91�鶹������Ʒ����

Organised jointly by the Ministry of Arts and Cultural Heritage, UNESCO, the UNESCO National Commission for Mauritius, the University of Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), the University of Mauritius, Centre International de Recherches sur les Esclavages (CIRESC), SLAFNET Project, Le Chantier Association, The International Scientific Committee, this Conference will bring together scholars from the Western Indian Ocean engaged for decades in unexplored disciplines related to slavery and themes previously considered taboo subjects. 

Launched in 1994, the UNESCO “Routes of Enslaved Peoples: Resistance, Liberty and Heritage” Project aims to breaking the silence surrounding the history of slave trade and slavery and addressing their contemporary consequences, as well as shedding light on the social and economic injustices it created. For three decades, it has led innovative knowledge production, development of high-level scientific networks and supported memory initiatives on slavery, its abolition and resistance. 

In the past decade, the project has particularly shed light on the multiple forms of dependence, and bondage predating colonial slavery in the Western Indian Ocean. It has elucidated the intricate and migratory networks linking the eastern, western and northern Indian Ocean regions, revealed complex societies it engendered with their cultural, political and economic peculiarities. Emerging civilisations and ethno-social-cultural groups, shaped by waves of forced and voluntary migrations, populate these regions. While contemporary issues and legacies of slavery exhibit similarities, the Western Indian Ocean presents unique particularities. 

Despite the wealth of studies since the 1990s, it is evident that in many countries, the African diaspora continues to grapple with the enduring legacy of slavery in various ways. The imperative to silence the past persists in some regions, posing a significant obstacle to confronting these legacies. 

The conference therefore aims to provide a platform for scholars of the region to convene and engage in critical discourse about the enduring silences of the past, the legacies confronting us in the present and the futures facing the peoples of Western Indian Ocean.

In showcasing their findings, this conference will inspire future innovative scholarship, and update statistics of the slave trade in this region, while placing a central focus on the human stories behind the institution of slavery and its enduring continuities.

• The UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project

•