The experience of slavery and the slave trade has been
described as an indelible phase of black and African history, the trauma of
which has resulted in a collective amnesia that needs to be addressed.
Chair of the organising committee of the forthcoming
international ‘Colloquium on Slavery, Slave Trade and Their Consequences’, Abi
Derefaka, made the observation at a July 5 press conference, held at the
National Theatre, Lagos.
A professor at the University of Port Harcourt, Derefaka heads
a 12-member committee inaugurated last December by Govenor Olagunsoye Oyinlola
of Osun State. The colloquium, to be held from August 22 to 26, 2010 in
Iloko-Ijesa, Osun State, is being hosted by Oyinlola’s government through the Centre
for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), a UNESCO Category II
centre, based in Osogbo.
The colloquium forms part of the larger Global Conference on
Black Nationalities, which is holding in Osogbo around the same time. It also
coincides with the Osun Festival, which draws thousands of people to Osogbo
every August.
Keen to allay fears of a potential conflict between several
high profile international events in the same period in the Osun State axis,
organisers stressed that the slavery colloquium is a largely academic forum
designed to attract only those with keen interest or scholarship in the subject
area. Among scholars expected to participate, are: Paul Lovejoy, Ade Ajayi,
Toyin Falola, and Bolanle Awe, all professors. Interest has been very high,
according to Derefaka, who said, “We found that once people got to know about
the colloquium… they sent us abstracts, some even sent complete papers. We
are hoping that we can cope with the anticipated deluge of participants.”
He spoke about the need for a colloquium on slavery and the
slave trade, stressing that, in addition to addressing the “collective amnesia”
on this phase of black history, “there are vestiges of slavery all around us
even today.”
Drawing attention to the fact that a modern state, Haiti, was
born out of a slave revolt led by a Yoruba slave, Derefaka said, “It is
important to draw periodic attention to that inhuman activity which led to a
somewhat irreversible cultural and spatial dislocation for many of our African
brothers and sisters.”
August gathering
The colloquium is also intended to commemorate the UNESCO Day
for the Abolition of Slavery and Slave Trade, marked annually on August 23. In
addition, the conference will help key into UNESCO’s Slave Route Project,
inaugurated in 1994. Several strands of the thinking and scholarship on slavery
will come together in August, as the world body’s International Scientific
Committee on the Slave Route project will also meet in Iloko-Ijesa during the
colloquium.
“The issues to be discussed at the colloquium, which focus on
the past, present, and the future of our continent, Africa, and our people in
the Diaspora, are topical and deserve attention now,” Derefaka affirmed.
Among the sub-themes of the conference are: ‘Historiography of
Slavery and the Slave Trade’; ‘Globalisation and New Forms of Enslavement’;
‘Slave Market, Routes, Monuments, Relics and Tourism’, ‘Enslavement and Global
Africa Diaspora’; and ‘Reconciliation, Reparation and Rehabilitation.’
Several culture bodies are providing support for the
colloquium, including the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization
(CBAAC). Speaking at the press conference, the director general of CBAAC, Tunde
Babawale, said, “There is no question about the fact that slavery has impacted
very significantly on the entire continent of Africa and the African Diaspora.
You can hardly talk about the African people – either on the continent or in
the Diaspora – without talking about the impact of the slave trade. It has in
fact defined what the Diaspora looks like.”
Babawale said the phenomenon of slavery needs to be subjected
to rigorous study. He also expressed the hope that the August colloquium will
help update knowledge on the various aspects of the slave trade; while at the same
time correcting deficiencies in literature on both the Indian Ocean and
Trans-Saharan Slave Trades.
He declared that the slavery colloquium will break new grounds;
and called for the support of the media in ensuring its success, especially in
the light of Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary.
Lasting impact
Wole Ogundele, director of the Centre for Black Culture and
International Understanding (CBCIU) through which the colloquium is being
organised, recalled “the epic battle we fought in Paris in 2008 at UNESCO to
get [CBCIU] as a Category II centre.”
The professor hailed the fact that the Osogbo centre is now the
only one of its kind in Africa. “Slavery and the slave trade are part of our
culture – they were and still are today – the impacts of that will probably be
with us for another 1000 years, if not more. In fact, as long as our black
brothers and sisters do not come back – and I don’t see how they can come back
– the impact of slavery will continue to last in the Diaspora,” said Ogundele.
He added that even if all the descendants of slavery were to
return, this would be another kind of impact. Therefore, the cultural,
psychological, political, and economic impact of slavery can never be over-emphasised.
Ogundele ended on a personal note, saying, “Slavery is a
subject we have all taken for granted.” He recalled the single black player in
the Iraqi team during the 1994 World Cup. “I think Iraq beat the USA and it was
this black fellow who was their outstanding player. And I kept wondering: how
come a black man in Iraq’s team? How come a black man in this country?”
Ogundele began to dig into the history of slavery on the Indian
Ocean and Saharan slave routes, across which blacks were also transported. “So,
how come their numbers are so few, unlike in the US and Latin America?”
He later discovered that “the black African men were used as
harem keepers and therefore, they were castrated; and that contributed to the
very, very minuscule number of blacks in the Arab World. They were
emasculated.”
Only a very lucky few survived, like the black player in the
Iraqi team. “So, it is a trauma, and it continues to haunt us today,” said the
CBCIU director.
No witch-hunting
A Professor of History at the Department of History, University
of Lagos, A. Lawal, called on the Nigerian government to emulate Ghana by
tapping into the quest by slave descendants to know their African roots. Lawal
said slave descendants should be encouraged to settle in Nigeria, as they
currently do in Ghana, where ancestral lineage history is also being actively
researched.
Responding to questions later, Ogundele said the conference
cannot do much in real terms to halt contemporary slavery. “All we can do is
forward our findings to the necessary bodies. We will pass on the results of
our deliberations to UNESCO, but we can’t go and mount barricades across the
Sudan or Mauritania. We are not capable of doing that.”
Derefaka, who affirmed that the colloquium aims “to fill gaps
in our knowledge,” informed that the Vice Chancellor of the University of Osun,
Sola Akinrinade, will head a committee that will produce the communiqué at the
end of the conference. The communiqué will then serve as “a working document
for all participating agencies as well as an advocacy document which can be
used after the colloquium.”
Concluding, Ogundele stressed that the conference is not
seeking to lay blame for the slave trade. “It is not a conference of
witch-hunting – who is guilty, who is not guilty – it is too late for that.
[Ours] is a UNESCO centre of international understanding. We want to understand
each other; and we are building linkages with other black cultures across the
world as well as within the continent of Africa.”
‘The International
Colloquium on Slavery, Slave Trade and Their Consequences’ holds at the Royal
Park Hotel, Iloko-Ijesa, Osun State, on August 22 to 26, 2010.
