General Conference of UNESCO taken to the Slave Route issue, approved, at its 27th session in STRUCTURE and for advising UNESCO on 1993, the implementation of The the project’s main lines of empha- Slave Route project (27 C/Reso- sis. The Committee is multi- lution 3.13). The project was offi- disciplinary, and its members cially launched in 1994 in 1. The Secretariat include experts from Africa, the , . Americas, Europe and the The supervision, coordination Caribbean. While the concept of a route and follow-up of the project’s reflects the dynamics of the activities are undertaken by the movement of peoples, civiliza- Department of Intercultural 3. The national committees tions and cultures, that of slave Dialogue and Pluralism for a focuses not on the universal phe- Culture of Peace, under the In order to mobilize the popula- nomenon of slavery but, specifi- direction of Mr Doudou Diène, tions concerned, including intel- cally and explicitly, on the who is directly in charge of The lectuals, researchers, artists and transatlantic, and Slave Route project, and of his scientific institutions, and to Mediterranean slave trades. team. ensure their involvement in the project, a number of national The Slave Route project has a committees, networks of re- twofold objective: on the one 2. The International searchers and scientific institu- hand, to put an end to the silence Scientific Committee tions, have been set up. Their by bringing to universal attention mission is to ensure that the Slave the issue of the transatlantic, Composed of some 40 members Route project reflects the histor- Indian Ocean and Mediterranean appointed in a personal capacity ical, real-life experience and the slave trade and slavery, elucidat- by the Director-General of specific problems of the countries ing through scientific research UNESCO, the International concerned by the slave trade, their underlying causes and Scientific Committee is chaired slavery and its consequences. modus operandi, and, on the by Mr Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, 3

INSTITUTIONAL 4. Lisbon, Portugal, December Many other events generated by MEETINGS 1998 the project have taken place (Review of the implementation of throughout the world: the project and, in particular, the Since the launching of the pro- nature of the networks, and the 1. Erection of a monument to ject in 1994, the International question of the ideological and “The Cimarrón” in El Cobre, Scientific Committee has held legal foundations of slavery and Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) in 1997. four sessions: the slave trade). 2. Ceremonies in April and May 1. Ouidah, Benin, 6-8 September 1998 (lectures, symposia, sem- 1994 inars …) to commemorate the (Launching of the project by ACTIVITIES hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary Mr Federico Mayor, Director- AND SPECIAL of the abolition of slavery by General of UNESCO, President EVENTS France and in the French West Nicéphore Soglo of Benin and Indies. the members of the International Scientific Committee). The project’s main priorities 3. The International Day for the were proposed in Matanzas, Remembrance of the Slave Trade 2. Matanzas, Cuba, 4-6 December Cuba, in 1995, and reviewed by and its Abolition was marked in 1995 the International Scientific several countries on the first two (Definition of priority activities). Committee at the 1998 meeting occasions, in particular in Haiti in Lisbon. The overall structure on 23 August 1998 and in Gorée 3. Cabinda, Angola, 6-8 November for the project’s implementation (Senegal) on 23 August 1999. 1996 through its different pro- Cultural events and debates were (Setting up of institutional and grammes is presented in a dia- held. research networks to be respon- grammatic form overleaf. sible for carrying out the project). By his circular letter CL/3494 of 29 July 1998 addressed to Ministers of Culture, the Director- General of UNESCO invited all Member States to organize events on 23 August of each year.

Monument to The Cimarrón El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) (Photo: Alberto Lescay Merencio, sculptor) 4

THE SLAVE ROUTE: PLURAL AND COMPLEMENTARY

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 : 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 remembrance of the past; Slavery and interculturality.

The research carried out under this programme serves to fuel the other parts of the project.

