Please note that this event has already occured.
Key information
Date: Saturday 18 August 2018
Time: 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Venue: Trafalgar Square, Westminster, London, WC2N 5DN, GB
Cost: Free to attend
On Saturday 18 August 2018, the third annual national memorial to mark UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition will take place at Trafalgar Square. This celebratory and uplifting event will remember the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It will feature poets, monologues and artistic performers and all ages, nationalities and cultures are welcome to attend. There will also be a minute’s salute to commemorate the 60 million lives lost during slavery as well as those involved in modern slavery.
Since its inception, this day has gone from strength-to-strength with this year’s memorial receiving support from the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan. The memorial is important as it offers the chance for people to come together and start to come to terms with this atrocious piece of our history, in so doing making tentative steps towards reconciliation of this past. We are looking forward to welcoming all those who wish to remember and honour the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in joining us for another uplifting and inspiring day. Shezal Laing, Founder of Slavery Remembrance
If you don’t learn from the past you are condemned to repeat it. Many people will try to brow beat people of African heritage about the legacies of slavery with the cliche ‘stop going on about the past’, but of course they do not really mean this. Those very same people are careful to honour their ancestors, build statues, wear poppies and other such things dedicated to the memory of the dead. It is only right and normal that people should remember those who sacrificed so much for us to be here today. For that reason and many others, I wholeheartedly support the national memorial to support this day and commemorate those that suffered one of the greatest crimes against humanity. Akala (Kingslee James Daley)
The event is being organised by Slavery Remembrance which was established to commemorate the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and promote UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Its mission is also to educate, celebrate and inspire. The do this by challenging views on Africa and its diaspora as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They also celebrate Afro-Caribbean history, culture and achievements and act as an umbrella organisation promoting those whose work focuses on benefiting Africa and its diaspora.