While we think about the intentional rise of Africa as a center of technological innovation and human flourishing, it is important to keep the brutal past in our privileged 360° “modern” view.
1. Gorée Island was a major West African slave trading post.
Located off the coast of present-day Dakar, Senegal, Gorée Island was used as a center for the transatlantic slave trade from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The island was controlled at different times by the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French, all of whom used it as a base for trading enslaved people. Sources: BBC, Gorée Island: The Door of No Return and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Gorée Island
2. The House of Slaves (Maison des Esclaves) was built in 1776.
The House of Slaves is a historical building on Gorée Island constructed in 1776. The “Door of No Return” is a symbolic site on the island. Source: UNESCO, House of Slaves. (Please note the ironic overlap of dates — 1776 — a still flourishing American slave trade juxtaposed with America’s Declaration of Independence.)
3. Millions of Africans were transported through West African slave ports.
Historical records estimate that over 12 million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas through various West African ports, including Gorée Island. Enslaved people were held in crowded and harsh conditions, and confined in small, crowded cells with limited access to food and water before being shipped across the Atlantic. Sources: UNESCO, House of Slaves; Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, slavevoyages.org.
4. The slave trade had lasting demographic and social impacts.
The transatlantic slave trade severely disrupted West African societies by decimating populations, disrupting traditional social structures, and fostering violence and conflict. It led to the loss of skilled laborers, weakened kinship networks, and fostered a shift towards trade in human lives rather than goods, ultimately impacting cultural continuity and political stability. Above all that, who could adequately chronicle the untold layers of individual and family suffering?! Sources: The Atlantic, The Brutal History of Africa’s Slave Ports. Gorée Island became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Gorée Island.
5. Gorée Island is now a site of remembrance and education.
Today, Gorée Island is visited by people from around the world, including descendants of enslaved Africans. Source: New York Times, Gorée Island: A Place of Memory.
6. The legacy of Gorée Island continues to influence historical memory.
Discussions about heritage, identity, and historical memory in Africa are still very much a part of the global conversation. Source: UNESCO, The Slave Route Project.