EDUCATION PROGRAMME PROGRAMME AND TEACHING PROGRAMME ON THE PROMOTION ON THE MEMORY OF LIVING CULTURES OF SLAVERY The silence surrounding the slave trade AND ARTISTIC AND SPIRITUAL AND THE DIASPORA related initially to history and education. FORMS OF EXPRESSION The ignorance that surrounds the slave This programme, which is structured The slave trade, which lasted for over trade makes it one of the most radical around an international Task Force, is four centuries (from the sixteenth to the forms of historical negationism. For the fuelled through the preparation of nineteenth), was the most massive purpose of keeping alive the memory of national programmes and by the results deportation in history. “It generated that trade, the Slave Route project is of scientific research. interactions between Africans, launching two sub-projects: the cultural American Indians and Europeans on tourism programme focused on the UNESCO’s Education Sector, through such a scale that a crucial issue for the Slave Route and a programme to set the Coordination Unit of the third millennium is perhaps being up museums of slavery. Associated Schools Network, is decided today in the ferment of the responsible for running the education Americas and the West Indies: cultural Following the Accra Declaration of and teaching programme, in close pluralism, that is, the capacity and 4 April 1995, UNESCO and the World liaison with the Department of potential for cohabitation inherent in Tourism Organization (WTO) have been Intercultural Dialogue and Pluralism peoples, religions and cultures of dif- working together to launch the Cultural for a Culture of Peace. ferent origins, the recognition of the Tourism Programme in Africa and the wealth of distinctive features and the Caribbean. The main objective of this The programme is linked to the scien- dynamics of their interactions” (Doudou programme is to identify, restore and tific programme, inasmuch as the Diène). promote sites, buildings and places of research carried out under The Slave memory linked to the slave trade and Route project fuels the preparation of The goal of the programme is to pro- slavery in order to develop a tourist teaching materials. mote cultural and artistic activities trade focused on remembrance and to and forms of spiritual expression promote economic development The “triangular” character of the born of the interactions of the slave through tourism. Transatlantic Intercultural Slave Route trade in the Americas and Caribbean Education project was illustrated by the that are bound up with African trad- The programme to set up museums holding of three subregional workshops: itions, that is, the intangible common of slavery in countries wishing to do so the first in St-Croix ( Virgin heritage of African, Amerindian and is concerned with the tangible and Islands), from 2 to 5 December 1998; European peoples whom the slave intangible heritage of African peoples the second in Nantes (France), from trade forced to live together in plural and of the diaspora. It represents the 28 to 30 January 1999, and the third in societies. other aspect of the duty of memory. Accra (Ghana), from 15 to 19 February 1999. 5

MEETINGS • Seminar on The ideological • Meeting of officials in charge of and legal basis of the slave trade sites linked to the memory of the and slavery, Lisbon (Portugal), transatlantic slave trade, Mulin- 1998 sur-Mer (Haiti), 28 February– Memory of slavery 1 March 2000 and cultural tourism • Launching of the Cultural Tourism Programme on the Slave • Second meeting on the • Meeting of Experts in Alcalá Route in the Caribbean, St Croix UNESCO-WTO Cultural Tourism de Henares (Spain) on The (Virgin Islands), 28-30 June 1999 Programme on the Slave Route Iberian Archives on the Slave in the Caribbean, Bridgetown Trade, 1995 • International Seminar on The (Barbados), 2-4 August 2000 African Diaspora: languages, • Meeting in Accra (Ghana) on artistic expression and religion, The WTO-UNESCO Cultural Kingston (Jamaica), 23-27 Promotion of living cultures Tourism Programme on the Slave February 1999 and forms of artistic Route, 1995 and spiritual expression • Thirty-third meeting of the • Twenty-ninth meeting of the WTO Commission for Africa, • Symposium on Cultural inter- WTO Commission for Africa on Accra (Ghana), 3-5 May 1999 actions, national identities and the implementation of the society on the occasion of the UNESCO-WTO Joint Cultural • Symposium on Esclavage et Festival of the Caribbean, Tourism Project on the Slave réparations, Fort-de-France Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), 4-5 July Route, Yamoussoukro (Côte (Martinique), 21 May 1999 1997 d’Ivoire), 10-13 June 1996 • International Symposium on • Seminar on Africanité et • International Conference on The Slave Route: The Long hispanité sur la route de l’esclave, Cultural Tourism in Latin Memory, New (United Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), 2-9 July America and the Caribbean, States of America), 5-9 October 1998 (Cuba), 18-22 November 1999 1996 • International seminar on • Symposium on Diasporas Slavery and the slave trade in the • Symposium on Oral Traditions noires, traces et présences de history of humankind, Brasilia and the Slave Trade, Conakry l’Afrique aux Amériques et en (Brazil), 18-22 August 1998, (Guinea), 24-26 March 1997 Europe : de l’esclavage à l’émi- 19-20 February 1999 gration, Brussels (Belgium), • Round Table on L’insurrection 2-4 December 1999 de la nuit du 22 août 1791 à Saint- Domingue, Port-au-Prince (Haiti), 8-10 December 1997 Slaves making music and dancing (Photo: Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route) • International symposium on the topic Entre histoire et mémoire des deux rives : la route de l’esclave, Le Lamentin (Guadeloupe), 16-21 December 1997

