In 2018 , the Government of France announced plans to erect a national monument to slavery carved with the names of 200,000 enslaved people freed when France abolished slavery ( for the second time ) in 1848 . The plans were met with controversy : the selection process of the winning design , the location size and , most of all , the concept . According to the Slave Voyages database , 1,381,404 Africans were enslaved by the French . Dr . Myriam Cottias , head of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project , argues that recognising only 200,000 enslaved men , women and children freed with the abolition of slavery “ celebrates the Republic that abolished slavery and emancipated slaves – and never mind all the others ”. 6 She contends that the victims should be at the heart of the narrative of France ’ s role in perpetrating the crimes against humanity , rather than focusing on the abolition as a great accomplishment for the Republic . For the time being , the monument is on hold . 7
In the United Kingdom in 2007 , on the bicentenary of the UK ’ s Slave Trade Act of 1807 , 8 the International Slavery Museum ( ISM ) was opened in Liverpool , a city with one of Britain ’ s oldest Black communities . Situated near the docks where slave trips began their voyage , it constitutes the one museum is the world dedicated exclusively to slavery heritage . Nevertheless , it grapples with its own controversial history . It is one of the seven National Museums of Liverpool ( NSL ), where only 0.5 % of the NSL employees identify as Black , African , Caribbean or Black British . 9 In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement that swept many countries after the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 , NSL came under criticism for their lack of diversity and the systemic racism that polarises not only the communities in Liverpool but across the entire UK . The toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol was hailed by many as affirmative action against racist ideologies in the heated global debate over how to deal with monuments to historic figures who profited from African enslavement .
In Portugal and Spain , two of the largest former slave-trading countries have barely begun the journey to acknowledging that heritage today . Although plans for a memorial to enslaved peoples in Lisbon has been in the planning for almost a decade , little progress has been accomplished . In Spain , which took more than a million enslaved Africans into the trans-Atlantic slave trade , there is no monument commemorating the victims of its slaveryera heritage . However , there is some work underway to acknowledge Spain ’ s history in this realm . In 2016 , Oriol López Badell , a historian at the European Observatory on Memories at the University of Barcelona , helped establish a
6
Benjamin Dodman , “ Behind sketch of black MP in shackles , a French failure to confront slave legacy ”, France24 , 31 August 2020 : https :// www . france24 . com / en / 20200831-behind-sketch-of-black-mp-in-shackles-afrench-failure-to-confront-slave-legacy
7
For more on the Contested Histories project , see www . contestedhistories . org
8
More than 3.2 million enslaved Africans were brought to the New World by British ships . The Slave Trade Act of 1807 abolished the slave trade but not slavery itself .
9
Maya Wolfe Robinson , “ Liverpool is built on transatlantic slavery ’: how city ’ s museums are tackling race issues ”, The Guardian , 26 May 2021 : https :// www . theguardian . com / uk-news / 2021 / may / 26 / liverpool-is-built-ontransatlantic-slavery-how-the-citys-museums-are-tackling-race-issues
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Observing Memories Issue 6