In Black America; The Slave House on Goree Island and The Goree Island Celebration of Remembrence

Music From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is In Black America. One point I would like to mention, one of the requests we have to use, is that we're going to put together some kind of special dossier, more of you know about it.

It seems a tradition that when we take a group of journalists of this type, we ask them to give us at the end of the visit five to six hundred words of what struck the most during the visit. And then we give, you know, we can have something whereby we can work out the special edition, which would be, you know, your own deception, because you're all being exposed to the same information, but you will obviously react differently, so that, you know, before we leave on Friday night, you know, if you could kindly, you know, let me have, you know, five to six hundred words of what struck you most, you know, since you arrived here, then we will have a special edition again that will be published, you know, with the Black Press and will be published with the NABJ Journal, and also we will have other special pullouts. Jibrill Jello, Senior Advisor with United Nations Children's Fund. In December of 1987, a group of black journalists traveled to the carcinogal to attend the Pan

African Festival of Arts and Cultures and the Gory Island celebration of remembrance. Gory Island is the unique symbol of the slave trade economy and the triangular trade on the Atlantic Ocean among Africa, Europe, and the United States. It is the privileged link between Mother Africa and the 150 million persons of African origin who live across the Atlantic in Peru, Honduras, Brazil, the United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Diana, Jamaica, and Hades. Gory Island has already been designated an historic monument by the government of Senegal and is on the world list of UNESCO as worthy of preservation. I'm John E. O'Hanston, Jr. This week, a look back at the slave house on Gory Island and the Gory Island celebration of remembrance in Black America. Another point which we're looking into is alongside the same line we're going to try and

arrange a meeting with African journalists here because I think that it's very important for NABJ to try and strengthen its links, working links, working African journalists here. So we're trying to schedule that sometime during the week. I take it you all know how to spell out the juice name so I won't come back to that. The Hadara symposium that you have information on which will be held from 1st to 5th of March will address this, but you have it, I think, in your pockets. The specific issue of children in the frontline states is very, very important and the national coordinator is here, Simon Moubi from Zimbabwe, so you will get the chance to discuss with her. Hadebel Affonte is responsible for preparing the U.S. participation. It's a very, very important symposium. Over the past decade, the economic and social situation in Africa has deteriorated. Millions are suffering in emergency situations due to natural and man-made disasters such

as droughts, flood, epidemics, pests, armed conflict, and South Africa's act of destabilization. In May of 1987, the Organization of African Unity brought together heads of state and government to adopt several revolutions endorsing child survival efforts. The growing commitment of African leaders to the well-being of Africa's children and women has been the central to success of child survival and development activities supported by the United Nations Children's Fund. In December of 1987, a group of black journalists traveled from this country to Dakar Senegal to get a first-hand look at the situation in that country and today in the Gory Islands celebration of remembrance. The Republic of Senegal negotiates its independence from France on April 4, 1960. The West African country is 76,000 square miles, with a population of an estimated 6.7 million people.

The major language is Walloth, the official language is French, which is dominant in government, commerce, and the mass media. 80% of the population are Muslim, and approximately 6% are Christians. Senegal is a relatively well-developed country. Its major exports are ground nuts oil, feed cakes, fots fate and fots fate fertilizers, and canned fish. The major imports are rice, sugar, machinery, transport equipment, and intermediate materials for industry. The per capita income of Shingonese is $440 per year. On our second day in Africa, we visited Gory Island. A ferry boat ride took approximately 15 minutes. That day, the boat was filled with tourists and Shingonese, saying their handcrafts and boys attempting to shine your shoes. Gory Island was once a prison, evident by the cannons mounted on the top of the garrison, protecting its harbor.

Gabriel Jello, senior advisor with United Nations Children's Fund, was our guide and interpreter. Well, Gory Island used to be the capital of all of West Africa. That was at the time when the card was just a small fishing village, much smaller than this, and this was a place of very active administrative and educational activities. Like, many of the African leaders like Ufubwani and Sengor and Sekuture and others did their training here. In the case of Ufubwani as teachers, there was a big school here, a famous school, where the training was done. But before that, in the old days, as you can see, the structure is very, very old style. It used to be a very chic city, where Europeans from all over came and stayed. It was successively owned by the Dutch, the Portuguese, the French, which was very,

very active and very, very rich because of the slave trade. Africans had to be involved in the slave trade, how much so were coercion or they were mad for money. It was both. It was a bit of both. You had, like in any society, people who were being used to subjugate, subjugate their own people, like in the more recent history of Africa, the most bitter battles that the liberation movements have to wage is against armies formed of Africans, like in Guinea-Bissau, in Angola, in Mozambique, in Zimbabwe. The colonizers recruited Africans who were fighting the nationalists. So the same thing here, there were many Africans who were involved in the slave trade as auxiliaries, but also there were African tribal chiefs who were also selling slaves.

