22995: (Arthur) Liverpool marks Haiti slave uprising (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

HOW LIVERPOOL IS MARKING ITS MURKY HISTORY

The Voice newspaper - 16 August 2004
 http://www.voice-online.net/content.php?show=4826&type=7

Liverpool was the epicentre of the slave trade in Europe with some 10 million
enslaved Africans passing through its ports to the Americas.

In all an estimated 60 million men, women and children, about the current
population of Britain, were forcibly taken from the northwest regions of Africa
between 1450 and 1807, when the trade was officially abolished, although the
practice carried on for some further 60 years after abolition.

Up to a third of those taken are believed to have perished during the
treacherous Atlantic crossing or die from their brutal treatment on the plantations.

Records show that some 5,300 trips were made by Liverpool ships to the coast
of Africa to buy slaves and elephant tusks, which were viewed as valuable as
the human cargo, between 1695-1807. A further 2,200 slave ships sailed from
Bristol, more than 3,100 from London and 450 from European ports such as Nantes
and Bordeaux in France, Amsterdam and Lisbon, Barcelona and Cadiz in Spain.

The majority of enslaved Africans came from the Igbo tribe in southern
Nigeria, but there were also huge numbers from the Yoruba people and the Ashanti
people from southern Ghana.


REMEMBRANCE
To mark the abolition of slavery Liverpool is staging an International Day
for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23.

The day marks the slave uprising on the island of St Domingo (modern Haiti
and the Dominican Republic) on August 23, 1791.

This revolt was a crucial event in the fight against slavery and UNESCO has
chosen this date as a reminder that enslaved Africans were the main agents of
their own liberation.

The United Nations has also marked 2004 for the commemoration of the struggle
against slavery and its abolition, which coincides with the 10th anniversary
of non-racial democracy in South Africa.

The event being organised by National Museums Liverpool is expected to
feature French and Haitian historian and art curator Florence Alexis, who will give
a lecture on The Burden of Memory.

Alexis was born in Paris in 1951 and is a direct descendant of Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, the former slave and first Haiti chief of state who helped free the
country from French rule. Her father, the novelist Jacques Stephen Alexis,
was killed by the armies of the Du Valier dictatorship in 1961.


CEREMONY
The ceremony will begin with a libation led by Chief Angus Chukuemaka. Other
guests include Cathy Tyson, barrister Courtney Griffiths QC and Yvonne
Brewster. There will also be performances by the River Niger Orchestra, Tayo Aluko,
Sue Yo and Ann Lopez.



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Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory
democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
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