The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
UNESCO designated the 23rd August the ‘International Day for the Remembrance of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Abolition’ to acknowledge the atrocity of the transatlantic slave trade.
According to UNESCO the day ‘should offer an opportunity for collective consideration of the historic causes, the methods and the consequences of this tragedy, and for an analysis of the interactions to which it has given rise between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean’.
After discussions with the Windrush Foundation, since 2018 the Mayor has held an annual event to mark UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This year’s event was especially poignant coming as it did in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests which helped challenge the historical narrative and memorialisation of the Slave Trade and its abolition.
Since the inaugural event in 2018 we have been very fortunate to work with an advisory group comprised of mainly community organisations who have helped shape the programme. These include Slavery Remembrance who since 2016 have delivered their own Remembrance event Sankofa Day, in Trafalgar Square, Black Cultural Archives, The Equiano Society, Ligali, Windrush Foundation and Wanda Nation.
In March the decision was made to cancel all face to face events in City Hall and Trafalgar Square. Faced with the fact that we couldn’t deliver our usual programme we held a partnership event with Sankofa Day. This year we focussed on how Britain’s role in the slave trade has been depicted over the years, who have been the story tellers and what stories are yet to be told. To give you just a taste of the event, we were honoured to have Professor Olivette Otele give our keynote speech, panel speakers representing organisations such as Black Curriculum, Young Historians and Nubian Jak Community Trust and performances from Sam West and Ayanna Witter Johnson.
Delivering events during this pandemic has meant a very steep learning curve for us all - before March this year City Hall hadn’t delivered any major online events, indeed even small online meetings were a rarity. There is a lot that we have learned from the experience about online event production.
This will inform and guide our event in 2021. It has opened our eyes to new opportunities and ways of working and help ensure that this event, which is so important to Londoners, continues to tell the untold stories and history of Enslaved Africans and their fight for freedom.