Abstract

The European enslavement of Africans to what became the Americas lasted 100s of years; it involved 1000s of voyages every year; millions of Africans were kidnapped; and hundreds of millions of pounds, francs, escudos and dollars profit were made. The struggle in Europe to end the slave trade and slavery was immediately superseded by a struggle to publically remember and collectively represent the nature of slavery and its legacies.  It was also accompanied by efforts to distort, suppress or symbolically annihilate public memory of slavery.  Several of the nations involved reveal a long term refusal to publically acknowledge slavery and its legacies; they display large scale immigration and settlement of former colonial residents to the metropolis; they have experienced various kinds of social mobilization of Black immigrants and settlers for public recognition of slavery and its legacies; and they reveal uneven incorporation of demands for recognition in a range of public institutions. Focusing on England and the Netherlands today I describe and explain the ways in which public history and collective memory of slavery and its legacies is currently reflected in the activities of five social movements or trends: the remembrance and commemoration movement, the reparations movement, the anniversaries and apologies trend, the museum heritage and artifacts trend and the new anti-slavery movement. These groups promote dramatically different public histories of the nature of slavery and its legacies, and they reveal divergent access to knowledge production, knowledge dissemination and political power.  I consider the challenges to collective memory of slavery at the present time. And I highlight how unique social contexts shape the continuing range of African Diaspora responses to the legacies of slavery. This analysis raises important questions for the public history and collective memory of slavery in contemporary Portugal.

Bio

Stephen Small (Ph.D.) - Associate Professor, Department of African American Studies, University of California, Berkeley (since 1995). Extraordinary Professor for the Study of Dutch Slavery and Its Legacy, Department of History, University of Amsterdam (2010-2015). Director, Education Abroad Programs, Spain (2013-2015).

Activity within the Doctoral Programme Democracia no Séc. XXI and research group Democracia, Cidadania e Direito (DECIDe)