SLAFNET – Slavery in Africa: a dialogue between Europe and Africa
Project status
ongoing
Execution period
2017-2022 (May, 31)
REF
H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016, 734596/SLAFNET
Funding scheme
Horizon 2020: Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions; Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)
Main research institution
Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (France)
Research unit and institution network
Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), Bath Spa University (United Kingdom), Catholic University of Eastern Africa (Kenya), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (France), National Museums of Kenya (Kenya), Universtiät Hamburg (Germany), School of Arts and Humanities of the Univeristy of Lisbon (Portugal), Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal), Université de Nantes (France), Unversité de Yaoundé (Cameroon), University of Birmingham (United Kingdom), University of Mauritius (Mauritius)
Project director
Marie-Pierre Ballarin (Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis)
CH-ULisboa/FLUL Work Package Task Leader
Research task Social Memories of Forced Labour in the longue durée in the Lusophone World in the Work Package Forgetting and Remembering Slavery in Europe and Africa
CH-ULisboa/FLUL research coordination
José Damião Rodrigues (ULisboa)
CH-ULisboa research team
Augusto Nascimento (ULisboa), Carlos Almeida (ULisboa), Eugénia Rodrigues (ULisboa), José Damião Rodrigues (ULisboa), Luís Frederico Dias Antunes (ULisboa), Maria Manuel Torrão (ULisboa); Thiago Mota (ULisboa); Vítor Rodrigues (ULisboa)
Official Homepage for SLAFNET Project | Homepage of the Programme at CORDIS (European Commission)
The overall objective of the project is to establish a top-level scientific network of several institutions and research groups from Europe and Africa on the field of slavery studies. It aims at focusing mutual efforts of 13 partners with extended and complementary competences in their respective research fields and at gathering multidisciplinary expertise in slavery-related issues by encouraging the exchange of young and senior researchers from both continents. This network will be the first of its kind in the world. Our goal is to conduct research on both historical and contemporary slavery and forced labour and to emphasize its international dimension. One of the main goals of this project is to bridge disciplinary and regional area studies or initiatives, to encourage dialogue and to engage in collaborative research. It will involve African and European researchers from various disciplines from different parts of the world with complementary skills. It will enrich the analysis of the underlying local situations and address the impact of slavery and slave trade on population histories in Europe and Africa.
The objective of the work-package “Forgetting and Remembering Slavery in Europe and Africa” is to question simultaneously the dynamics of the silence on slavery in different countries and to analyse the memory of slavery among particular groups and communities. It will be implemented in distinct areas in Africa and Europe (Ethiopia, Senegambia, Portugal), and will collect and use primary sources (archives, prints, interviews) in order to analyse the social and political stakes of forgetting and remembering slavery in both continents. One the one hand, the role played by Ethiopian and African American intellectuals and politicians in “silencing” slavery in Ethiopia for ideological reasons will be thoroughly analysed. On the other hand, the collection and analysis of the many slave voices that have no public visibility will offer ground-breaking insights into the social fabric of contemporary Ethiopia. In a will of comparison, the Work Package will examine the work of memory and its complex interactions in a Lusophone context (Social Memories of Forced Labour in the longue durée in the Lusophone World) both on the European and African sides where forced and coerced labour shaped social relations. However, unlike in France or Britain, in Portugal the issue of slavery is generally absent from the history of the nation-building, even though it was one of the earliest actors of transatlantic slave trade. Our aim is to question this paradox and to understand the apparent inexistence of claims of slave descendants communities within this country. This will allow us to engage the dialogue with more African contexts, in particular in three Senegambian societies where stigma related to slavery remains very strong.
