Shauntel Calhoun
Research Mentor: Justine Davis
Mentor Department: DAAS, LSA
Author(s): Not Available
Session: Session 1 (9:00 AM – 9:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 88
Abstract
This research project, “Mapping Commemoration and Diaspora Engagement: The Transatlantic Slave Trade in Africa’s Public Memory and Legal Frameworks,†conducts a comprehensive, continent-wide survey of museums, monuments and heritage sites dedicated to the history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. While the memory of this history is prominent in West African locations like Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle is well documented, this study seeks to systematically identify and analyze sites of memory across all African regions, addressing a significant geographical and thematic gap in the scholarship of public history and memory studies across an array of educational institutions. Beyond physical commemoration, this project expands its inquiry to examine a pivotal contemporary development: the growing movement among African nations to legally recognize and engage the diaspora through citizenship and “right of return†laws. Countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, and more recently Benin, have implemented or proposed legislation granting citizenship or special residency status to descendants of enslaved Africans. This research investigates how these legal frameworks intersect with (and are often promoted through) heritage tourism and museum narratives, creating a complex dynamic between historical reckoning, national identity and diaspora politics. By synthesizing the analysis of memorial landscapes with the examination of repatriation laws, this project provides a novel, holistic understanding of how Africa is not merely memorializing a traumatic past but actively redefining its present and future relationship with its global diaspora.
