Posté le: Dim 03 Déc 2006 00:52 Sujet du message: Pour un tourisme de mémoire
La place de l'île de Gorée dans la traite...
Citation:
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1995
From: Philip Curtin, Johns Hopkins University
Goree was never important in the slave trade, which flourished in Senegambia only at the mouth of the Senegal to the north or the Gambia to the south. But Goree is an interesting nineteenth-century town that can be used to attract tourists, especially African Americans looking for their roots.
The leading figure supporting the hoax today is a man named Joseph N'Diaye, who is the curator of a house that has long been called the "House of Slaves." It was actually built in 1775-78 as the home of a wealthy trader, who may or may not have kept a few slaves on the lower floor at some time. It has been called the house of slaves at least since my first visit there in 1955, though the slave-trade shrine that N'Diaye has developed dates from the 1970s at the earliest.
The reason for calling it the house of slaves in uncertain. It is architecturally one of the finest houses on Goree, certainly not a place where slaves would be kept. It is on the shore, however, and had a first-floor door leading to the water. It may be that people began imagining that slaves could be sent to sea by that route. Slaves were not kept in traders' houses in any event.
The claim that the "house of slaves" was a slave-shipping point has been refuted as long ago as 1958 by Raymond Mauny, shortly afterward the first professor of African history at the Sorbonne. [see Les Guides Bleus: Afrique de l'Ouest (1958 ed.), p. 123.]
On slave numbers, N'Diaye used to claim that 20 million slaves were shipped from Goree, 5 million of them to the United States. At the time of my visit in February 1992, he had increased the number to 40 million. Meanwhile, the government historical museum at the end of the island of Goree gives a range of 8 to 10.5 million reaching the New World from all of Africa.
A lot of people have been taken in by the Goree scam. They even had the Pope out there in late February 1992, but scam has no following at the local university. The "house of slaves" has become an emotional shrine to the slave trade, rather than a serious museum.
Slave exports from Goree began about 1670 and continued till about 1810, at no more than 200 to 300 a year in important years and none at all in others. Thirty thousand total exports through Goree would be an outside estimate.
In short, though Goree is a picturesque place, it was marginal to the slave trade, lacking the water routes to the interior provided by the Senegal and Gambia Rivers.
From: Achille Mbembe, University of Pennsylvania
Date: Fri 4 Aug 1995
I've just read, with amusement, Professor Curtin's statement on this subject. In fact, what he says is unimportant! The "slave house" of Goree is not, in the first instance, a matter of historical record. The numbers of slaves Mr. N'diaye presents to his visitors are nothing more than decoration. To have a discussion with him about Goree would take three weeks, as he very well knows.
It isn't possible to comprehend the significance of Goree for African-Americans if one considers it only a matter of numbers. We know that all the discussion of the trans-Atlantic slave trade was misleading precisely because of this obsession with numbers.
David Henige has previously shown that one cannot truly know with precision, in spite of all the simulations, how many people perished in this deadly commerce. It is too bad that fruitful research, such as that undertaken by Orlando Patterson, Joseph C. Miller or Meillassoux--who consider the political economy, philosophical, and the cultural dimensions--no longer captures the attention of scholars.
Ralph Austen has been planning to organize a conference on the images of the slave trade. Hopefully, such a conference will take place. Statistics make up part of this image, and they are not only the representations of N'diaye.
I think the stakes underlying the dynamics of the trade are too important for us to abandon debate with some who, for more than thirty-five years, have tossed out numbers--each one more improbable than the last--to reach a final figure, an action which manifestly embroils them in a strategy of guilt and exoneration.
Editor's Note:
M. Mbembe's contribution was sent to
H-AFRICA in French. As H-AFRICA is an
English language list, we asked that
it be presented in English. With the
author's permission, the editors have
undertaken this translation and offer
their thanks to Shannon Vance for her
assistance.
Date sent: Mon, 14 Aug 95
From: John Saillant, Brown University
I didn't conclude from any of the early postings about Goree, including P. Curtin's, that anyone was trying to undermine the importance of Goree or deny its role in the slave trade in the manner of the disbelievers in the Holocaust. I thought that some people were saying that to link the importance of Goree necessarily to the claim that millions of slaves passed through the island is actually to undermine that importance.
There's a thoughtful analysis of the importance of Goree in James Searing, *West African Slavery & Atlantic Commerce: The Senegal River Valley, 1700-1860* (1993), ch. 4., "Merchants & Slaves: Slavery on Saint Louis & Goree." The analysis has nothing to do with large numbers of slaves in transit on Goree or sold there.
In general, although historians would always like to have accurate accounting, we shouldn't, I think, hang the significance of our studies only on large numbers of people or goods or whatever. One of my interests is in the movement of African Americans to Sierra Leone & Liberia. The number of people who moved is small, but they were involved in mighty affairs in religion, social thought, & economic relations.
We can understand Goree as important & interesting without extravagant claims about numbers.
Date sent: Mon, 14 Aug 95
From: Ralph Austen, University of Chicago
(...) I think Curtin's intervention and the following discussion raise two fundamental questions about how we "remember" the slave trade (none of which involve denying it ever happened or was on a very large scale):
1.to what extent should we insist upon (or forego) "objective"
i.e. carefully documented modes of historical discourse in the case of such an explosive topic, one which still marks much of our daily life today?