So it became a capitalist venture, even at this end. Well, traditionally, traditionally, there is slavery in Africa, but in a different sense, that when you say somebody is your slave, it's like the caste system, but it never came to a mercantile kind of system. That was introduced by the European, it started first with the exchange of goods, like exchanging salt and fish and foodstuffs against gold and other items that were coming from the northern part of the Sahara. And then it got transformed into the slave trade itself. The slave house on Gory Island is a grim reminder of our not-so-distant paths, hundreds of thousands of captives, awaited transportation over the Atlantic, is a monument to 300 years of suffering, its grim dungeons lie directly under what was the grateful living quarters

of the European commandants. The day we visited the slave house on Gory Island was on a Monday. The creator, Joe Jefferjai, was taking the day off. After a brief discussion between him and Jibril Jello, he permitted us in. He thought I would register this place, I will leave it to you, you can take it exceptionally. And this is the last slave site. The first slaves date from 1536, followed by the Portuguese. And that was undertaken then by the Portuguese, the first European to go here in 1440.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans in Gory in 1444, Gory was the most important center of slave transit in this area, and anytime you had between 150 and 200 slaves in this house, children, women, and men. And the weight could be very long in this house, because it could last between three and three and a half months. And because they depended on slave ships to transport them, sometimes you may have the same family in this house, but the father, the mother, and the brothers or sisters will be separated.

And they went to whichever places in the U.S. depending on who bought them, for instance, the father could go to Louisiana in the United States, the mother could be sent to Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Les Antis, and the child, Haiti, or the Caribbean, they would never send out of here with the real names, they had numbers on them. And then when they arrived, the plantations, they had the names of the slave masters. For instance, in the United States, you had English speaking names because of English people. And then Portuguese in Brazil, Spanish, Spanish names in Cuba, Haiti, anti-Francés, non-oprenon-francés, and then Haiti and French speaking Caribbean, French speaking names.

So therefore there are borrowed names and not names of African origin. And they, the best prized race was the Eurobar, and these came from parts of Nigeria in Benin. Because in the plantations of America, the Eurobar was considered as an imaginary, excuse me, for the reproduction. And because they were used for reproductive purposes on the plantations, they were considered very important. And they were called Stalians, or, you know, I'd call them Stad, or anti-desiscaliers in Ferraschval, se passé le dernier marché en Afrique. And this is where you had the last trade in Africa. César Infaposite, anti-desiscaliers, and when the people were weighed over there, they were brought here.

And the owners and buyers were standing out there, and they would feel the slaves just to find out how strong their muscles were, which will determine their value. Because every African race had its own specialty, just like you would do with cows or with horses. And from this corridor that I called the corridor of the trip, from which one never returns, they were stunned that we'll enable the boats just to come close to the house. And they just next to the door, you had guards who were Africans.

They were former slaves who had been decentralized, decentralized, and were collaborators. Therefore, they were tougher towards the slaves than even the slave owners. So that during the boarding, they had to have their arms ready, because they were very often attempts to escape during that period. And when people tried to escape, they were either shot down or they were eaten by the sharks. And reason why the place was infested with sharks was that anybody who was sick or had any problems was just thrown to the sea, there was no medical facility. And he will show you the copy of the chain they had between their legs when they were going

to the toilet. And here you have the chain that they had between the two legs. And here you have the heavy weight between the legs. And it was locked up like this so that every time they wanted to go to the toilet, this was the equipment that was put between the legs. So, let's play a little bit more. The milk sensor was the first to get it from 1536 during the Portuguese times. To 1848, when it was abolished by the French, the remit between 15 and 20 million blacks

coming from all over Africa were shipped out of this slave house. The race that were leaving the continent because they had been selected as a man. And we are convinced about this because if we just look at athletics, you know, African Americans are among the best that we have in the world. And up there I will not make any comments just to tell you that that was the house of the European merchants. And sometimes I wonder how those Europeans could live there and have a clear conscience with what was going underneath their house.

Yes, you will. Yes, this is when the cellulpa are there. And I just let you imagine. I'll let you make the parallel between what was going on up there and what was going on down. Well, thank you, J'ai fermé la porte là bas. C'est pour le visiteur, oh, and this was the place for the toilet for the room. So you will have, you know, this place packed full. And then, you know, if you wanted to go to the toilet, it's just here. But the people who had the best conditions were the girls. So they were allowed to come out of the room and go to the toilet here, you can see just that stone there. And here when the people were sick, sometimes they were transferred into this room temporarily. So the whole idea is that I'd like to come back to this point because it's very, very

important, you know, in terms of the value of the slave, you know, women and then children and then stronger men and then, I mean, women, that is girls, you know, and then women in the sense of all the ones and no one, this is now much better because I understand the goal is you were underneath, you had water immediately underneath, you know, and in the place of no return itself, that leads you out there. During our stay in the United States, last year, I was interviewed in New York City and I launched an appeal to our brothers and sisters to help maintain this slave house.