• Meeting of Experts on The European Archives on the Slave Trade, Copenhagen (Denmark), 5-8 February 1998

• International symposium on L’esclavage et ses séquelles : mémoire et vécu d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, Port-Louis (), 3-9 October 1998 6

• Symposium on L’esclavage et FINANCING Radio les sociétés post-abolitionnistes, Université des Antilles et de la RFI, Africa No. 1, the BBC, Guyane, Schoelcher (Martinique) The project is financed by Média Tropical, France-Culture, UNESCO’s regular budget and by Fréquence Protestante, Radio • Symposium on African contributions from countries, Nova, Radio Nations Unies, Diaspora: languages, artistic ex- various institutions and private WIB New York… pression and religion, University individuals. Norway, through the of the West Indies, Kingston Norwegian Agency for Inter- (Jamaica), 23-27 February 1999 national Development (NORAD), Television and Italy have to date made • Festival of the Caribbean: substantial contributions to the “Thalassa”, FR3 broadcast on Seminar on Bantuité ibéro- project. The Slave Route (1998), TV5 américaine, Santiago de Cuba (1998), CNN-UNESCO, ARTE … (Cuba), 3-7 July 1999

COOPERATION Films Education and teaching WITH THE MEDIA The project has also sponsored • Meeting of the project’s Expert and given support to various Group, Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Cooperation with the media is a artistic productions: 20-24 August 1998 key dimension of the project. It enables the general public, intel- • Amistad by Steven Spielberg, • Subregional workshop, lectuals and researchers both to 1997. Professor Harris, member St Croix (Virgin Islands). Launch- remain abreast of and to take part of the International Scientific ing of the project for the Americas in its implementation. Moreover, Committee of The Slave Route and the Caribbean, 2-5 December the media are urged to play a project, acted as a consultant for 1998 major role in the sphere of cul- the production. tural tourism and in the estab- • Subregional workshop for lishment of photographic and • The film by Jonathan experts, Nantes (France), 28-30 iconographic documentary Demme benefited from the pro- January 1999 sources. The publication of arti- ject’s sponsorship at the time of cles and interviews in the press its French preview, at the request • Subregional workshop for and participation in radio and tel- of the Gaumont Corporation. experts, Accra (Ghana), 15-19 evision broadcasts all illustrate the February 1999 importance of such cooperation. • The film Sucre amer by Christian Lara. • Young people’s forum on the slave trade and the world The press • The television film Schoelcher heritage, Gorée Island (Senegal), by Paul Vecchiali, broadcast by 21-27 August 1999 A number of French dailies, Canal + in 1998. including Libération, Le Monde • Subregional seminar on the and Le Figaro, weeklies such as • The French Festival de l’his- slave trade in the Indian Ocean, Jeune Afrique Economie, VSD, toire et de l’image (Rueil- Saint-Denis (Réunion), 27-30 Amina, Le Nouvel Observateur, Malmaison, France, 1998). September 1999 La Revue de la francophonie and Actualité des religions, and also • The Racines noires 1998 • Subregional seminar on newspapers representing the Festival provided a venue for Breaking the silence concerning international press, like Le representatives of the Black film the Teaching of the Transatlantic Mauricien, the Herald Tribune, industry. Slave Trade in the United States, Le Soleil (Dakar), O Estado (São New Orleans (United States of Paulo) and Bohemia have been • The film Allons Marrons by America), 18-21 August 2000 publishing articles on the project Raymond Philogêne (1998). since 1994. For its part, La Repubblica (Italy) has played a pioneering role in presenting The Slave Route project. 7

