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2007 Hidden History of the Dales Thumb.png

Hidden History of the Dales

This project was a collaboration between the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes and North Yorkshire Record Office to research people and places of the Yorkshire Dales connected with Africa, the Caribbean and India. 'Hidden History' collected local stories of slave owners and traders, abolitionists, Africans and Asians who moved to the Dales, and others like the actor Ira Aldridge who passed through. The project included various community activities. Working with actor Joe Williams, pupils from the Wensleydale School explored the life of Olaudah Equiano and performed alongside Joe at the exhibition opening. There were drop-in sessions on exploring family history, carnival costume making, talks and music. The exhibition toured to other locations in Yorkshire, including Boroughbridge Library. The Dales Countryside Museum has continued to collect information relating to individuals who were connected with the Yorkshire Dales and the wider world.

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House of Slaves

The museum is located on Gorée Island, 3 km off the coast of Senegal. The structure was built in 1776 as a holding centre for Africans waiting to be exported across the Atlantic. It was converted into a museum and memorial in 1962. According to the original curator of the museum, Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, the island played a pivotal role in the containment and transportation of slaves to America during the transatlantic slave trade. The aim of the museum and memorial is to help its visitors come to terms with the extent of the transatlantic slave trade and the effects of the trade on Africa and its people. It was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1978.

The content of the museum includes murals and artwork showcasing traditional African techniques, and depicting the process of enslavement. There is also a variety of objects such as chains, manacles, and cages which emphasise the brutal nature of slavery. The site itself is accessed via a ferry and the tourism industry of nearby Dakar is linked closely with the island. The key voices addressed within the museum are those of the enslaved; the museum brings visitors into close approximation with the living conditions faced by the enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade. One of the most poignant features is the 'Door of No Return' which is said to be the point where enslaved Africans were boarded onto ships ahead of the Atlantic voyage.

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Human Cargo: The Transatlantic Slave Trade, its Abolition and Contemporary Legacies in Plymouth and Devon

Human Cargo was a partnership project between Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. The project consisted of two main components. The first was a historical exhibition, which explored the development of the transatlantic slave trade and, in particular, the role of Plymouth as a port, the involvement of the City's dignitaries and the South West's links with the abolition movement. The second part was a contemporary art response to modern forms of slavery and historical legacies, including the flower picking trade, sweatshop labour and the Fair Trade Movement. This work was newly commissioned and included audio visual pieces, installations, hand-printed wallpaper and participatory objects. A variety of events and activities took place alongside the exhibition including education workshops, performances, African music and storytelling activities, and Elizabethan House re-enactment sessions.

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Into Africa

Into Africa was an exhibition held at the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough, which examined the textile collaboration between Britain and West Africa after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The exhibition focused on the textile samples of Christopher Dresser, the most prominent industrial product designer of the Victorian period. The samples were originally made for European markets, but increasingly became popular in West African textile trades in the late 19th century. The exhibition placed the samples in the context of African textile history, the Lancashire cotton trade and modern day exports.

2007 Diversity Arts Luton Its All in a Name.pdf

It's All in a Name

It's All in a Name was an oral history project led by the Diversity Arts Incubation Programme in Luton. A collaboration between the local community, Luton Irish Forum and local schools and museums, the project aimed to discover the historical associations, shared customs and heritage between African Caribbean and Irish communities in Luton, using surnames as a starting point (popular surnames shared by both communities include Murray, Nugent or Patrick). The project developed an oral history archive, and culminated in a series of seminars and a community event.

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Karibu African Women's Support Group

Karibu provides information, advice and help service to African women and their families in Ipswich and Suffolk. Karibu women joined the celebrations marking African History Month in Suffolk in 2007. The event 'Reaching Out Promoting Cultural Values' was designed to reach out to other local communities. It featured a keynote speaker address, workshops on health and beauty, and parades of foods and culture from Africa. 'Our Children Our Pride' was an activity day featuring carnival arts and crafts, drumming sessions, dance, and stories from Africa.

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Le musée d'histoire de Ouidah

Le musée d'histoire de Ouidah (The Ouidah Museum of History) is located within the Old Portuguese Fort in Ouidah. The Fort was used to contain and transport enslaved Africans as part of the transatlantic slave trade, serving as the site for diplomatic presence of Portugal in the area. The fort became property of the Dahomean government in 1961, when it was restored and turned into a museum, opening in 1967. It is managed by the Department of Cultural Patrimony.

The museum's collections are grouped into six major exhibit themes: the Portuguese Fort (in which the museum resides), the Kingdom of Xwéda, the Kingdom of Dahomey, the Slave Trade, Vodun, and the cultural links between Benin and the New World. These collections are made up of artefacts, photographs and objects that have significant meaning to the history and culture of the museum's local area.

