UNESCO - THE SLAVE
ROUTE
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The Slave Route, UNESCO -
Division of Intercultural Projects, 1, rue Miollis - 75732 Paris Cedex 15 -
France
At the proposal of Haiti and some
African countries, the General Conference of UNESCO approved at its 27th
Session in 1993 the implementation of the "The Slave Route" Project
(Resolution 27 C/3.13). The project was officially launched during the First
Session of the International Scientific Committee of the Slave Route in
September 1994 in Ouidah (Benin), one of the former pivots of the Slave trade in
the Gulf of Guinea. The official documents of Ouidah were brought out in book
form by UNESCO Publishing in 1998 under the title "From Chains to Bonds:
the Slave Trade Revisited".
The idea of a "Route"
expresses the dynamics of the movement of peoples, civilizations and cultures,
while that of "slave" addresses not only the universal phenomenon of
slavery, but also in a more precise and explicit way the transatlantic slave
trade in the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean.
The Slave Route Project has a
double objective: on the one hand it aims to break a silence and make
universally known the subject of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in
the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, with its causes and modalities, by means of
scientific work. On the other hand, it aims to emphasize, in an objective way
its consequences, especially the interactions between the peoples concerned in
Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
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Foreword |
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Federico
Mayor |
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Introduction |
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Doudou
Diene |
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Who was
responsible? |
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Elikia
M'Bokolo |
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Slave
Route archives |
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Howard
Dodson |
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Latin
America and the Caribbean |
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Luz-Maria
Martinez-Montiel |
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Slave
trade and identity |
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Hugo
Tolentino Dipp |
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Slave
trade and development |
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Claude
Meillassoux |
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Ideology,
philosophy, thought |
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Louis
Sala-Molins |
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http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave/html_eng/origin.shtml
- FROM CHAINS TO BONDS: The Slave Trade
Revisited
- Edited by Doudou Diene, UNESCO
Published in Association with UNESCO
2001. 460 pages, bibliog., index
ISBN 1-57181-265-2 hardback $79.95/£50.00
ISBN 1-57181-266-0 paperback $25.00/£17.00
- Most important issues of today's world - such as development, human
rights, and cultural pluralism - bear the unmistakable stamp of the
transatlantic slave trade. In particular Africa's state of development
can only be properly understood in the light of the widespread
dismantling of African societies and the methodical and lasting human
bloodletting to which the continent was subjected by way of the
trans-Saharan and transatlantic slave trade over the centuries. But this
greatest displacement of population in history also transformed the vast
geo-cultural area of the Americas and the Caribbean.
-
In this volume, one result of
UNESCO's project Memory of Peoples: The Slave Route, scholars and
thinkers from Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean have come
together to raise some crucial questions and offer new perspectives on
debates that have lost none of their urgency.
-
P. E. Lovejoy, "The African Diaspora: Revisionist
Interpretations of Ethnicity, Culture and Religion under Slavery,"
SWHSAE, 2, 1 (1997)Studies in the World History of Slavery, Abolition and
Emancipation, II, 1 (1997).
- Abstract:
Lovejoy argues that sufficient information exists about
individuals
taken as captives in the slave trade to allow historians to
dispense
with a generalized notion of a "traditional" African
background
for New
World blacks and, accordingly, to articulate the African-ness of
the black
diaspora with ethnic and historical specificity. Lovejoy
concedes
there are difficulties involved with absorbing the "extensive
documentation
on the African-ness of the slave communities of the
diaspora,"
but he lays out a program for future diasporic studies.
Prominent
in this program are the compilation of biographical data on
captives
and slaves (including oral source material), the analysis of the
sites of
the slave trade and movements of Africa-derived peoples, the
analysis of
cultural activities, and an unprecedented form of
international,
inter institutional cooperation, most notably among
African,
American, and European institutions which promote education and
research.
"Il ne servirait a rien non plus de
dissimuler nos propres résponsabilités
dans les
désastres qui se sont abattus ou continuent de s'abattre sur
nous. Nos
complicités dans la traite [en esclaves] sont bien établies, nos
divisions
absurdes, nos errements collectifs, l'esclavage comme
institution
endogene...."
Nicéphore
Dieudonné Soglo
The UNESCO Slave Route Project
With these words, the Président de la
République du Bénin launched the
UNESCO
"Slave Route" Project on 1 September 1994 at the old slaving
port
of Ouidah.