• Les illuminations de Madame • Fest’Africa 98, the sixth North Key figures from the worlds of Nerval, documentary by Charles African arts festival (Lille, the arts and sport, including Najman, broadcast by ARTE in France); Grace Bumbry, Gilberto Gil, 2000. Liliam Thuram, Susana Rinaldi, • The , a picture Jacques Martial, Danny Glover, • Le passage du milieu, docu- book by Tom Feelings, Dial Olodum and Ile Aye, are also mentary by Guy Deslauriers Books (New York, United States); taking an interest in the project, (France 2000). and a number of cooperative • Exhibitions by the Brazilian activities have taken place or are On the occasion of the hundred painters Carybé and Dias planned. and fiftieth anniversary of the Nascimento; abolition of slavery by France in 1998, the project supported • The trip to Africa for children Internet and sponsored a whole range of reporters organized by the La events (visual arts, dance per- baleine blanche Association. A Slave Route website has also formances, plays, music, poetry, been set up, and may be con- photography exhibitions, liter- • Soirées musiques du monde sulted at the following address: ary festivals …), as well as con- (29-30 June 1998); La marche des http://www.unesco.org/culture/ ferences, lectures, symposia and enfants, stopover at UNESCO dialogue/slave/html_eng/ seminars organized in France before going on to the United index_en.shtml and abroad: Nations, Geneva, (23 August 1998), organized by the Secours • La route de l’art sur la route populaire français. de l’esclave, a travelling exhibition of contemporary art, organized by • People Begin to Fly, exhibi- the Association Culturelle de tion/dance, by the artist Nikunja, l’Habitation (Fond Saint-Jacques, Paris, UNESCO (December 1998). Martinique); • International tribute to James Baldwin, UNESCO (3 Decem- ber 1998).

Saint Benedict the African “Il moro”, Patron saint of the city of Palermo (Italy) THE SLAVE

ROUTE F. DOUGLASS* W. E. DU BOIS* A. DUMA

SCHOELCHER*

TOUSSAINT P. ROBESON* Liverpool he slave trade represents a dramatic encounter Am LOUVERTURE* London of history and geography. This four-century-long T Bristol R tragedy has been one of the greatest dehumanizing enterprises in human history. It constitutes one of Nantes the first forms of globalization. The resultant G slavery system, an economic and commercial type Bordeaux of venture organization, linked different regions and continents: Europe, Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Lisbon 10% Azores Seville Caribbean and the Americas. It was based on an Islands ideology: a conceptual structure founded on contempt for the black man and set up in order to Charleston Ou justify the sale of human beings (black Africans in this case) as a mobile asset: For this is how they Canary Islands were regarded in the "black codes", which 40% constituted the legal framework of slavery. CUBA The history of this dissimulated tragedy, its Mexico PUERTO RICO Cape Verde deeper causes, its modalities and consequences Veracruz JAMAICA Santo Domingo Islands Timbuktu have yet to be written: This is the basic objective that UNESCO's Member States set for the "Slave BARA BAM BENIN Route" project. The issues at stake are: GORÉE Island Ouidah historical truth, human rights, and development. Cartagena ASHANTI GHANA La ARADA BE The idea of "route" signifies, first and foremost, the Elmina Accra identification of "itineraries of humanity", i.e. the Slave Coast circuits followed by the . In this sense, geography sheds light on history. In fact, the triangular trade map not only lends substance to Cab this early form of globalization, but also, by Pernambuco showing the courses it took, illuminates the motivations and goals of the slave system. Bahia 40% These slave trade maps are only a "first draft". Based on currently available historical data about the triangular trade and slavery, they Rio de Janeiro should be completed as the theme networks of researchers set up by UNESCO continue to 10% ATLANTIC bring to light the deeper layers of the iceberg by exploiting archives and oral traditions. It will then be possible to understand that the black slave trade Montevideo forms the invisible stuff of relations between Africa, Valparaiso Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Americas Buenos Aires and the Caribbean. OCEAN Doudou Diene Director of the Division of Intercultural Dialogue

DEPORTATION FLOWS, 15th-16th Centuries 17th Century

Jamestown V

0

0

0

0 3 40 1 7 C 0 C 00 0 C 00 0 A 0 700 000 IS A 0 550 000 I RI 0 100 00 R 100 00 SL BBE 0 IBB AN AN EAN DS ISLAND SENEGAMBIA Gorée SENEGAMBIA S Gorée GUADELOUPE REVOLT, 1656 GHANA

