Book contents
- Decolonizing Heritage
- The International African Library
- Decolonizing Heritage
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 History and Testimony at the House of Slaves
- 2 The Door of Return
- 3 Shining Lights and Their Shadows
- 4 Prayer of Emergency
- 5 Recycling Recognition
- 6 Ruins of Utopia
- 7 The Museum of Black Civilizations
- Coda
- Bibliography
- Index
- The International African Library
2 - The Door of Return
Framing Race and Reconciliation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2022
- Decolonizing Heritage
- The International African Library
- Decolonizing Heritage
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 History and Testimony at the House of Slaves
- 2 The Door of Return
- 3 Shining Lights and Their Shadows
- 4 Prayer of Emergency
- 5 Recycling Recognition
- 6 Ruins of Utopia
- 7 The Museum of Black Civilizations
- Coda
- Bibliography
- Index
- The International African Library
Summary
Positing that African countries willingly commemorate the transatlantic slave trade but forget the legacies of domestic slavery, this chapter examines the continuation of slavery in the shadows of the House of Slaves at Gorée Island. To examine these hidden legacies of slavery, this chapter looks at the history of the mixed-race Signares and their historical implication in the slave trade and domestic slavery. One of the moral conundrums in the legacy of the Signares is their mixed parentage of European fathers and subordinate Black mothers, placing race at the heart of the cultural creolization (métissage) that is celebrated today as the legacy of Signares. This chapter establishes that the heritages of the slave trade and the Signares are framed as irreconcilable discourses that lead to divergent interpretations of the material culture of the island. Examining a controversial statue, the island’s architectural legacies, the impersonators of Signares, and the Festival of Return, this chapter establishes that the antinomies between the legacies of the slave trade and the Signares are occasionally overcome in rituals of reconciliation.
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- Decolonizing HeritageTime to Repair in Senegal, pp. 73 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022