To achieve world peace, Soglo continued, it is necessary to
come to
terms with the legacy of slavery, not only the brutalities of the
trans-Atlantic
slave trade and chattel slavery in the Americas but also
the legacy
of the blood-soaked ritual houses in the royal palaces at
Abomey, the
capital of the Kingdom of Dahomey. The "Slave Route" began
within
Africa, and its impact was often severe for both deported Africans
and those
who remained as slaves in West Africa as well.
The pursuit
of the "Slave Route" represents a departure in the study of
the history
of Africa and the African diaspora. Hitherto, Africa and the
diaspora
have generally been discrete subjects of enquiry. Despite the
work of
Pierre Verger, Roger Bastide, Melville Herskovits and others,
scholars
have rarely pursued common links between Africa and the
Americas.
To address this disjuncture in scholarship is the target of the
UNESCO
Project, which aims to trace the slave trade from the original
points of
enslavement in the African interior, through the coastal (and
Saharan)
entrepots by which slaves were exported from the region, to the
societies
in the Americas and the Islamic world into which they were
imported.
- Paul Lovejoy on the Nigerian
Hinterland Project
- Date:
Fri, 2 Jul 1999 05:05:47
-0500
Reply-To: Steven
Mintz <smintz@UH.EDU>
Sender:
"The history of slavery, the
slave trade,
abolition
and emancipation" <SLAVERY@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
From:
"Steven Mintz, U.
Houston" <SMintz@UH.EDU>
Subject:
Re: Runaway Slave Project
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
From: Paul
Lovejoy <plovejoy@yorku.ca>
To: Steven Mintz <smintz@UH.EDU>
The discussion of fugitive slaves,
marronage, the Underground RR, and
resistance more generally has prompted me
to submit the following:
The Nigerian Hinterland Project, centered
at York University, affiliated
with the UNESCO Slave Route Project and
supported by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, is interested in the creation of
a database on fugitive slaves, as part of
a larger interest in creating a
biographical database of enslaved
Africans. Clearly fugitive ads are a
major source of information on
individuals, which can be used as a starting
point in tracking down information of
biographical interest.
Subscribers might wish to know that the
Nigerian Hinterland Project, in
collaboration with the Schomburg Center,
is supporting an initiative
undertaken by the University of the West
Indies (Mona) to recover all
extant issues of Caribbean newspapers,
beginning with Jamaican newspapers,
and then expanding to include the rest of
the Caribbean. An inventory of
Jamaican newspapers will be finished
soon. Obviously, this is a necessary,
first step before compiling a full
listing of fugitive advertisements,
slave sales and other informaton that can
be useful in creating a
biographical database.
Our longer-range intention is to focus on
enslaved Africans who can be
traced to the Nigerian hinterland, that
is the first-generation of
"slaves". Our approach is
directed outward from Africa, and specifically
the Nigerian hinterland, and hence
northward, eastward and westward as well
as southward to the coast and across the
Atlantic. In this sense, our
theoretical paradigm is Afro-centric.
Biography, and hence any materials
that might yield biographical
information, is central to this approach.
For these reasons, the Virginia project
is very interesting. From the
information provided, however, it is not
clear if the theoretical
perspective has taken account of recent
trends in "Afro-centrism". It is
hoped that the African origins of slaves,
and an attempt to identify any
information that might provide clues to
those origins, is central to the
project. Otherwise, we won't know
who we are talking about. We want to
know what families people came from, not
just country, ethnicity and
birthplace.
If it is possible, it might be useful to
discuss the ways and means by
which those developing similar kinds of
projects that are attempting to
uncover the African past and how that
changed in the Americas might be able
to share information/software/expertise/scepticisms.
Our project has been
working with scholars in a great many
different countries, and there is
naturally a lot of interest. We
would like even more involvement. We
think that there is the possibility of a
genealogy of slavery.
