In Senegal, slave trade archaeologists fight for a decolonial approach

In a dark room at Dakar’s Cheikh-Anta-Diop University, large shelves reach to the ceiling, on top of which are stacked dusty drawers devoured by termites. They are filled with pebbles, flint and pottery from Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. Ahead are a bunch of boxes with holes and rusty iron trunks. “In this reserve are the oldest collections of the Fundamental Institute of Black Africa [IFAN]compiled even before the country’s independence, in 1960 »indicates Professor Ibrahima Thiaw, one of the first Senegalese archaeologists who became interested in the transatlantic slave trade, between the 15th century^my and on the 19th^my century. IFAN was created in 1936, when Dakar was the capital of French West Africa.

Upstairs, in an air-conditioned room, objects from the island of Gorée, located off the coast of Dakar and a symbol of the triangular slave trade, are stored in more modern cabinets. In front of them, piles of boxes collapse. “European colleagues dug up objects to study them. This allowed them to publish prestigious scientific articles. And then they left us trunks with objects that were difficult to preserve.”, deplores Ibrahima Thiaw, who directs the research unit in cultural engineering and anthropology (Urica), created in 2017, and which is part of a decolonial approach. This approach – also present in other disciplines such as sociology or anthropology – is distinguished by a desire to break with the analytical practices and grids inherited from colonization.

“Some teams continue to act as if we were still in colonial times”he laments. The archaeologist would like Western scientists to integrate the preservation of heritage and the training of students in its conservation into their research budgets on the African continent.

In Urica’s classrooms, about ten students work on their computers. On the walls, the faces of Aline Sitoé Diatta (1920-1944), heroine of the Senegalese resistance against French colonization, and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), American abolitionist, were painted by the pan-African graffiti collective RBS Crew.

Lamine Badji, PhD student in archeology, observes skulls griots, these storytellers who orally transmit the history of their country. These human remains were recovered from baobabs by a Belgian anthropologist in 1965. Until this practice was banned by President Léopold Sédar Senghor in 1962, griots were not buried in cemeteries with other inhabitants, but inside the trunk of one of these trees. sacred places of West Africa. . “The objective is “decolonize” this collection by resuming its study from a Senegalese prism, that is, guaranteeing respect for our beliefs and traditions. “First we must obtain the consent of the families because the ethical question of their scientific exploitation arises.”explains the doctoral student.

“Other human remains collected in Senegal were left without conservation monitoring, they are now rotten and contaminated by bacteria. Where is the respect? This would never have happened in Europe. “Black bodies are not inferior to other bodies.”protests the Senegalese researcher, who strives to restore dignity to these human remains. He took DNA from the skulls of these griots to try to identify their descendants. “We were able to trace some of them in America, showing that the descendants of the griots were sent as slaves across the Atlantic, although the writings claim that they were saved”explains Badji.

“Restorative dimension”

Respect for human beings and relationships with communities are at the heart of the work that Ibrahima Thiaw wants to promote. “The body is not an object but a soul, and its history is linked to that of the living”the teacher continues. “We must take into account the deep wounds that this tragedy has left in today’s society. We cannot ignore this emotional aspect. The restorative dimension of archeology, which allows us to reweave the thread of family stories broken by separation and exile, is too much neglected. »

The Senegalese scientist focused his research on the island of Gorée, where he studied the impact of the slave trade on modern West African societies. A work that allowed him to rewrite the history of this island, from the point of view of the victims, while until then it had been told from the Western perspective.

“The historiography of coloniality is imposed through writing, which is fetishized. Although it does not necessarily correspond to what happened, the challenge is to explore parts of this history that have been kept silent.explains Professor Thiaw. Archeology allows us to compare what was written in the texts with what the material traces left..

The archaeologist was struck, for example, by the few European objects from before the 18th century.^my century found on the island of Gorée, while texts document its presence – and even its hegemony – since the 15th century.^my century. “We mainly found European objects from everyday life, such as inkwells, alcohol bottles or weights for weighing precious objects, dating back to the 18th century.^my century “Thiaw emphasizes.

There is no shortage of questions. Despite texts about the atrocity of the slave trade, the archaeologist has so far only discovered handcuffs, as well as firearms and flints.

To expand his field of research, Professor Thiaw and his students have been exploring the seabed for ten years in order to map the wrecks of European ships. They form the first maritime archeology team in West Africa led by Africans. Young archaeologists dived for a month, between May and June, off the coast of Gorée Island to obtain acoustic images of the sites of two shipwrecks, probably related to the slave trade. One of them dates back to the beginning of the 19th century.^my century.

“Total disaster”

“The hull of the wreck is covered with a copper alloy that was used at the time to protect ships from Atlantic traffic, warm waters and microorganisms that attack wood.”explains Madicke Gueye, doctor in underwater archaeology. He is the national coordinator of the Slave Wrecks Project, a project dedicated to the remains of slave ships between Senegal, Mozambique and South Africa. “The inventory work carried out over the last ten years has allowed us to identify 24 underwater archaeological sites off the coast of Gorée. “Now we need to be able to date them”duck.

Until then, in 1988, the French underwater archaeologist Max Guérout had made only a few dives. “It was a total disaster. “The artifacts that were taken from the water were very poorly preserved.”laments Ibrahima Thiaw. In fact, the archaeological pieces from these underwater expeditions are still preserved in buckets of salt water in the historical museum of Gorée.

The underwater remains have been submerged for centuries, sheltered from light, in a salty, oxygen-poor environment. Fragile, they must be subjected to appropriate treatment. “We lost a good part of this collection, especially all the wooden objects”laments Madicke Gueye. The young researcher campaigns for the opening of a conservation laboratory that would allow the remains still buried in the depths of the Atlantic to be safely extracted and finally reveal their secrets.