Category: Great Moments

A Heritage of great moments in the history of the continent and the black race

Thomas Sankara Speech on Debt and Unity

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People2 Comments
Thomas Sankara
Thomas Sankara a Ouagadougou

This past weekend saw the anniversary of Thomas Sankara’s assassination. In memory of this great man who graced our continent. I decided to repost his speech on African debt, which after almost 30 years is still very actual. His speech in one of unity. Imagine if we had been united, would there have been a Libya 2011, or Cote d’Ivoire 2011, or all the subsequent others? Unity does make us strong.

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Thomas Isidore Sankara, our African hero, was killed for his convictions, love of his people and his country. This great hero gave one of the greatest speech I have heard about the problem of the  African debt. Such an eloquence! Such Truth my Lord! Such humor! I do agree with him that the African debt cannot be entirely paid… and that the African nations who do not show up at the UA summit should not have favors extended to them the same as those who attend the meetings. Moreover, he talks about living and breathing African: his delegation and himself were entirely dressed by Burkinabés tailors with cotton from Burkina Faso. Please watch, listen, and celebrate one of the greatest man the African continent has ever seen! Don’t forget to watch part 2 as well.

Yaa Asantewaa or the Ashanti Cry for Freedom

On By Dr. Y.In Great Civilizations, Great Moments, Great People10 Comments
asantewaa
Queen Yaa Asantewaa in Batakarikese (Ceremonial war dress)

On 17 October 1921, the great Ashanti warrior queen Yaa Asantewaa passed away. Her story is that of a queen who rallied masses to fight for their independence; hers is a story of courage, determination, and stamina. Yaa Asantewaa led a rebellion against the British at a time when the men surrounding her were low in spirit, afraid, and discouraged. She arose them to fight for their independence, and for their nation.  Her fight against British colonialists is a story woven throughout the history of Ghana.

asante_map-1800s
Ashanti Kingdom ca 1800s

Yaa Asantewaa was born in 1840 in the Gold Coast in the Kingdom of Ashanti. She was a successful farmer, mother, intellectual, politician, human right activist, Queen and leader. Yaa Asantewaa became famous for leading the Ashanti rebellion against British colonialism to defend the Golden Stool, symbol and soul of the Ashanti nation (1900–1901). She promoted women emancipation as well as gender equality. She was the sister of the Ruler of Ejisu (Ejisuhene) Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpase, an ethnic group in present-day Ghana.

ashanti_prempeh-124-palaver-and-submission_1896
January 1896: British formally annexing the Ashanti Kingdom – depiction of governor’s discussions with Prempeh I

During her brother’s reign, Yaa Asantewaa saw the Asante Confederacy go through a series of events that threatened its future, including civil war from 1883 to 1888. When her brother died in 1894, Yaa Asantewaa used her right as Queen Mother to nominate her own grandson as Ejisuhene. When the British exiled him in the Seychelles in 1896, along with the King of Asante Prempeh I and other members of the Asante government, Yaa Asantewaa became regent of the Ejisu-Juaben District. As seen earlier, this was the European’s way of dealing with African kings, as in Benin Kingdom. Sending a king to exile was usually followed by the looting of their land. This has led to the discovery of lots of Africa’s valued arts and crafts in Europe, which to this date have not been returned to their rightful owners.

ashanteewarcaptain_1834
Ashanti captain 1819

After the deportation of Prempeh I, the British governor-general of the Gold Coast, Frederick Hodgson, demanded the Golden Stool. This request led to a secret meeting of the remaining members of the Asante government at Kumasi, to discuss how to secure the return of their king. There was a disagreement among those present on how to go about this. Yaa Asantewaa the Queen Mother of Ejisu, was at the meeting. The chiefs were discussing how they should make war on the white men and force them to bring back the Asantehene. She saw that some of the chiefs were afraid. Some said that there should be no war. They should rather go to beg the Governor to bring back the Asantehene King(Nana) Prempeh.