Paul Lovejoy FRSC
Distinguished Research Professor of
History
York University
Toronto, Canada
- APAHS (Association for the
Publication of African Historical Sources)
- APAHS (Association
for the Publication of African Historical Sources) is run by a
group of people who share a common
interest in publishing edited
transcriptions and translations of
African historical texts, usually in
African languages. It's ancestry
includes the Fontes Historiae Africanae,
which John Hunwick publicized in the
United States, and an NEH grant given to
Michigan State, David Robinson and Jay
Spaulding in 1987, precisely for the
publication of African Historical
Sources. But it has always been a much
wider phenomenon of people engaged in the
various insertions on a variety of
projects. It meets at each Annual
Meeting of the African Studies
Association in the form of a roundtable,
which amounts to a discussion of
what different "members" are
doing. Its membership consists of those who
are interested in coming and being on the
newsletter mailing list.
October 1999
APAHS Newsletter (extract)
LOVEJOY on the
NIGERIAN HINTERLAND PROJECT (<plovejoy@postoffice.yorku.ca>)
The Nigerian Hinterland Project, which is
affiliated with the UNESCO Slave
Route Project and is funded by a
five-year grant from the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, is involved in a number of
document projects. The Nigerian
Hinterland Project is located in the
Department of History, York University,
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario
M3J 1P3, Canada.
Director: Paul E. Lovejoy (plovejoy@yorku.ca);
Associate Director: David Trotman (dtrotman@yorku.ca)
Projects include:
Oral traditions in Hausa, with English
summaries - work continues on this
multi-volume project, including
transcription and translation of the
following collections: Yusufu
Yunusa (1975-76), Ahamdu Maccido (1974-76),
Ibrahim Jumare (1994), Sean Stilwell
(1996-98), Paul Lovejoy (various,
1969-76), and Ibrahim Hamza (1995-96).
Also see report by Ibrahim Hamza, to
be submitted separately.
Arabic documentation - see reports of
Yacine Daddi Addoun, I.U. Musah, but
including materials on bori in North
Africa in the early 19th century, and
various collections of documents.
Reports to be submitted separately.
W.B. Baikie diary and papers, published
and unpublished, on the Niger River
valley, 1850s, including numerous
published articles, as well as the
extensive files of unpublished materials
and his diary: Materials being
collected by James Bruce Lockhart, James
Femi Kolapo and Silke Strickrodt.
Hugh Clapperton, second expedition into
the interior of West Africa,
1826-27, being an account of travels
through Oyo, Borgu and the Sokoto
Calipahte: unpublished text being
transcribed by James Bruce Lockhart, to be
compared with published versions.
Muhammad Gardo Baquaqua biography (1854),
being an account of the
enslavement and sale into slavery in
Brazil, liberation in New York and
subsequent adventures of an official in
the court of the king of Djougou, in
western Borgu, whose mother was from
Katsina and whose father was a Muslim
merchant in Djougou; annotated by Robin
Law and Paul Lovejoy; additional
research underway.
Biographical database: verbatim texts
being entered on the computer for all
biographical materials in CMS microfilmed
records for Niger, Yoruba and
Sierra Leone missions; biographical
materials in widely scattered sources
being similarly entered on the computer,
with intention of designing a
CD-ROM database. Various graduate
students have been working on this
project for the past year.
Approximately 500 biographical accounts
entered. For a description, see
Paul E. Lovejoy, "Biography as Source
Material: Towards a Biographical Archive
of Enslaved Africans," in Robin
Law, ed., Source Material for Studying
the Slave Trade and the African
Diaspora, Stirling, 1997, 119-40
Biographical records of the anti-slave
trade patrols of the British navy:
personal data on approximately 75,000
individuals freed by the British navy,
being analysed and developed into a
database by David Eltis, with assistance
from various people, including Ugo
Nwokeji.
Letters of the Old Calabar slave trade in
the eighteenth century, including
letters by Old Calabar merchants as well
as the principal Liverpool and
Bristol merchants who dominated the
trade, being collected by Paul Lovejoy
and David Richardson, with assistance
from Silke Strickrodt. Fourteen
letters being published in Paul E.
Lovejoy and David Richardson, "Letters of
the Old Calabar Slave Trade,
1760-1789," in Vincent Carretta, ed.,
Voices of Slavery (University of Kentucky
Press, forthcoming).
Royal Africa Company papers, period after
1699, volume two, being undertaken
by Robin Law - separate report submitted.
Hausa and Kanuri texts collected in North
Africa by Rudolph Prietze c. 1900,
which include numerous stories,
historical accounts, and other information
that were collected from pilgrims and
slaves. Texts are being edited and
translated, to be published with the
African Studies Program, University of
Wisconin; work conducted by Gisela
Seidensticker and others.