The history of slavery runs throughout the displays; from the Portuguese Fort display which discusses how enslaved Africans were kept there. The displays that explore the kingdoms of Xwéda and Dahomey use collections to emphasise the extent to which both of them were dependent on the trade in enslaved individuals with Europeans for riches and power. These include a range of archaeological finds, as well as engravings and drawings. The exhibition about the religious traditions of the area, in particular the development of Voodoo, reflects on the continued use of African religions by enslaved people in the Americas during the period of the transatlantic slave trade, using religious artefacts. A range of images and objects showcase the impact that people from Benin made on the cultures of New World societies, as well as the effects of mass repatriation to Benin after the decline of the slave trade.

The Slave Trade exhibits examine the system of transatlantic slavery from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century and how it impacted on the local area. The main focus is on the economic and social processes that the slave trade created in Benin, capture, enslavement and the Middle Passage. These themes are illustrated with a range of objects, artists' renditions and archival materials. Examples of objects on display include chains and yokes. Images are also used to give some information about the plantation system in the Americas and Caribbean.

2007 Leeds BCTP Project Poster.pdf

Leeds Bicentenary Transformation Project

This collaborative community initiative celebrated African and Caribbean culture in Leeds, with a focus on commemorating the Abolition Act by 'highlighting African achievement, liberation and aspirations'. New exhibitions, publications and resources were produced and over 100 bicentenary events organised under different themes: Education and Museums; Arts and Carnival Culture; Churches and Abolition; Legacy; Black History and Community Development; Media and Communications. Highlights included the photographic exhibition and pamphlet 'From Abolition to Commonwealth', which remembered indentured labour in Africa and the Caribbean after 1807, and the 40th anniversary of Leeds West Indian Carnival, with themes that highlighted heritage, liberation, respect and freedom. Project outputs included an education pack, black history classes, concerts, church services, lectures and performances.

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Lincoln Legacy

This large mural by Joshua Sarantitis, Lincoln Legacy, can be read from left to right, moving from Africa to America. The shape of Africa adorns the backdrop until the wooden boards of the slave ship transform into the American flag. Around the young child’s neck are three medallions: Abraham Lincoln’s face, Josiah Wedgwood’s abolitionist icon “Am I Not a Man and a Brother,” and Frederick Douglass' face. Made up of over 1 million glass mosaic tiles, it is the largest Venetian glass tile mural in Philadelphia at over 10,000 square feet. Located a block away from the Liberty Bell and Independence Mall, it is one of the few murals to be created in Philadelphia’s wealthier districts.

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Mobee Royal Family Orginal Slave Relics Museum

The Mobee Royal Family Original Slave Relics Museum is a small museum housed in a nineteenth century colonial building. It showcases the role of the local 'Chief Mobee' in the enslavement of local Africans during the transatlantic slave trade, as well as the role of his son (and successor) in abolishing slavery in the area.

The museum houses one exhibition which discusses the arrival of Europeans to the Badagry area and the origins of the trade in human beings. Artefacts highlight the brutal nature of the capture and the enslavement of African people. These include yokes, chains, a mouth lock that presented the captives from speaking, and handcuffs for children. Other objects are examples of trade goods that were received by the Chief in exchange for a supply of people. Text interpretation also provides visitors with information about the terrible conditions faced by the enslaved during the Middle Passage, and images provide representations of life on the plantations.

The museum is often visited as part of a 'Black History Tour' with the former slave market and the Black History Museum.

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Museum of Slavery

The Museum of Slavery in the village of Albreda first opened in 1996. It is housed in the Maurel Fréres building which was built by the British colonial government in the 1840s. Only a short distance from Juffure, the home of Kunta Kinte - the main character of Alex Haley's 'Roots' - the museum is dedicated to interpreting the history of transatlantic slavery in the area. It is a hub for students and researchers.

The museum's displays use a collection of artefacts to examine the process of enslavement, with particular focus on capture and the Middle Passage. These artefacts include chain neck collars, foot cuffs, yokes and manillas. The museum also has a display about 'Roots'.

Guided tours are regularly welcomed to the museum. Visitors are also frequently taken to visit the nearby 'factory' ruins which was once used as a slave station by French and British colonial administrations.

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Navigating the Congo

Featuring artefacts, navigational equipment, maps, photographs, personal letters and diaries, Navigating the Congo is an exhibition which explored the history of non-conformist involvement in the Congo River regions during the 19th and 20th century.

By looking at the collections held in The Angus Library and Archive, the exhibition sought to bring to light some of the challenges faced in navigating this history and the relationships that developed between Baptist missionaries and the Kongo people during the period of European colonialism.

