A foundational component of our recent landmark exhibition, THE LIVING ARCHIVES | MEMORIES BEYOND THE ATLANTIC, are the compelling visual chronicles entitled AGOUDAS | AFRICAN MEMORIES | BETWEEN PRIVATE TRANSMISSION AND PUBLIC APPROPRIATION, showcasing the expansive body of work by critically acclaimed photographer and PhD researcher Nicola Lo Calzo.
This series explores how West African countries, including Ghana, Senegal, and Benin, remember and transmit the history of slavery. In a region where the Transatlantic slave trade remains morally and socially difficult to reconcile, memories often survive within private spheres through rituals, religion and taboo. As our curation continues to unfold online, we are happy to give you further access to this compelling body of work.
Over the past two decades, the legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade has gained significant prominence across the Americas, Europe, and Africa. In these regions, major public initiatives have actively brought the painful memory of slavery back into civic consciousness. These developments are largely the result of sustained activism by diverse political actors, some driven by a genuine pursuit of social justice, and others motivated by a desire for political prestige or economic gain.
Practices of remembrance, conveyed through festivals, monuments, and local museums celebrating the legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, allow for the recreation, reinvention, and rethinking of this painful past. Yet, this public memory does not constitute a direct transmission of history. Instead, it belongs to the scope of post-memory (Hirsch 1997), functioning as a transitional space where this past is relived, re-enacted, and re-experienced.
While highlighting the brutal history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the profound suffering of enslaved Africans before their forced departure, most commemorative initiatives offer overly simplified narratives of enslavement. Although these reductive stories effectively attract and move both local and international tourists, they consistently normalise the complex experiences of the victims. Consequently, they reinforce misleading stereotypes and omit uncomfortable historical realities, such as African participation in the slave trade.
Public protests led by local social activists proactively engage with the debates surrounding this painful past. However, these collective discourses must not be confused with the private, lived memories of slavery held by local descendants of both the enslaved and slave merchants. Their oral traditions and rituals are shaped by a blend of Animist and Christian ideologies, which are anchored in historical sites and architecture. Ultimately, this complex material and immaterial legacy has yet to be recognized and sustained through transparent public policies, free from political manipulation.
The first part of this series explores how public memory around slavery and slave trade tourism emerged in West Africa. It shows how tourism ideas from North America and Western Europe were adapted in countries like Ghana, Senegal, and Benin. Promoting this heritage helped build West Africa’s tourism industry. These memory sites were designed mainly to meet the expectations of tourists from Europe, North America, and the Caribbean.
The second part focuses on the complex transmission of slavery memories in West Africa, where the topic remains taboo. Local narratives are scarce and continue to generate deep unease. While these memories have not disappeared, they are preserved through alternative and intricate forms of storytelling, seemingly too complex to be integrated into official public memory policies.
Through the shared memories and cultural practices of African descendants, both of traffickers and the enslaved, it is clear that despite the taboo surrounding the topic, the legacy of slavery deeply influences contemporary relationships. Specifically, the historical stigma of slavery continues to shape the organisation of the power across West Africa.
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