Proyecto Orunmila - 24 volumes of texts
on Ocha and Ifa from Regla, Cuba,
with considerable historical information
on Yoruba origins and beliefs in
particular. Based on original texts
held by various babalayo in and near
Regla. Original documents to be
photographed with assistance from the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture. Texts are available at
cost, varying from $1,400 to $2,500,
depending upon purchase of 17 basic
texts or purchase of total collection.
Materials are in Spanish, heavily
interspersed with Yoruba. Under the
direction of Ernesto Valdez Janet, and
purchased through the Nigerian Hinterland
Secretariat; contact Len Wong at
lwong@yorku.ca
An inventory of Jamaican newspapers, from
the early 18th century to the
present has been conducted at the
University of the West Indies-Mona, with
the support of the Nigerian Hinterland
Project, as a pilot project in a full
inventory of all Caribbean and Brazilian
newspapers, and the compliation of
the complete set into a database for a
variety of uses, including access to
fugitive slave advertisements, slave
sales, prices, and other information.
Moreover, it is hoped that several
inventories and bibliographies of the
holdings of the Nigerian Hinterland
Project will soon be accessible via our
Web site, but we ask for your indulgence.
These inventories include:
holdings of Nigerian National Archives,
Kaduna, including provincial reports
for Kano, Sokoto, Zaria and Borno
Provinces, district assessment reports for
Kano, Sokoto and Zaria emirates,
provincial court records for select years,
district notebooks, numerous Arabic and
ajami texts, published articles and
papers on Nigeria, the Sahara, West
Africa, and the diaspora, oral data
holdings, conference paper holdings, and
Tubman Seminar papers. These
inventories will be accessible via our
Web site.
Paul E. Lovejoy FRSC
Distinguished Research Professor, York
University
Director, UNESCO/SSHRCC Nigerian
Hinterland Project, York University
Research Professor, University of Hull
- INAUGURAL CELEBRATION OF
THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE SLAVE TRADE AND ITS
ABOLITION
-
Port-au-Prince (Haiti), 28
August {No. 98-174} - The International Day for the Remembrance of the
Slave Trade and its Abolition - established by UNESCO’s General
Conference at its 29th session to be held each 23 August - was
celebrated for the first time this year, with diverse activities
organized in Haiti from 14 to 23 August.
Daniel Janicot, UNESCO Assistant
Director-General for the Directorate - representing UNESCO’s
Director-General at the ceremonies - highlighted the reasons behind the
choice of Haiti for the inaugural commemoration: "The Bois-Cayman
Insurrection, on the night of the 22nd to 23rd of August 1791,
constitutes, through its organization, its military success and its
consequences, the major historic event that symbolises the perpetual
fight of the slaves. (...) It is also the decisive historic factor at
the origin of the process toward the abolition of slavery."
In addition to Haiti’s historic role in
the fight against slavery, it was through the initiative of Haiti and
African nations that the "Slave Route" project was adopted by
UNESCO’s General Conference. This project aims to study the root
causes and modalities of the transatlantic slave trade as well as to
shed light on the interactions this generated in the Americas and
Antilles.
Among the numerous activities held in
Haiti were a series of conferences on the theme of the Slave Trade and
Slavery in Port-au-Prince, Cayes and Jacmel. An exhibit of historical
documents was displayed in Port-au-Prince. A festival of films from
Cuba, Guadaloupe, France, Brazil and North America was held throughout
the week of celebration. A giant fresco was created at the Museum of Art
by two Haitian artists, as well as artists from Cuba and Senegal. The
celebration also featured an exhibition juxtaposing the work of artists
and authors on the theme of human rights, a concert featuring popular
Haitian musicians, a parade from the point of debarkation of the slaves
to the Place des Heros featuring giant puppets, and a performance of the
show "Chayopye" by the Hervé Denis Company.
Historians, researchers and teachers met
in Haiti to explore the launch and implementation of a new pilot project
to include and reinforce in school programmes knowledge about the extent
of slavery and its impact. An educational and intercultural conceptual
framework will be proposed for experimentation in some twenty countries
participating in UNESCO’s Associated Schools network.
Next year, commemorations of
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its
Abolition are planned in numerous countries. A poster for the Day has
been printed.
- Breaking the Silence
The Slave Route The ASPNET
Transatlantic Slave Trade Education
Project