L-R Kolawole Oseni, Tunde Babawale, Abi Derefaka and Wole Ogundele. Photo: CBAAC

August colloquium tackles the amnesia of slavery

By Molara Wood July 24, 2010 10:50PM

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The experience of slavery and the slave trade has been described as an indelible phase of black and African history, the trauma of which has resulted in a collective amnesia that needs to be addressed.

Chair of the organising committee of the forthcoming international ‘Colloquium on Slavery, Slave Trade and Their Consequences', Abi Derefaka, made the observation at a July 5 press conference, held at the National Theatre, Lagos.

A professor at the University of Port Harcourt, Derefaka heads a 12-member committee inaugurated last December by Govenor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State. The colloquium, to be held from August 22 to 26, 2010 in Iloko-Ijesa, Osun State, is being hosted by Oyinlola's government through the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), a UNESCO Category II centre, based in Osogbo.

The colloquium forms part of the larger Global Conference on Black Nationalities, which is holding in Osogbo around the same time. It also coincides with the Osun Festival, which draws thousands of people to Osogbo every August.

Keen to allay fears of a potential conflict between several high profile international events in the same period in the Osun State axis, organisers stressed that the slavery colloquium is a largely academic forum designed to attract only those with keen interest or scholarship in the subject area. Among scholars expected to participate, are: Paul Lovejoy, Ade Ajayi, Toyin Falola, and Bolanle Awe, all professors. Interest has been very high, according to Derefaka, who said, "We found that once people got to know about the colloquium... they sent us abstracts, some even sent complete papers. We are hoping that we can cope with the anticipated deluge of participants."

He spoke about the need for a colloquium on slavery and the slave trade, stressing that, in addition to addressing the "collective amnesia" on this phase of black history, "there are vestiges of slavery all around us even today."

Drawing attention to the fact that a modern state, Haiti, was born out of a slave revolt led by a Yoruba slave, Derefaka said, "It is important to draw periodic attention to that inhuman activity which led to a somewhat irreversible cultural and spatial dislocation for many of our African brothers and sisters."

August gathering

The colloquium is also intended to commemorate the UNESCO Day for the Abolition of Slavery and Slave Trade, marked annually on August 23. In addition, the conference will help key into UNESCO's Slave Route Project, inaugurated in 1994. Several strands of the thinking and scholarship on slavery will come together in August, as the world body's International Scientific Committee on the Slave Route project will also meet in Iloko-Ijesa during the colloquium.

"The issues to be discussed at the colloquium, which focus on the past, present, and the future of our continent, Africa, and our people in the Diaspora, are topical and deserve attention now," Derefaka affirmed.

Among the sub-themes of the conference are: ‘Historiography of Slavery and the Slave Trade'; ‘Globalisation and New Forms of Enslavement'; ‘Slave Market, Routes, Monuments, Relics and Tourism', ‘Enslavement and Global Africa Diaspora'; and ‘Reconciliation, Reparation and Rehabilitation.'

Several culture bodies are providing support for the colloquium, including the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC). Speaking at the press conference, the director general of CBAAC, Tunde Babawale, said, "There is no question about the fact that slavery has impacted very significantly on the entire continent of Africa and the African Diaspora. You can hardly talk about the African people - either on the continent or in the Diaspora - without talking about the impact of the slave trade. It has in fact defined what the Diaspora looks like."

Babawale said the phenomenon of slavery needs to be subjected to rigorous study. He also expressed the hope that the August colloquium will help update knowledge on the various aspects of the slave trade; while at the same time correcting deficiencies in literature on both the Indian Ocean and Trans-Saharan Slave Trades.

He declared that the slavery colloquium will break new grounds; and called for the support of the media in ensuring its success, especially in the light of Nigeria's 50th independence anniversary.

Lasting impact

Wole Ogundele, director of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) through which the colloquium is being organised, recalled "the epic battle we fought in Paris in 2008 at UNESCO to get [CBCIU] as a Category II centre."

The professor hailed the fact that the Osogbo centre is now the only one of its kind in Africa. "Slavery and the slave trade are part of our culture - they were and still are today - the impacts of that will probably be with us for another 1000 years, if not more. In fact, as long as our black brothers and sisters do not come back - and I don't see how they can come back - the impact of slavery will continue to last in the Diaspora," said Ogundele.

He added that even if all the descendants of slavery were to return, this would be another kind of impact. Therefore, the cultural, psychological, political, and economic impact of slavery can never be over-emphasised.

Ogundele ended on a personal note, saying, "Slavery is a subject we have all taken for granted." He recalled the single black player in the Iraqi team during the 1994 World Cup. "I think Iraq beat the USA and it was this black fellow who was their outstanding player. And I kept wondering: how come a black man in Iraq's team? How come a black man in this country?"

Ogundele began to dig into the history of slavery on the Indian Ocean and Saharan slave routes, across which blacks were also transported. "So, how come their numbers are so few, unlike in the US and Latin America?"

He later discovered that "the black African men were used as harem keepers and therefore, they were castrated; and that contributed to the very, very minuscule number of blacks in the Arab World. They were emasculated."

Only a very lucky few survived, like the black player in the Iraqi team. "So, it is a trauma, and it continues to haunt us today," said the CBCIU director.

No witch-hunting

A Professor of History at the Department of History, University of Lagos, A. Lawal, called on the Nigerian government to emulate Ghana by tapping into the quest by slave descendants to know their African roots. Lawal said slave descendants should be encouraged to settle in Nigeria, as they currently do in Ghana, where ancestral lineage history is also being actively researched.

Responding to questions later, Ogundele said the conference cannot do much in real terms to halt contemporary slavery. "All we can do is forward our findings to the necessary bodies. We will pass on the results of our deliberations to UNESCO, but we can't go and mount barricades across the Sudan or Mauritania. We are not capable of doing that."

Derefaka, who affirmed that the colloquium aims "to fill gaps in our knowledge," informed that the Vice Chancellor of the University of Osun, Sola Akinrinade, will head a committee that will produce the communiqué at the end of the conference. The communiqué will then serve as "a working document for all participating agencies as well as an advocacy document which can be used after the colloquium."

Concluding, Ogundele stressed that the conference is not seeking to lay blame for the slave trade. "It is not a conference of witch-hunting - who is guilty, who is not guilty - it is too late for that. [Ours] is a UNESCO centre of international understanding. We want to understand each other; and we are building linkages with other black cultures across the world as well as within the continent of Africa."

‘The International Colloquium on Slavery, Slave Trade and Their Consequences' holds at the Royal Park Hotel, Iloko-Ijesa, Osun State, on August 22 to 26, 2010.