0 CONGO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 7 Pernambuco 1 Pernambuco 100 000 100 000 Bahia Bahia © UNESCO 2000 Sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco Cheap jewellery etc., weapons Trans- Trans-Saharan slave trade St.-BENEDICT * A. S. PUSHKIN* the African Trans-Saharan slave trade European or American slave-ship port Large slave-trade port in Africa Sorting and distribution centre Copenhagen Raiding zone sterdam Slave import zone Rotterdam BOBANGI (Supply source of the trans-Atlantic slave trade) Venice Percentage of deported slaves enoa

Istanbul BENIN and GHANA are current designations of areas called differently Rome at the time of the Slave Trade Palermo * Historic personalities who fought against the black Slave Trade, Slaves or descendants of Slaves (St. Benedict and Pushkin) uargla Tripoli Basra Nagasaki Alexandria

Marzuq Karachi Aswan Canton Macao

Goa Zabid

Aden SOCOTRA YORUBA sts agos Po BENIN g Calabar in BOBANGI d ra T m e Malaka l s EQUATOR LOANGO o

LUNDA M binda O Mombassa KONG GO NDON ZANZIBAR Luanda MBUNDU INDIAN OVIMBUNDU AKUA M Tamatave THE SLAVE TRADE AND THE POPULATION Quelimane OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENT MAURITIUS Aggregate number of deportees RÉUNION from the 8th to the middle (Bourbon) of the 19th century for all slave trades: 24 million at least.

Robben Total African population Island OCEAN 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

th DENMARK 1792 Century 19 Century HOLLAND 1815 ABOLITION * ENGLAND 1807 IN EUROPE FRANCE 1815 PORTUGAL 1830 ABOLITION * VIRGINIA 1807 IN USA C O OC

R RAPHIC 7 O 0 M G 0 SANTO DOMINGO 7 0 6 00 0 0 1791 0 0 0 C 0 0 0 0 A 0 00 1 RIZONA I RIB 0 0 C St. DOMINGO 90 0 SL BE 20 A 0 0 A AN I R 00 NDS SL IBB AN EAN Gorée GUINEA DS Gorée GUADELOUPE GUINEA Ouidah Ouidah – Print: A 1737 Elmina Calabar Elmina Calabar KONGO KONGO 00 RANÇOIS 0 0 Cabinda Cabinda 90 Zanzibar 0 BAHIA REVOLTS Zanzibar Luanda 00 Luanda 0 (1807 AND 1835) Kilwa 40 Bahia ANGOLA ANGOLA Ibo ABOLITION * 1 IN BRAZIL 1888 900 000 Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Inhambane Official date Lourenço- * Marques of abolition Montevideo Montevideo Buenos Aires Buenos Aires 407 000 Design andcartography: Nancy F 10

THE ASPnet such teaching being provided on a slave trade differs in Europe from TRANSATLANTIC relatively extensive scale in many one country to another, and par- SLAVE TRADE countries of the Atlantic world. ticipants were agreed that much EDUCATION PROJECT Participants also visited such places remained to be done in order to of memory as the Christiansted and “break the silence” so widely ob- Fredriksted plantations, the Whim served in certain countries; more- Text by Plantation Museum and Salt River over, the scope of such teaching is Elisabeth Khawajkie, (the first land discovered by still entirely a matter of individual International Coordinator Christopher Columbus). One of initiative. The project timetable of the Associated Schools the first recommendations of the was presented at the workshop, as (ASPnet) project workshop was to compile the was the first version of the an- writings of the slaves themselves, in thology Slave Voices prepared by Subregional workshops brought order to draw the lessons from their the University of the West Indies. together ASPnet teachers and sufferings and their struggles. coordinators of the Transatlantic Slave Trade project, as well as Accra, Ghana, members of the international Nantes, France, 15-19 February 1999 expert group, in order to review 28-30 January 1999 current teaching on the slave The Accra workshop, representing trade, to add the final touches to Experts, teachers and project coor- the third point of the triangle, the project and to agree on a dinators from Denmark, France, brought together experts, teachers study programme and joint Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and coordinators from Angola, framework for action. United Kingdom, Jamaica, Benin Benin, Ghana, Mozambique, and Ghana gathered together in Nigeria, Senegal, Jamaica, Norway what had been France’s foremost and France, who exchanged views St Croix, Virgin Islands, slave-trading port. The municipal- on the importance of the project, 2-5 December 1998 ity of Nantes hosted the workshop took stock of the status of teaching in its historic City Hall. Two about the slave trade, in particular Experts, teachers and project coor- NGOs, Anti-Slavery Inter- in Africa, finalized the timetable of dinators from Barbados, Brazil, national and the Baleine Blanche work for 1999 and discussed its Cuba, Curaçao, Haiti, Jamaica, Association, were also repre- implementation. Visits were organ- Martinique, St Croix and sented. Participants paid a visit to ized to the places of memory: Slave St Thomas, the Virgin Islands and Feydeau Island, the quarter of the River, Elmina Castle and Cape Trinidad and Tobago, as well as slave traders in the eighteenth cen- Coast Castle, and to two local observers from Antigua, Saint Kitts tury, where they attended the exhi- Associated Schools where pupils and Nevis, Ghana and France took bitions Haïti 2000 and Mémoires had prepared for the visitors a show stock of teaching on the slave trade, des migrations. Teaching about the on the subject of the slave trade.