Disgusted by the men’s behavior, Yaa Asantewaa stood up and addressed the members of the council with these now-famous words:

“Now, I see that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. If it was in the brave days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opoku Ware I, chiefs would not sit down to see their king to be taken away without firing a shot. No European could have dared speak to chiefs of Asante in the way the governor spoke to you this morning. Is it true that the bravery of Asante is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be! I must say this: if you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight! We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields.”

ashanti_golden_stool_31_january_1935
The Golden Stool in 1935

With this, she took on leadership of the Asante Uprising of 1900, gaining the support of some of the other Asante nobility. She led the famous war knows as the War of the Golden Stool against the British. After several months, the British Gold Coast governor eventually sent a force of 1,400 to quell the rebellion. During the course of this, Queen Yaa Asantewaa and 15 of her closest advisers were captured, and they too were sent into exile to the Seychelles. She died there on 17th of October 1921. Three years later, on 27 December 1924, Prempeh I and the other remaining members of the exiled Asante court were allowed to return to Asante Kingdom. Prempeh I made sure that the remains of Yaa Asantewaa and the other exiled Asantes were returned home for a proper royal burial. She was buried with all the honors due a queen like her.

Yaa Asantewa’s War was the last major war led by an African woman. She embodied courage and strength when faced with the injustice of the European invader. She is honored with a school named after her, ‘Yaa Asantewaa Girl’s Secondary School’ In Kumasi in 1960. Many young girls in Ghana are proudly named after her.

ashanti-king-palace-being-burned-and-ransacked-by-british-in-1874-after-3rd-angloashanti-war
Ashanti King Palace being ransacked and burnt by the British in 1874 after the 3rd Anglo-Ashanti war

She is immortalized in the song:

Koo koo hin koo

Yaa Asantewaa ee!

Obaa basia

Ogyina apremo ano ee!

Waye be egyae

Na Wabo mmode

(“Yaa Asantewaa

The woman who fights before cannons

You have accomplished great things

You have done well”)

Prempeh I: The Last Asantehene Before British Colonization

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great PeopleLeave a comment
prempeh_i
Asantehene Prempeh I

Prempeh I was the Asantehene (King) of the Kingdom of Ashanti. He was born as Prince Kwaku Dua III Asamu of the Kingdom of Ashanti, and he took the name of Prempeh I upon ascension on the throne at the young age of 16. His reign was a troubled one as it fell during the time of British invasion/colonization of the Gold Coast. In essence, he was the last king of the Kingdom of Ashanti before the Gold Coast fell under British protectorate.

Europeans were already installed in the region and had been trading on the coast since the 15th century for gold and slaves (as we saw with the slave castles of Elmina and Cape Coast). By the beginning of the 19th century, the British government decided to formalize its control of the Gold Coast. They dispatched a force to conquer the Ashanti. They only won the war against the disciplined Ashanti because of the superiority of their artillery and rifles over the traditional muskets of the Ashanti. Once in Kumasi, the capital, the British hastily looted the royal palace and burned the town to the ground. The defeated Ashanti had already released their prisoners and subsequently were forced into agreeing to a treaty to give up claims on coastal territories, to cease the practice of human sacrifice and to pay a huge indemnity of 50,000 ounces of gold. This was known as the Wolseley’s expedition. The Gold Coast was then declared a Crown Colony.

Elmina 16th century
16th Century map of West Africa with Fort Elmina

Having lost their invincibility in war, the Ashantis were now faced with rebelling neighboring tribes, and the Ashanti confederation was descending into civil war. The Ashanti had become so weak that, in 1888, they asked the British governor to send an arbitrator from the coast to decide who, amongst rival claimants, should be the next Asantehene. The governor’s delegate decided in favor of the 16 year-old Prempeh. But Prempeh I turned out to be no puppet and refused to agree that Ashanti should become a British Protectorate.

Asantehene Prempeh I began an active campaign of the Ashanti sovereignty. The British offered to take the Kingdom of Ashanti under their protection, but Asantehene Prempeh I of the Kingdom of Ashanti refused each request. Asantehene Prempeh I stated, “My Kingdom of Ashanti will never commit itself to any such policy of protection; Ashanti people and the Kingdom of Ashanti must remain an independent sovereign state as of old, and at the same time be friends with all white men“.