Because I see in you all of you, you're like my cousins, because I know that my ancestors went from here, that's why I apologize to you, but through you I see my brothers and sisters you know, we're all cousins, thank you. So he has put the money towards the restoration of the place. On December 15, 1987, a ceremony was held for the Foundation Stone of the Memorial dedicated to Africa and the Laiasper on Gory Island. The celebration brought together heads of state and government, worldwide personalities in the fields of higher education, the arts, business and politics. Mr. Eugene Jackson, president of Unity Broadcasting, was the United States

representative to the celebration of remembrance. People of Africa, people of America, peoples of Asia, peoples of Oceana, peoples of Europe, by this celebration, rightly qualified as a remembrance ceremony, we are now entering the most intense moment of this current pre-festival. This ceremony is not meant to lay the foundation of a stone memorial, some of the conditions of which are still being finalized, but brought to seal and align, symbolized by the mixing of the Goryan soil, which soils originating from all the horizons of the African diaspora, for the North, the South, the East, the West from America, the West Indies and the Caribbean, Asia, Oceana, Europe, and everywhere. Above all, we must bear in mind the symbolic aspect of our gathering in this forum. Since

such a mixture is the expression of a blood path, it rarely as well as a sacred call to which we must all respond and be present. We are, first of all, present to reflect and to remember, and we are present to live together up to the new expectations, the new hopes, and the new challenges. People of Africa, people of America, people of Asia, people of Oceana, people of Europe, and this solemn day, which is the day of Herbert, Communion, and Hope, it is Africa as a whole, and Africa is throughout the world, who remember through Goryan. People of Africa, people of America, people of Asia, people of Oceana, people of Europe. Our dream today is to change the world, but also to restore unity and peace. Unity

because the North and the South are invited together here today. Peace, because peace, is to guarantee for bright future for all mankind. Men and women, whose horizons are obstructed by wars, torture, assassinations, enslavement, and humiliation, but who are still determined to create conditions, conducive to the attainment of freedom within the framework of society free from all sorts of monsters. People of Africa, people of America, people of Asia, people of Oceana, people of Europe, as we all know, memories may be bleeding and vulnerable to time whereas prayers are forever. Therefore, memories should be kept alive. Nurture that we, we will rare, we will do a rare tree or a flame perpetually rekindled. The greatest danger that threatens Africa is a loss of her collective memory. The more

because you may be living besides the most beautiful tree of antiquity without even knowing what she is. You may be living as a stone thrown from Gory and fail to know anything about the civilizedness. In itself, Gory and Ireland is a monument, but more than that, this island is a common heritage for all mankind. This island belongs to us all. Wherever we may come from, it is all of us to secure this perpetually and to rebirth for all African people. This rebirth will come to light less from prayers and even less through magical intentions than through actions and deeds. We have to pull our efforts together to unite to look forward in the same direction, to put an end to wars and rumors and to get rid of all of our petty ambitions and differences. People of Africa, people of America, people

of Asia, people of Oceana, people of Europe. I would like to take this small opportunity to state that Gory is a stretch of hand pointing to the future. It has the intentions to regroup everybody in the world. Africans, men and women alike, those from the diaspora, those from everywhere, men and women, of all races, of all nations. There has been more than one minute of silence in my faith in international elements. with this soil from the state of Alabama in the United States, brought from a slave

military. We unite the sole and spirit of African people throughout the world. This is a symbol. We will reassemble the world's African spirits on Dore. We have a moment of silence to recognize all African people who were taken away against their will, who died in slave shifts, who died in slavery and foreign lands, and we must not forget all the brothers and sisters who died in slavery and in a colonial period in Africa herself. We ask for one silent moment for the

new beginning. The Gory Islands Celebration of Remembrance in Descartes, Senegal. I would like to thank Jibrill Gello and the United Nations Children Fund for their assistance in the reduction of this program. If you have any ideas or questions, write us. Remember views and opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect those of this station or the University of Texas at Austin. For in Black America's technical producer Cliff Hargrove, I'm Johnny O. Hansen, Jr., please join us again next week.

Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, U.T. Austin, Austin, Texas 78712. That's in Black America cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, U.T. Austin, Austin, Texas 78712. From the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John L. Hansen, Jr., join me this week on in Black America.

Traditionally, there is slavery in Africa, but in a different sense. In the sense that when you say somebody is your slave, it's like the caste system. A look back at the slave house on Gory Island and the Gory Island celebration of remembrance this week on in Black America.