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Newsflash: Heritage Chronicles

The Croydon Supplementary Education Project (CSEP) offers community-based learning initiatives to Black and Ethnic Minority communities in Croydon. Newsflash: Heritage Chronicles was a range of free interactive intergenerational learning activities for understanding and remembering slavery. The programme included heritage days, heritage walks with historian S. I. Martin, and information and research to dispel myths about Africa before the arrival of the Europeans, such as the featured sheet about the Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires.

Katie Bordner and students, North Lawndale College Preparatory Charter High School mural, 1616 S Spaulding Ave, Chicago, 2012.jpg

North Lawndale Mural

A teacher at North Lawndale College Preparatory Charter High School, Katie Bordner, created this mural with her students in 2012. It depicts the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a mother and child and an African backdrop. 

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Old Residency Museum

The Old Residency Museum is housed in a colonial building, designed in Scotland and shipped to Nigeria during the 1880s. It previously housed the British colonial administration in Nigeria. The museum holds the largest collection of Nigerian documents and artefacts in the world. It focusses on the history of the Calabar and Cross River Regions, as well as slavery, and is managed by the National Commission for Museums.

The first exhibition encountered by visitors on their entry to the museum explores the four centuries of the trade in people that permeated Nigeria and the region. There is a significant display of European items that were used as trade goods in exchange for enslaved Africans. This includes Venetian glass beads, pewter pots, ceramic pots, shaving sets and guns. Other displays include items that illustrate the brutal nature of enslavement, including chains and manacles.

The museum's other exhibition examines the production processes of palm oil, as one of the most important exports to Calabar, after the abolition of the slave trade.

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Opening of International Slavery Museum

Liverpool is a port city with a long association with transatlantic slavery. Located on Liverpool's Albert Dock, National Museums Liverpool opened the new International Slavery Museum in 2007, the first stage of a two-part development. The museum aims to promote the understanding of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade and the permanent impact the system has had on Africa, South America, the USA, the Caribbean and Western Europe. It features displays about West African society, the transatlantic slave trade and plantation life, but also addresses issues of freedom, identity, human rights, reparations, racial discrimination and cultural change. The museum also has strong ties with Liverpool’s large Black community. The museum opened on 23 August 2007, designated by UNESCO as Slavery Remembrance Day.

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Our Brothers and Sisters

Titled Our Brothers and Sisters, this mural depicts figures of black history, including the abolitionist Frederick Douglass and also Harold Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., Booker T. Washington, Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Louis Armstrong.

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Passion and Pride

Passion and Pride was a creative partnership project bringing together Leeds City Council's Arts and Regeneration Unit with twelve local community organisations. Building on momentum established through Black History Month, the performances, exhibitions and workshops celebrated black heritage and culture in Leeds during 2007. Highlights included the performance of 'Grandma's Story' at West Yorkshire Playhouse by the 10-2 Club, a short play about the real life experience of living through slavery.

2007 Redbridge and Slavery Poster.pdf

Redbridge and Slavery

Redbridge Museum's exhibition to mark the bicentenary examined the London Borough of Redbridge's connections to the slave trade and abolition. These links included local resident Josiah Child, once Governor of the East India Company, an investor in the Royal African Company and owner of plantations in Jamaica. The Mellish family of Woodford had connections with the West India Docks in London, built for the sugar trade. Alexander Stewart of Woodford owned Jamaican plantations and acted on behalf of owners of enslaved Africans in compensation claims after abolition. The exhibition also examined church records detailing some of the Black residents of Redbridge in the 17th and 18th centuries. Music from the Caribbean island of Dominica was included, as was a series of personal responses to the bicentenary by local residents.

2007 Remembering Slavery 2007 Archive Project.pdf

Remembering Slavery Archive and Mapping Project

Remembering Slavery 2007 involved museums, galleries and other cultural organisations across the North East of England in a programme of exhibitions, events, performances, lectures and activities to explore the themes of slavery and abolition, and identify connections with the region.

The Remembering Slavery Archive Mapping and Research Project, led by the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle and assisted by local history groups, uncovered a large amount of archival material in the region’s institutions, exposing many hitherto unknown links between the North East and the slave trade. The participating record offices and libraries were Tyne and Wear Archives Service, the Literary and Philosophical Society Library, the Northumberland Record Office and the Robinson Library’s Special Collections at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. This reassessment of the North East’s involvement in slavery and the slave trade led to new published research, including John Charlton's 'Hidden Chains: the Slavery Business and North East of England 1600-1865'. There was also a lecture programme at the Literary and Philosophical Society, including talks by Professor James Walvin. Several of the project volunteers published essays based on their research in 'North East History 39' (North East Labour History Society, 2008). The North East Slavery and Abolition Group was established among the project volunteers, and further work on slavery and abolition was included in the Society’s North East Popular Politics project (NEPPP), 2010-13. Much of the material found in the 2007 project has been loaded onto the NEPPP database.