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Prempeh I and his suite in the Seychelles (taken by F.A.L. Ramseyer) ca 1900-1903

Still wary of the French in Ivory Coast and alarmed by a resurgent Ashanti, the British now (1894) “remembered” that the Wolseley indemnity had never been paid. Prempeh I tried to appeal directly to a fellow sovereign, Queen Victoria, and sent an embassy to London to plead his cause. But the British government refused to give his delegates an audience for almost a year and mounted another elaborate British army expedition to Kumasi. Prempeh I refused to allow the Ashanti to fight, partly because of the memory of the Wolseley expedition and partly because of the British support for him during the succession dispute. Instead, he diplomatically greeted the troops as his guests when they marched into Kumasi, in January of 1896. The British governor arrived and coldly received Prempeh I and his chiefs. Prempeh I desperately tried to placate the invaders and to the horror of his people, he demeaned himself by prostrating himself before the governor in a sign of submission. The governor’s only response was to demand the gold promised to Wolseley. Prempeh could not provide such a huge indemnity at once but offered to pay in instalments starting with 680 ounces as a down payment. This was refused and then, to the astonishment of the Ashantis, Prempeh and some of his main chiefs were suddenly arrested.

Prempeh I’s place was looted. His throne is still displayed in the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford in England. The abducted Asantehene, Prempeh I, some of his relatives and advisors were first taken to Elmina for about a year, then to Freetown in Sierra Leone until 1900 when, upon the outbreak of Yaa Asantewaa (story for another day), the British feared proximity and sent the royal party to the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean.

Once there, Prempeh I spent time in his villa on Mahe, the largest of the Seychelles’ island in the Indian Ocean. Prempeh I’s villa, and 16 new wooden houses with sandy floors and roofed with corrugated iron-sheets were built in Seychelles and allocated to the various Asante’s nobles. The place was called the Ashanti Camp. Prempeh made an effort to educate himself in English and made sure that the children received education.

prempehi_back-in-kumasi
Prempeh I reinstated in Kumasi in 1926 (Source: thekingdomofAsante.com)

On 27 December 1924, Prempeh I and the other remaining members of the exiled Ashanti court were allowed to return to Ashanti Kingdom. Upon his return, and to appease the Ashanti people, the British created for Prempeh I the official position of Kumasehene in 1926, position which he held until his death in Kumasi, Ghana, on 12 May 1931. He was succeeded by his heir apparent Prempeh II of the Kingdom of Ashanti.

Prempeh I was definitely a king caught between trying to hold the sovereignty of his people, and keeping peace, while working with the British invader peacefully. Was his approach the correct one when faced with a greedy, heartless, and treacherous opponent? For more information, please check out Kreol magazine, The Kingdom of Asante, asantekingdom.org websites which are full of great articles.

Deportation of African Heads of States

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments2 Comments
prempeh_i
Prempeh I of Ashanti Kingdom

History repeats itself! Over 100 years ago, African Heads of states, Emperors and Kings, were deported by European colonizers for defending their people, lives, independence, land, livelihood, and themselves. Some were killed, and others were exiled. In those days, they were deported to other territories in Africa, far from their lands. Today, 100 years later, they are being deported to the Hague or to some other African lands again. Here are a few, and I am sure you know others.

Prempeh I, Asantehene of Ashanti Kingdom deported to Seychelles in 1896 by British forces. His throne is still displayed at the Royal Signals Museum in Blandford, England. He was allowed to return after 24 years in exile.

asantewaa
Yaa Asantewaa of Ashanti Kingdom

Queen Yaa Asantewa of the Ashanti Kingdom was deported to Seychelles in 1902 by the British. She arose her people to fight against the British. She died in exile.

Samori Toure, Founder and leader of the Wassoulou Empire, was deported to Gabon (on an island of the Oogoue) in 1898 by the French. He died in exile.

Samori
Samori Touré

Behanzin, King of Dahomey,was deported to Martinique and then later Algeria by the French. He died in exile in Algeria in 1906.

The Oba of Benin Kingdom deported to Calabar by the British in 1897. He died in exile.

Gungunyane, King of Gaza in Mozambique, first sent to Lisbon, and then later to the island of Terceira on the Portuguese Azores. He died in exile in 1906.

Behanzin, the Last King of independent Dahomey
Behanzin, the Last King of independent Dahomey

Cheikh Amadou Bamba, of Senegal, deported to Gabon in 1895 by the French. He was brought back 7 years later in 1902, but deported to Mauritania in 1903 for 4 years, before being brought back to Senegal. He died in Senegal.