“Haiti where négritude stood up for the first time”. Aimé Césaire. Gorée Island, Senegal, UNESCO Collection – The Slave Route. 21-27 August 1999

Over one hundred young people and teachers from 35 countries took part in the International Youth Forum on the World Heritage and the Transatlantic Slave Trade held in Dakar (Senegal) from 22 to 26 August 1999.

The launching of the ASPnet Transatlantic Slave Trade Educa- tion project and the organization of workshops was made possible by the support of the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD). 11

A truly triangular exchange First youth encounter in Norway

Three schools – in Ghana, Norway and Trinidad and Tobago – have joined forces on a project relating to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Pupils from the El Dorado com- prehensive secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago, the Achimota College in Accra, Ghana, and the Saltdal secondary school in Norway are working on the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Elmina Castle, Ghana. and the way in which they are applied in their respective coun- Teachers and pupils taking part The clank of chains echoes in the tries. This scheme should con- in the ASPnet Project are urged distance, tinue to the end of 1999. “We shall to follow the example of these Yes, that’s where suffering is, stop only once we’ve reviewed all three schools by studying, if not The black man, the slave, has lost the articles”, says Jon Moller, the the Declaration in its entirety, his dignity. project’s coordinator, who adds: then the manner in which Brave though he be, his whole be- “it will be only the first achieve- Article 4 is applied in their own ing suffers like a tormented beast. ment of our little triangular part- country. He bows his back but grits his nership in the matter of the teeth against the master’s whip. transatlantic slave trade”. The strength of his spirit guides his Poem: slavery footsteps.

PROJECT IDEA Véronique Flory, a pupil in the The clank of chains echoes in the Article 4 in my country Arron secondary school in distance. Guadeloupe, is the winner of the Shapes surface from the pool of my No one shall be held in slavery poetry competition organized on memory, or servitude; slavery and the slave the topic of slavery by the poetry Images glimpsed in archives make trade shall be prohibited in all club of the Quatre points car- me fear the worst. their forms. dinaux. Her poem is reproduced That age is gone, that leaf is Universal Declaration of Human below: turned, that book is closed. Rights, Article 4. The clank of chains echoes in the distance.

Cross-section of a , showing how the captives were crammed together between decks. Reproduced from the October 1994 issue of the UNESCO Courier. 12

PUBLICATIONS “The Slave Route: a memory in Nantes and by UNESCO unchained”, (The Slave Route project), UNESCO Sources, Nantes, 1999, 331 pp. No 1: Books No. 99, March 1998 « La traite esclavagiste, son his- toire, sa mémoire, ses effets ». Les abolitions de l’esclavage, “Breaking the Silence: The Slave de L.F. Sonthonax à V. Schoelcher Route, the ASPnet Transatlantic The Slave Route (booklet). « Les Collection : Memory of Peoples Slave Trade Education project” Anneaux de la Mémoire », UNESCO, 1995, 416 p. UNESCO, 1998 Questions and Answers, La société des amis des Noirs UNESCO, 1999 The Slave Route (map). UNESCO Marcel Dorigny Cahiers des anneaux de la 2000. and Bernard Gainot mémoire. UNESCO/EDICEF, 1998, 416 p. Annual review published jointly by the Association « Les La chaîne et le lien : Anneaux de la Mémoire » une vision de la traite négrière UNESCO, 1998, 591 p. Work on the plantations. The slave, a working tool. (Photo: Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route) L’Afrique entre l’Europe et l’Amérique : le rôle de l’Afrique dans la rencontre de deux mondes – 1492-1992 Elikia M’Bokolo (General Editor) UNESCO, 1995, 188 p.

