INTERNATIONAL REMEMBRANCE AT KEY WEST AFRICAN CEMETERY

On Sunday, March 25, at 5:30 p.m., the 2018 Annual Key West Community Observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, will be held at the African Cemetery memorial, 1094 Atlantic Boulevard at Higgs Memorial Beach, just west of the White Street pier and adjacent to the historic West Martello Tower brick fort, continuing a local and global tradition begun a decade ago. 

Beginning as always with a Native American opening blessing, the outdoor Remembrance ceremony consists of inspiration from traditional and contemporary multicultural prayers and rituals, followed by a historical presentation and updates of Key West’s unique and important connections to that convulsive chapter of human history, live performances, interactive “Village Talk,” and sharing of light refreshments.

Direct Connections

Key West, by being the southernmost city in the continental U.S., and therefore geographically closest to the predominant historic “slave” trading routes, has multiple direct connections to this chapter of human history, and therefore is a most appropriate and important venue for the annual public observance of this commemorative occasion.

The most direct of these physical connections is the Key West African Cemetery itself, where 295 Africans, mostly children and youth, were buried in 1860, part of a total of 1,432 captives who were rescued by the U.S. Navy from three captured American slave ships bound for Cuba which were brought into Key West,  where the surviving Africans would be detained for twelve weeks, attracting national attention before being ‘returned” to the American colony of Liberia (rather than their original homelands), while for these 295 who could not recover from the unspeakable horrors and illnesses they had suffered aboard the ships, this would become their final, distant resting place, their young lives senselessly wasted in useless suffering.

In addition, Key West is home to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, whose archaeologists and researchers have helped to organize the Annual Remembrance but have also brought to light a number of important and enlightening stories:

•  the 1700 wreck of the English slave ship Henrietta Marie in the Florida Keys, from which such powerfully evocative artifacts as iron shackles have been retrieved and displayed;  (Continued)

•  the phenomenal saga of the 1827 wreck of the Spanish slave ship Guerrero off Key Largo and its survivors (a story first brought to light by acclaimed Keys historian Gail Swanson); and

•  most recently, the 1860 (same year as the Cemetery) wreck of the Peter Mowell in the Bahamas, where descendants of survivors still maintain a community known as “Congo Town.”

 Notably, the Museum’s has been playing an increasing leadership role in gathering and preserving this history, by securing the official Listing of the African Cemetery on the National Register of Historic places, for example, and through its newly emerging role as a globally accessible resource center for slave trade research, thanks to significant funding from the State of Florida to digitize its remarkable collection of records, artifacts, and other resources related to this history.

 A Necessary Observance

The International Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in December, 2007, in observance of the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the legalized “slave trade” (but, significantly, not of slavery itself) by Great Britain and the United States, with the goal of this commemoration being focus to the 400 years that the human trafficking in African captives lasted, as well as to its long term consequences in the world.

Among those consequences are clearly continuing injustices, disparities, and oppression, but also the survival and spread of rich African cultural, scientific, and spiritual traditions, and the ongoing undaunted struggle for equality, justice, and fulfillment for all human beings.

 Timely Significance

This year’s Observance takes on much added significance from two timely developments, one of which is a number of milestone anniversaries this year, including the 50th anniversary of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and of the launch of the historic Poor People’s Campaign for economic justice, as we also observe the 200th anniversary year of the birth of Frederick Douglass, the legendary Abolitionist whose powerful eloquence still resonates today, as all of these “consequences of slavery” persist.

 The importance of these legacies, and of the March 25 event itself, will be greatly enhanced by a history-making global Seminar on “New Approaches to the Interpretation and Representation of Slavery in Museums and Sites: International Perspectives,” in Charlottesville, VA, from March 19-22, motivated primarily by the UNESCO Slave Route Project, holding its first such conference in the U.S. since being founding in 1994 as an ambitious international call to all nations touched by the “slave trade” to identify and conserve all sites and relics related to this history so that it will not ever be lost or forgotten by future generations. 

 All Are Welcome

The Annual Observance event is free and open to the public, and welcomes spiritual leaders of all positive faiths and traditions, drummers and musicians, performance artists, and all who have knowledge to share.

 For further information, call 305-904-7620, 305-304-1136, or 305-834-2143.

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