Nowadays, Laurent Gbagbo, President of Côte d’Ivoire, deported to the Hague in the Netherlands 2011 by the French and the Ivorian Ouattara. He is still there.

Laurent Gbagbo
Laurent Gbagbo

Charles Ble Goude, Youth Minister of Côte d’Ivoire deported to the Hague in Netherlands in 2011 by the French, and the Ivoirian Ouattara. He is still there.

Moussa Dadis Camara, President of Guinea, shot and almost left for dead, deported to Burkina Faso(let’s call the cat by its name). …

And the list goes on… How long will it last? Can we not judge our people ourselves? Is this a choice by the people for the people? Are we really independent?

Africa’s Independence: the case of Gabon’s Presidential Election 2016

On By Dr. Y.In Great MomentsLeave a comment

gabonAbout 6 years ago, most African countries, particularly those in Francophone Africa, celebrated 50 years of independence. Yes… we were all told how many of them fought for their independence, how some of our forefathers bled to death, were killed, to get a chance to march proudly as Africans. We all cheered, and proclaimed ourselves independent. Then, a few months later, starting on 16 December 2010, the light shined on our “dependence”. On that fateful day of 11 April 2011, when the French army bombed the presidential palace of Cote d’Ivoire (and had been bombing all state institutions for over 10 days without any UN mandate and no declaration of war) and dragged its president and first lady in front of the world like mere criminals. In February 2011, NATO and the UN issued an order to bomb Libya and its institutions because Kadhafi was supposedly killing its people… They bombed Libya, killed, and uprooted its people. Today, 5 years later, the people of Gabon are now witnesses to their “obvious dependence” to France. Yes… you heard me right: these countries with that slave currency called FCFA are vassals of France, and today more than ever it has been made clear to us. “Vassals” you asked? “How come? we are independent?”… well, explain to me why a sovereign country with laws, institutions, and a constitution, will not be able to handle elections without meddling from France as was the case in Cote d’Ivoire in 2010 and currently in Gabon in 2016.

gabon3After I heard the French prime minister tell the Gabon president that he needed to have the elections recounted “bureau de vote par bureau de vote”, I thought: could the president of any African country ask the French people to recount their elections? Could the president of any African country tell the French president that he needs to pack his bags and let someone sit on his seat because he did not win the elections fair and square? Well, for starters, elections in Europe, and in America are usually won in the 50-55% range, and nobody says: “the country is divided in the middle”. Second of all, no candidate proclaims himself president before the results of the elections are announced by the constitutional court or supreme court of the country, like we just saw in Gabon. Third, no African ambassador to a European country or the African union calls the headquarters of the opponent or drags the person supposed to read the elections’ results to a hotel the day/hour he is supposed to read (Cote d’Ivoire 2010, where the French and US ambassadors took Mr. to Hotel Ivoire, headquarters of the opponent to read the results of an election). Fourth, nobody, and I mean nobody, goes to TV to issue warning to Bush or Gore to let go because they lost or won. Nobody sullies the constitution of another country. However, for the past 6 years, we have seen the constitutions of African countries being trampled upon by France, the European Union, NATO, and the US. Now, during hurricane Katrina when countless Americans were dying and their government was not raising a finger, did we Africans bomb their land? Did anybody go to the UN security council and say this is outrageous? Did anybody even talk? Did we interfere in that country’s government, and laws? In November 2015 when there was a terrorist attack in France, did the UN security council say to Francois Hollande: “you are destroying that country, your security is not tough enough, basta … we will take it from here”? NO…

Libreville today
Libreville today

SO now when I hear French ministers having a say in the Gabonese elections, and some French journalists telling us “prior to these elections, Ali Bongo reached out to the Americans, looking for a rupture with France, how dare he?” I say “are we really independent?”

