National Museums Liverpool to commemorate lives lost through slavery
National Museums Liverpool will be commemorating the millions of lives lost through enslavement at its 12th annual Slavery Remembrance Day at the International Slavery Museum and Albert Dock in Liverpool next week.
Slavery Remembrance Day takes place every year on the 23 August, the day in 1791 when an uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of St Domingo (modern Haiti) began. The day commemorates the lives and deaths of enslaved Africans and their descendents who were central to the rise of Britain as an industrial power, and celebrates the resistance, rebellion and revolution that ended slavery.
This year there will be a number of workshops taking place, which will see participants educated in the production of West African masks, the rules of Wari, an ancient African number, thinking and strategy board game, and the unique art form of Capoeira, which combines dance, music and martial arts.
There will also be a period of reflection to remember ancestors of African and Caribbean heritage. The libation, which is an ancient spiritual ceremony, will be followed by a number of musical, dance and poetry performances. Later on in the day, Cecil Gutzmore, Dread Scott, Mende Nazer and Dr Mark Ledwidge will discuss the history of slavery.
The International Slavery Museum will hold several activities the day before (22 August) too, with the inaugural Walk of Remembrance through Liverpool City Centre a highlight.
In the evening, a memorial lecture, entitled ‘Engaging the Holocaust of African Enslavement: The Ethics of Remembrance and Reparations’, will be led by Dr Maulana Karenga, an African scholar and activist who created Kwanzaa, the week-long celebration of African heritage and culture which is observed worldwide each year.
To find out more about this year’s Slavery Remembrance Day in Liverpool, please click here.
For further information, please email learning@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or call 0151 478 4543.