2.(here is the more relevant comparison with the Jewish
Holocaust) how much attetnion should be given to this issue in defining African identity on the Continent and in the Diaspora?
Date sent: Mon, 14 Aug 1995
From: Philip Curtin, Johns Hopkins University
I note a curious anti-empiricist tone to some of the recent postings concerning the slave trade from Goree. It might help to tell people on H-AFRICA how the matter came up.
It began with a posting on the slavery list, from someone presumably in US history, who asked where he could find out about the slave-trade depot at Goree and its connection with the slave trade to the US. As a participant in that list, who has also written widely on the slave trade and on Senegalese history, what should I do?
One possibilty is simply be quiet, even though I knew the answer to the question asked.
A second is to lie about the matter in deference to people's feelings about the slave trade.
A the third, which I chose, was to give the most accurate brief answer I could.
I should add that the fact that not much slave trade took place at Goree has nothing to do with the horror of the slave trade in general, and that accurate evidence is a fundamental base to all historical enquiry.
De quoi s'agit-il exactement? De l'importance de Gorée comme un port à bois d'ébène, ou de la réalité même de ce port?
Dans les deux cas, l'intervention de Curtin n'est pas très iinstructive, puisque rien ne documente l'estimation à la louche qu'il balance avec désinvolture, juste pour débusquer un "hoax".
Jack Ormond, qui fut l'un des plus gros trafiquants de la "traite interlope" à destination des EUA, entre autres, s'était mis en relation avec les opérateurs de Gorée. Et bien entendu, à lui seul, Ormond pouvait très largement fournir une cargaison annuelle de plusieurs milliers de captifs...
Ce qui est sans commune mesure avec les péroraisons de Curtin. Il me souvient que Petré-Grenouilleau a joué la même partition dans certains articles. C'est aussi à cela que l'on reconnaît les négriéristes, à ce louvoiement permanent avec le dénégationnisme...
Citation:
Jack ORMOND, alias Mongo John
C’était le fils d’un « opulent trafiquant originaire de Liverpool » avec une négresse, « fille d’un chef indigène du Rio Pongo ». Envoyé en Angleterre par son père pour y étudier, il dû revenir en Afrique plus tôt que prévu, à cause du décès de ce père. Pour payer son voyage retour, Jack effectua des petits boulots de marin pendant plusieurs années. Une fois en Afrique, il hérita des affaires de son père, propriétaire d’une « factorie », grâce au soutien de sa mère qui sut faire valoir les droits de son aîné orphelin selon les lois locales.
« […] le jeune marin concentra bientôt dans ses mains toute la puissance de la famille et se proclama « Mongo », c’est-à-dire chef de la rivière […] en même temps il dépêchait des messagers à Sierra Leone et à Gorée pour annoncer qu’il serait promptement en mesure de pourvoir d’amples cargaisons […] On imaginera sans peine que peu d’années suffirent à faire de Jack Ormond non seulement un opulent négociant, mais aussi un Mongo populaire parmi les grandes tribus foulahs et mandingues à l’intérieur. Les petits chefs dont les territoires bordaient la mer, le flattaient en lui donnant le titre de roi et, connaissant ses goûts mormons, ils peuplaient son harem avec les plus beaux de leurs enfants, gage précieux d’amitié et de fidélité. » [cf. Théodore CANOT, "Les aventures d'un négrier"p71.
http://www.grioo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3912
J'avais vu un livre sur Gorée écrit justement par le conservateur M. NDIAYE, que malheureusement j'avais négligé d'acheter. Mais on peut toujours essayer de rapporter des éléments concrêts en faveur de l'une ou l'autre des positions présentées ici... _________________ http://www.afrocentricite.com/ Umoja Ni Nguvu !!!
Les Panafricanistes doivent s'unir, ou périr...
comme Um Nyobè,
comme Patrice Lumumba,
comme Walter Rodney,
comme Amilcar Cabral,
comme Thomas Sankara,
Et tant de leurs valeureux Ancêtres, souvent trop seuls au front...
l'"Atlantic Slave Trade Database Project" initié en 1993 a du permettre à David Eltis dans « The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM » (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999) co-authored with David Richardson, Stephen Behrendt and Herbert S. Klein d'apporter des éléments concrets à ce sujet
Les informations recueillies par le Professeur Mbaye Guèye sur les sites et les itinéraires suivis par les caravanes en Sénégambie éclairent divers aspects du trafic négrier : organisation de ce trafic de l'intérieur des terres au littoral, origine des groupes ethniques présents dans les cargaisons des négriers et conditions de leur déportation en Amérique.
Vous ne pouvez pas poster de nouveaux sujets dans ce forum Vous ne pouvez pas répondre aux sujets dans ce forum Vous ne pouvez pas éditer vos messages dans ce forum Vous ne pouvez pas supprimer vos messages dans ce forum Vous ne pouvez pas voter dans les sondages de ce forum
RSS
FAQ
Rechercher
Liste des Membres
Groupes d'utilisateurs
S'enregistrer
Profil
Se connecter pour vérifier ses messages privés
Connexion