 

Swiss Firms poison Oil destined for Africa

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Uncategorized3 Comments

oil3I had to say a few words about the latest news that Swiss firms have been refining oil destined for Africa with levels of sulfur at least 200 times higher than in Europe. Sulfur is associated with heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory problems. Astounding isn’t it? But what is astounding to me is really why do countries who produce oil choose to refine it elsewhere and then import it back? Some will say that they are too poor to refine it; then why not train your own engineers to that effect; isn’t the cost of shipping it to Europe, then importing it back from European traders not high? Do you really think that those European companies responsible for refining it will not give you back trash for a lesser price? Who/What guarantees the quality? Well, those guilty Swiss companies claim that the regulations of African countries are too lax, and so they have done nothing wrong (so basically if they know something is toxic and has been banned everywhere, but Africans don’t know it, they will sell it to them). Here are a few excerpts from articles on the BBC, and AllAfrica. The maps are from BBC via UNEP.

“Swiss firms have been criticised in a report for their links to the African trade in diesel with toxin levels that are illegal in Europe.

[…] Why are regulations so lax?

The picture is changing but there are still several African countries which allow diesel to have a sulfur content of more than 2,000 parts per million (ppm), with some allowing more than 5,000ppm, whereas the European standard is less than 10ppm.

africa_sulphur_2016Rob de Jong from the UN Environment Programme (Unep) told the BBC that there was a lack of awareness among some policy makers about the significance of the sulfur content.

For a long time countries relied on colonial-era standards, which have only been revised in recent years.

Another issue is that in the countries where there are refineries, these are unable, for technical reasons, to reduce the sulphur levels to the standard acceptable in Europe. This means that the regulatory standard is kept at the level that the refineries can operate at.

Some governments are also worried that cleaner diesel would be more expensive, therefore pushing up the price of transport.

But Mr De Jong argued that the difference was minimal and oil price fluctuations were much more significant in determining the diesel price.” (Source: BBC)

“Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the Executive Director, ANEEJ, Mr. David Ugolor, tasked the federal government to pay serious attention to the dangers posed to the health of citizens by these Swiss commodity trading companies, Vitol and Trafigura.

He argued that due to poor regulatory activities, foreign companies like Vitol and Trafigura “take undue advantage of weak fuel standards in Africa to produce, deliver and sell diesel, petrol and gasoline, which damage the health of the people.”

According to Ugolor, the Swiss companies’ “business model relies on an illegitimate strategy of deliberately lowering the quality of fuels for gain.

“Using a common industry practice called blending, Vitol and Trafigura and their conglomerates mix cheap and toxic intermediate petroleum products to produce what the industry calls African Quality fuels.

africa_sulphur_2005“These products contain higher levels of Sulphur and other harmful poisons that can never be found in Europe and the United States.”

The ANEEL Executive Director contended that by “selling such fuel and diesel at the pump in Africa, the traders increase external air pollution, causing respiratory disease and premature deaths.

“We all know that poor air quality poses serious risks to public health. As air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases increases for residents of cities where the people rely on diesel to power their means of production.”

Ugolor maintained that the dirty fuel shipped to West Africa by Vitol and Trafigura are known to burn very fast, equally leading to huge economic losses to vehicle owners in the African sub region.

“It is impossible to continue to remain silent about this problem, especially for the short and long term repercussions on the health and economy of our people.” (Source: AllAfrica)

 

 

European-Only Neighborhoods in African Cities before Independence

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments3 Comments
Africa_map1
Africa

As a note, I recently learned that before independence in African countries and probably in all European colonies around the world, there were “European / white-only” neighborhoods and “Indigenous” neighborhoods – imagine my surprise: it is your country and you can’t go into parts of it! You were born in a city, but you cannot go to certain neighborhoods even if that neighborhood is the burying ground of your family. Furthermore, to go into the European neighborhoods, one needed a pass (like during apartheid in South Africa)! In Douala, the biggest city of Cameroon, the European neighborhoods were Bonanjo, Bali, and Bonapriso. In Accra, Ghana, it was Christiansborg, and Victoriaborg. Which were the “European-only” neighborhoods in your city?

Final African Tally at the Rio 2016 Olympics

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Uncategorized1 Comment

Rio2016_145 medals for Africa this year. A record. Wayde Van Niekerk, the South African, being the first African to win a gold medal in sprint, and also broke the world record established by Michael Johnson in 1999 on 400 m. Ethiopian Almaz Ayana also broke the 1993 record in 10000m.  Here are the remaining medals from the tally I published before the end of the games.

