“It’s time to abolish human exploitation as soon as and for all, and to acknowledge the equal and unconditional dignity of every particular person,” stated Audrey Azoulay, Director Basic of UNESCO.
“At the moment, allow us to bear in mind the victims and freedom fighters of the previous in order that they might encourage future generations to construct simply societies.”
The evening of twenty-two to 23 August was a turning level in historical past, marked the beginning of an rebellion in Saint Domingue – now Haiti – in 1791, that performed a pivotal function in ending the transatlantic slave commerce.
It’s in opposition to this background that the Worldwide Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Commerce and its Abolition is commemorated yearly on 23 August.
The Day is meant to inscribe the horrors of the slave commerce into collective reminiscence, encourage reflection, and provide a possibility to look at the advanced interactions that unfolded between Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean on account of human slavery.
The Routes of Enslaved Peoples
By means of an intercultural undertaking The Routes of Enslaved Peoples, UNESCO has superior our understanding of the commerce, developed high-level scientific networks and initiatives on the theme of slavery, its abolition and the resistance it generated.
Since its launch in 1994, the undertaking has additionally performed a serious function in breaking the silence surrounding the historical past of slavery and the best way it has formed the trendy world.
Amongst its main goals, it contributes to “de-racialising” society’s imaginative and prescient and “decolonizing” how it’s seen, by dispelling narratives primarily based on the idea of race that justified these programs of exploitation.
It additionally promotes the contributions of individuals of African descent to the final progress of humanity, and questions the social, cultural and financial inequalities which might be legacies of the slave commerce.
Ark of Return
The reminiscences of hundreds of thousands of victims of the commerce, who suffered unspeakable injustice, in addition to the abolitionists and unsung heroes who rose as much as finish the oppressive observe, is completely enshrined on the United Nations Headquarters, in New York, within the type of a monument named the Ark of Return.
The monument’s identify was impressed by maps of the triangular slave commerce and by the story of a slave fort on Gorée Island in Senegal, the place slaves have been held in captivity earlier than being shipped away. A door on the fort was recognized ominously because the “door of no return.”
In a 2015 interview with UN Information, the monument’s architect, Rodney Leon, an American of Haitian descent, defined the explanation behind the identify.
“We felt it will be a superb counterpoint to ascertain a non secular house of return, an ‘Ark of Return,’ a vessel the place we are able to start to create a counter-narrative and undo a few of that have,” he stated.
Click on right here for the interview.