Los Códigos Negros de la América Española, Manuel Lucena Salmoral, 1996 UNESCO/Universidad de Alcalá

General History of Africa (UNESCO): Volume V: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, 1992; Volume VI: Africa in the Nineteenth Century until the 1880s, 1989

Reports and papers, 2: The African Slave Trade from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century (first published in 1985; republished in 1999)

Reviews

“Slavery, a crime without punishment”, The UNESCO Courier, October 1994

“When East meets West and North meets South, UNESCO Sources, No. 7, June 1995 13

Basic texts • Mr Jaime Arocha Rodríguez, • Mr Howard Dodson, The Ph.D., Departamento de Schomburg Centre for Research 27 C/Resolution 3.13 (of the Antropología y Centro de in Black Culture, New York, UNESCO General Conference) Estudios Sociales, Santa Fé de United States. approving the implementation Bogotá, Colombia. of the interregional project on • Mr Quince Duncan, The Slave Route. • Mr Leslie Atherley, Associación Proyecto Caribe, former Director of the Santo Domingo de Heredia, 29 C/Resolution 40 (of the UNESCO Culture of Peace Costa Rica. UNESCO General Conference) programme, Barbados. proclaiming 23 August of every • Mr Richard Foster, Director, year International Day for the • Mr Miguel Barnet, President, National Museums and Remembrance of the Slave Fundación Fernando Ortíz, Galleries on Merseyside, Trade and its Abolition. Havana, Cuba. Liverpool Museum, United Kingdom. Draft Resolution • Ms Dany Bebel-Gisler, 30 C/COM.IV/DR.9* of Committee coordinator for • Mr Max Guérout, 11 November 1999 concerning Guadaloupe, Le Lamentin, Association GRAN, Centre de The transatlantic slave trade France. documentation et de recherche and slavery: a crime against de la Troisième région maritime, humanity. • Mr A.S. Bekoe, Director, Toulon, France. Research, Statistics and 155 EX/Decision 3.4.1 (of the Information Department, • Professor Mbaye Guèye, UNESCO Executive Board) Ministry of Tourism, Accra, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences relating to the Ghana. humaines, Université Cheikh Fiftieth anniversary of the Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal. Universal Declaration of • Dr Luis Beltrán, Vice-Rector, Human Rights, a duty to Relaciones Internacionales, • Dr Joseph E. Harris, remember and to be vigilant. Universidad de Alcalá de Department of History, From slavery to the full Henares, Spain. Howard University, attainment of human dignity. Washington, D.C., United • Dr Norbert Benoît, historian, States. Accra Declaration on the joint Mauritius. UNESCO-WTO Cultural • Mr Laënnec Hurbon, Tourism Programme • Professor Isabel Castro Coordinator of the National The Slave Route, Henriques, Department of Haitian Committee for the Accra, Ghana, 4 April 1995 History, University of Lisbon, Slave Route project, Port-au- Portugal. Prince, Haiti.

• Mr Yvon Chotard, President • Ms Marie-Denise Jean, legal MEMBERS of the Association “Les anneaux expert, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. OF THE de la mémoire”, Nantes, France. INTERNATIONAL • Professor Robin Law, SCIENTIFIC • Mr Alberto Da Costa e Department of History, COMMITTEE OF Silva, Africanist, Rio de Janeiro, University of Stirling, United THE SLAVE ROUTE Brazil. Kingdom. PROJECT • Professor Jean-Michel • Dr Artem Letnev, Africa Deveau, Professor of Institute, Moscow, Russian • Dr Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, Contemporary History, Federation. former Director-General of Université de Nice-Sophia UNESCO, President of the Antipolis, Nice, France. • Professor Paul E. Lovejoy, Committee, Dakar, Senegal. Distinguished Research • Ms María Nazaré Dias de Professor, Department of • Mr Samir Amin, Director of Ceita, São Tome, Sao Tome and History, York University, the African Bureau, Forum du Principe. North York, Ontario, Canada. Tiers-monde, Dakar, Senegal. 14

