This is timely and positive news. These International observances are too often ignored in the U.S. Even more importantly, this is a great step forward in recognizing the country’s complete history.
(The role of the Middle Passage in the building of the Americas cannot be overemphasized. It is reported, for example, that prior to 1776 fully four times as many Africans as Europeans were brought into the thirteen North American English colonies, and that the business of slavery — the “trade” in human beings itself, the products of slave labor, and the related industries, such as shipbuilding, manufacture of restraints and implements of punishment, financing, insurance, etc., accounted for as much of 80% of the American economy. This does not include the nation-building skills, and cultural and spiritual knowledge that African survivors of the Middle Passage brought across the Atlantic in their “invisible baggage.”)
Although the focus of this article is on Baltimore, this can be taken as an invitation to hold similar observances in many locations.
The UNESCO International Day for the Remembrance of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (the Middle Passage) and Its Abolition (August 23) is actually one of three International Days which have been declared by the UN related to the global history of slavery, and include March 25 (Remembrance of the Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade) and December 2 (for the Abolition of Slavery).
These International Days are, in turn, related to the UNESCO International Slave Route Project, which is a call to all nations which were touched by the Middle Passage to identify and conserve every artifact, memory, or other evidence of this fateful chapter of human history, so that its lessons might never be lost or forgotten.
It should be noted, as residents of Key West, Florida, know well, that their small island city was among the first to publicly observe the August 23 date, which has been done annually for the past three years at the landmark site of the African Cemetery, where 295 African captives, rescued from three captured slave ships were buried in 1860. This tradition is planned to continue this year, when it will be much strengthened by solidarity with the observance(s) in Baltimore and other locations.
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
August 2, 2012
EVENT CONTACT: Shauntee Daniels
sdaniels@baltimoreheritagearea.org
410-878-6411
Group Selects Baltimore as First of Many Ports to Commemorate Transatlantic Middle Passage
BALTIMORE, MD — After years of planning, the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) selected Baltimore’s Fells Point Harbor for a commemoration of Africans who perished in the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World. The August 23, 2012 ceremony shares the date with the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of Its Abolition.
Two events are planned at Fells Point’s Broadway Pier on August 23: one at dawn (6:00 am) and the other at dusk (7:15 pm). These events will provide an opportunity for individuals and families to offer tribute to their ancestors by offering libation, drumming, prayer, and calling the names of the deceased silently or out loud according to the preference of participants.
MPCPMP chose Baltimore because many African Americans can trace their ancestry to the port; it was one of the earliest and largest centers in the Chesapeake directly involved in the human trade of Africans. Scholars note that Fells Point is the location where Africans disembarked to be auctioned as chattel.
“All cultures bury and honor their dead. For those of us in the African Diaspora, we have the entire Atlantic Ocean as a burial ground,” said Ann Chinn, the project’s executive director. An estimated 2-6 million Africans died in the ocean migration over the course of more than 350 years.
MCPPMP is planning similar ceremonies at approximately 175 seaports in North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. Estimated to take eight to ten years to complete, the group’s effort will encourage localities to conduct remembrance ceremonies and place physical markers at each port site. When commemorations have been completed in major seaports, ceremonies will take place on the east and west coasts of Africa.
“In effect, we are finally remembering our ancestors’ sacrifice and acknowledging the truth that as survivors we stand on their shoulders,” Chinn said. “I feel that we are keeping a promise to honor our ancestors and appreciate their contributions, beginning with those who died in the Middle Passage.”
MPCPMP recently launched a blog (www.middlepassageproject.org/blog) to discuss the Middle Passage and its relevance to contemporary society; the online resource has attracted more than 4,000 readers from around the world.
Visit www.middlepassageproject.org to learn more about the program and the commemorations. Media inquiries about the project can be directed to MPCPMP Executive Director at middlepassagemarkers@gmail.com