Cheikh Salla Cisse gave Côte d’Ivoire its very first Gold medal (in less than 80 kg Taekwondo men)

 

Cisse1
Cheikh Salla Cisse

Caster Semenya – 800 m women (South Africa) – Gold

 

Ruth Gbagbi – Taekwondo less than 67 kg women (Côte d’Ivoire) – Bronze

Francine Niyonsaba – 800 m women (Burundi) – Silver

Margaret Nyairera Wambui – 800 m women (Kenya) – Bronze

Nigeria men Soccer team – Bronze

Semenya
Caster Semenya

Eliud Kipchoge – Men Marathon (Kenya) – Gold

Julius Yego – Men Javelin (Kenya) – Silver

Almaz Ayana – 5000 m women (Ethiopia) – Bronze

Hagos Gebrhiwet – 5000 m men (Ethiopia)- Bronze

Feyisa Lilesa – Men Marathon (Ethiopia) – Silver

Taoufik Makhloufi – 1500 m Men (Algeria) – Silver

Abdoulrazak Issoufou Alfaga – over 80kg Taekwondo men (Niger) – Silver

Oussama Oueslati – less than 80 kg Taekwondo men (Tunisia) – Bronze

Hellen Obiri – 5000 m women (Kenya) – Silver

Vivian Cheruiyot – 5000 m women (Kenya) – Gold

 

 

 

 

African Colors at the Rio 2016 Olympics

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments1 Comment

Rio2016_1Thus far, African colors have been flying high at the Rio 2016 olympics, with 31 medals. Here are the names and the medals by country. Congratulations to all the athletes. They make us proud!

Chad LeClos – 200 m freestyle (South Africa) – Silver

LeClos
Chad LeClos

Chad LeClos – 100 m butterfly (South Africa) – Silver

Shaun Keeling – Rowing (South Africa) – Silver   

Cameron van Der Burgh – 100 m breaststroke ( South Africa) – Silver

Dylan Sage – Rugby (South Africa) – Bronze

Seabelo Senatla – Rugby (South Africa) – Bronze

Lawrence Brittain – Rowing (South Africa) – Silver

Rudisha
David Rudisha

David Rudisha – 800 m men (Kenya) – Gold

Taoufik Makhloufi – 800 m men (Algeria) – Silver

Sara Ahmed – weightlifting women (Egypt) – Bronze

Mohamed Mahmoud – weightlifting men (Egypt) – Bronze

Hedaya Malak – Taekwondo women (Egypt) – Bronze

Marwa Amri – Wrestling – less than 58 kg (Tunisia) – Bronze

Ines Boubakri – Fencing (Tunisia) – Bronze  

Ayana1
Almaz Ayana

Almaz Ayana – 10000 m women (Ethiopia) – Gold

Vivian Cheruiyot – 10000 m women (Kenya) – Silver

Tirunesh Dibaba – 10000 m women (Ethiopia) – Bronze

Jemima Sumgong – Women Marathon (Kenya) – Gold

Mare Dibaba – Women Marathon (Ethiopia) – Bronze

Niekerk
Wayde van Niekerk

Wayde van Niekerk – 400 m men (South Africa) – Gold

Hyvin Jepkemoi – 3000 m steeplechase (Kenya) – Silver

Mohamed Rabii – Weight Welters men 69 kg (Morocco) – Silver

Faith Kipyegon – 1500 m women (Kenya) – Gold

Gensebe Dibaba – 1500 m women (Ethiopia) – Silver

Conseslus Kipruto – 3000 m men steeplechase (Kenya) – Gold

Paul Tanui – 10000 m men (Kenya) – Silver

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Faith Kipyegon

Tamirat Tola – 10000 m men (Ethiopia) – Bronze

Luvo Manyonga – Long jump men (South Africa) – Silver

Sunette Viljoen – Women javelin (South Africa) – Silver

Henri Schoeman – Triathlon men (South Africa) – Bronze

Boniface Mucheru – 400 m hurdles men (Kenya) – Silver

Reclaiming African History: Gorée and the Slave Trade in Senegal

On By Dr. Y.In Great Civilizations, Great Moments5 Comments
Goree_Le_fort_d'Orange_et_de_Nassau_à_l'île_de_Gorée_17th century
Goree Island: Fort of Nassau and Orange, 17th century (Wikipedia)

Today I will be talking about the island of Gorée, in Senegal. Located less than 4 km from the city of Dakar, Gorée island offers a sure route for ships. Since the 15th century, it has been the center of rivalries between diverse European nations which used it for slave trading. Locally known as “Beer” or “Ber” or “Bir” in Wolof, it was first named “La Palma” by Portuguese in 1444, with some ancient maps also showing the name “Beseguiche” for it. The Dutch navy named it “Goede Reede” or “Good Harbor” in 1588. In 1677, the island was occupied by the French.

