Panel Discussion, Performance to Mark International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery, Transatlantic Slave Trade on 24 March
The Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the United Nations is organizing an event in connection with the annual observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Co-sponsoring the event are the Permanent Mission of Jamaica, the Sierra Leone Monuments and Relics Commission, and the United Nations Department of Public Information.
A panel discussion and performance themed “The Atlantic Slave Trade: Constructing new Amistad, Bunce Island, Gullah, Maroon and Nova Scotia Bridges”, will be held from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, 24 March, in the Economic and Social Council Chamber at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
In the letter and spirit of General Assembly resolution 62/122 of 17 December 2007, which designated the annual observance, the discussants will use “landmarks” associated with the transatlantic slave trade, including Bunce Island, Connecticut, Jamaica, Liverpool, Nova Scotia and South Carolina as backdrops in considering ways and means of building and strengthening bridges of cooperation to enhance awareness and education in remembrance of the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. Sylviane A. Diouf, Director of the Lapidus Center for Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, will serve as moderator.
Delivering welcoming remarks will be Cristina Gallach, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information; Vandi Chidi Minah, Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations; and Shorna-Kay Richards, Deputy Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations. The distinguished panellists are Al Marder, President of the Amistad Committee, New Haven, Connecticut (a sister city of Freetown, Sierra Leone); Bernard Powers, Professor of History, College of Charleston, South Carolina, and Board Member of the International African American Museum; Isatu Smith, Chair of the Sierra Leone Monuments and Relics Commission; Christopher DeCorse, Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School; and Roy Anderson, director and producer of the films Akwantu: The Journey and Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess.
The programme will include a performance by Ron Daise, singer/songwriter and former Chair of the federal Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission. The Corridor was created in October 2006 by an Act of the United States Congress (Public Law 109-338) to recognize the important contributions made to American culture and history by African Americans known as Gullah Geechee, who settled in the coastal counties of South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.
The event coincides with the 175th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision freeing dozens of members of the Mende tribe captured in Sierra Leone and sold as slaves in Cuba. Led by Sengbe Pieh, they had revolted against the captain and crew of the Spanish schooner La Amistad.
Guests will also have the opportunity of visiting the Ark of Return, designed by renowned architect Rodney Leon and unveiled in 2015 on the grounds of the United Nations as the Permanent Memorial to honour victims of slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The Day of Remembrance is organized under the mandate of the United Nations Remember Slavery Programme, established in 2007 to honour the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, and to combat racism and prejudice today.
For more information on the programme, please contact Paula Green at e-mail: greenp@un.org. To register, please visit www.un.org/en/events/slaveryremembranceday. For media accreditation, please visit www.un.org/en/media/accreditation.