• Dr Nestor N. Luanda, • Dr Wally Serote, Member of • Ms Sheila S. Walker, History Department, University Parliament, Cape Town, Director, Department of of Dar es Salaam, United Republic of South Africa. Anthropology, Centre for Republic of Tanzania. African and African-American • Professor Élisée Soumonni, Studies, Austin, Texas, United • Dr Luz María Martínez- historian, Coordinator of the States. Montiel, Dirección General de Benin Committee for the Slave Culturas Populares, Mexico Route project, Cotonou, Benin. • Mr Jean-Claude William, City, Mexico. legal expert, former President of • Mr Wole Soyinka, Nobel the University of the West • Dr Joseph C. Miller, Prize winner for Literature, Indies and Guyana, Schoelcher, Department of History, Nigeria. Martinique. University of Virginia, United States. • Dr Leif Svalesen, Norway. • H.E. Mr Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai, Africanist, • Professor Harris Memel- • Dr Hugo Tolentino Dipp, Ambassador, Permanent Foté, Faculté des Lettres, Arts historian, University of Santo Delegate of Benin to and Sciences humaines, Abidjan, Domingo, Dominican Republic. UNESCO. Côte d’Ivoire. • Professor G.N. Uzoigwe • Professor the Hon. Rex (Nigeria), History Department, Nettleford, Vice-Chancellor, Lincoln University, United University of the West Indies, States. Mona, Kingston, Jamaica.

• Mr Nicolas Ngou-Mvé, his- torian, Université Omar Bongo Monument erected on the island of Haiti by former slaves in remembrance of their emancipation. de Libreville, Gabon. (Photo: Collection UNESCO: The Slave Route)

• Professor Djibril Tamsir Niane, 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 de Oliveira, former Minister of Culture, Member of Parliament, Angola.

• Ms Anne Remiche- Martinow, film-maker, Radio- Télévision belge de la commu- nauté française, Liège, Belgium.

• Professor Joel Rufino Dos Santos, Escola de Comunicações da UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

• Professor Louis Sala-Molins, Professor of Political Philosophy, Université de Toule-le-Mirail, France. 15

degrading slavery until they breathed their last. Our culture and our history are converging to break the conspiracy of silence that still shrouds the tragedy of the slave trade. Jacques Chirac, Brazzaville, 18 July 1996

Its sheer scale and duration make the transatlantic slave trade the greatest tragedy in human history. Jean-Michel Deveau, historian

Although slavery is a universal Aleksander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837) phenomenon, three factors made Russian writer, great-grandson of an African the transatlantic slave trade renowned in Russian military and technical history, Abraham Petrovitch Hanibal (1696- unique: its duration – almost four 1781) (Portrait: Bibliothèque de France) centuries, the racial identity of its victims – black African men, women and children, and its intellectual legitimization: the cultural denigration of Africa and WHAT THEY SAID of Blacks, in short, the construc- tion of the ideology of anti-Black racism, and its legal organization The executioner always kills embodied in the “Codes Noirs” twice, the second time by silence. (Black Codes). Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Doudou Diène, UNESCO Peace Prize Director: It is today more than ever neces- Doudou Diène It is time that the West and Africa sary to put history back on its feet; agreed to look back together at our complicity in the slave trade is Programme: their shared past, however painful well established, and our erring E. Cross-Frias some of its episodes may be. The ways, our faults of management V. Aguiar dignity of all concerned depends and blunders of government, and Secretariat: upon recognizing a history that indeed the predatory conduct of M. F. Lengue the West must no longer ignore or many of those in power are pass over in silence: that of the manifest. The inescapable fact Media, audiovisual: deportation of millions and mil- nevertheless remains: we shall R. Harguinteguy lions of Africans over a period of understand nothing of the under- Production: more than three and a half cen- development and extreme destitu- Christian Ndombi turies. For sugar and coffee, tion of sub-Saharan Africa if we Europeans and Africans were pre- turn a blind eye to the scourge that Department of Intercultural pared to tear free men and has blighted her history for over Dialogue and Pluralism women from their lands and their four centuries. for a Culture of Peace. families, and forced them to cross Nicéphore Soglo, 10 November UNESCO - 1, rue Miollis the oceans to work in the most 1993 75732 PARIS Cedex France

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