Goree_Map_of_Goree
Map of Goree (Wikipedia)

Before I dive further into the atrocities of human trading on the island, I would like to address ideas circulated by some stating that the island of Gorée was never really used for slave trading and that slave trading had been done in Saint Louis in the north or south in Gambia. These claims were so outrageous that the Senegalese government sponsored an international conference on the history of the island, and researched and found original archives from the French Port of Nantes showing that between 1763 and 1775 alone, one port had traded more than 103,000 slaves from Gorée; this thus shows that Gorée was indeed at the epicenter of slave trading, and stating otherwise is an attempt at falsifying history. The first slaves were taken from Gorée in 1536, and the trade continued at least until 1848.

Goree1w
House of Slaves (Wikipedia)

Now back to the island itself. One of the most important if not the main stop on the island is the house of slaves. Of Reddish/pinkish color, this house was first built by the Dutch in 1776, and is the last standing slave house on the island. At the end of the 18th century, the island was a prosperous crossroad of merchants, soldiers, and administrators, with at its center slave trade. Today, it serves as a museum and a memorial to humanity. The upper part of the building like most slave houses was used by the Europeans who lived there; while the bottom part was used to house slaves packed on top of each other in humid, sordid, and disgusting rooms built for 15-20 people but housing sometimes over 100 people, while waiting to be taken to the Americas. On the bottom floor, there is a room used to pack young women among which the slave traders would come every night and choose those who will be used for their sexual pleasures; if any of these women were found pregnant from these traders’ visits, they were freed on the island or sent to Saint Louis. There were also rooms to house strong men, children, and women. There was also a dark tiny room where the most defiant ones were stacked on top of each other, and salty water was seeped through the walls to force dehydration and later death. The value of a man depended on his weight and muscles; the minimum weight was 60 kg. The value of a child depended on his/her denture, while that of a woman on her breasts.

Goree_Jeunes filles
Cell for young girls in the House of Slaves

The small size of the island made it easy for merchants to control their captives. The surrounding waters are so deep that any attempt at escaping would mean sure drowning. With a 5kg metal ball permanently attached to their feet or necks, a captured African who ever tried running away would surely drown in deep sea.

From the door of no return, the slaves were loaded onto ships which took them across the Atlantic. This was their last time on African soil.

Entire families were captured and brought to Gorée, but their destinations were seldom the same: the father could be shipped to America, while the Mother to Brazil, and the child to Haiti or the West indies. Separation was irrevocable.

Goree_Cellule
Cell in the House of Slaves

Not too far from the house of slaves is the castle which was used as a warehouse for millions of captured slaves.

After the abolition of slavery in 1848, the island’s population declined, with many moving to Dakar. Since 1978, the island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today the island of Gorée is a memorial to all those who were separated from their loved ones, their lands, their society, their culture, uprooted and sold like cattle across the globe. It serves as a reminder of humanity’s ugly past, and what it is capable of for capital gain, hatred, and greed. Gorée is and should remain all of that, but also a true reminder to future generations that mankind should be loved, and a man’s life is precious, not to be sold like cattle. Attempts by some to absolve themselves from their ugly pasts should not stop those who were hurt from remembering, for celebrating the lives of those who perished, who were uprooted, and those who survived. Truth is truth whether beautiful or not, it is truth, and remembering is acknowledging all the good those who lost their lives, those who survived, gave to the world, because America will not be America without the Slaves’s lives and hard labor; Brazil will not be Brazil without the blood of those slaves; France will not be France, or Great Britain will not be Great Britain without the sweat and blood of African slaves. So Gorée is a reminder of all of that, and should be cherished for it.