Durmam Daxxel - GOREE: THE CONCENTRATION CAMP THAT LASTED FOR 400 YEARS

'From Goree 15-20 million West African Captives took the journey of no-return with their eyes fixed on their infinite sufferings' J. Ndiaye.

By Garba Diallo, June 1996

The Senegalese name of Goree was Ber which the Portuguese renamed Ila de Palma that was changed to Good Reed by the Dutch and corrupted to Goree by the French. In 1978 UNESCO designated Goree as a World Heritage. The dedicated Curator and Guardian of the Slave House, Jo Ndiaye describes the history of the island as 'sullied with, tears, blood and suffering that evokes a sad past'.
In spite of the crime committed against its humanity, Jo Ndiaye prays that Africa would never refuse to others which the world long refused to her: LIBERTY. The French writer M. Renaudeau describes Goree as 'a microcosm where the people bear witness without words, without pompousness'. He adds that 'the only constant feature has been the labour of Africans, who toiled to erect all these buildings'.

ON GOREE THE PAST IS THE PRESENT
For the third time in 4 years I visit Goree. Each and every time I feel that there is hardly any other place on earth where I can live the past so close and vivid like here. Of course the most disturbing thing and yet fascinating with Goree is its history. For four centuries from 1444 to 1848 Goree was a slave concentration camp. On this slave depot the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British fought and killed each other over the black flesh of the blacks. From here they detained, tortured, raped, humiliated and shipped between 15 and 20 million Africans to the Americas. 6 millions of them perished on their journey. As Jo Ndiaye insists 'they took away the youngest, the strongest, the healthiest, separating mothers from children, disturbing drastically the population equilibrium of the continent'. All this crime was committed in the name of profit.

THE SLAVE HOUSE
In his collection of quotations about Goree, Jo Ndiaye explains 'Only those who have dwelt between these walls have cherished liberty'. Here the most basic human rights was denied to the African. Without any human feelings or shame, it was here emerging European powers competed to commit the worst and most durable crime against humanity. Here merchants and priests raped captive women whose feet and hands were chained. The living symbol of this crime is the Slave House built in 1780 by the Dutch. This house of shame was especially designed to detain slaves awaiting to be sold and for shipment.

Ironically, the slave merchants and the slaves shared this very same Slave House. Jo Ndiaye reminds the pilgrims that: 'Only a wooden floor separated the lustful mores of the ones from the miserable decay of the others'. After taking care of the Slave house since its inauguration in 1962, Jo Ndiaye still wonders 'How could they afford living upstairs with everything that was happening downstairs?' How could they tolerate the smell of the slaves which the French writer Boufflers complained about. He could feel the smell of slaves wherever he was on the island.

In holes and cells of the ground floor were packed 150-200 children, women and men captives in chains and on the second floors lived the slave merchants. These merchants of shame could not avoid hearing the grooming and cries of the suffering captives. The masters were guarded and attended for by earlier captives who had been domesticated and totally brain washed to the status of dogs that they would obey the orders of their sinful masters with pleasure.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Jo Ndiaye assures the visitors that 'it was the most beautiful African race that left to the America because it was selected. African Americans today are the best athlets in the world'.
Just imagine that they had to stay here for 3 months and spend 3-4 months across the atlantic making it 7 months to reach the Americas, you had to be very strong to survive. To survive both physically and psycho-culturally as humans. Could the immoral slave merchants survive this without loosing their lives or humanity?

As M. Renaudeau writes 'just before being packed into the cramped and stinking holds, every slave was branded with the emblem of the company or the master. At such times, the whole island reeked with the nauseous odour of burning flesh'. The period was one of a total absence of shame or scruple. Indeed, by a morbid twist of irony, one vessel named 'The African', was commanded by a certain captain Le Noir.

SLAVERY IS THE MOTHER RACISM
The slave trade has a grave consequence both on the slave masters and the enslaved blacks.
According to Jo NDIAYE, the Slave trade was to lead inevitably to a moral ruination of the West and a political downfall of Africa. He goes on 'the most obnoxious effects of slavery is perhaps the persistence of the myth of the superiority or inferiority linked to the colour of one's skin'. But is it possible for a people to enslave and colonise other people for over 500 years without the former feeling superior over the other?

THE MAGIC OF GOREE
On this island, you cannot avoid being charmed, seduced and frightened by the past. The magic and the beauty of dignity, the warmth, colours and the light of the ship shaped buildings, the narrow streets, the smell of incense, the laughter of children, the gracious walk and talk of the women and the constant sound of music of this tiny and barren island combine with its history of suffering to make Goree very special. Just 900m x 300 and 1500 inhabitants, Goree is small but beautiful. Goree is so tranquil that there are no cars, no crime, no noise from drunken tourists. Those who visit the islands behave more like pilgrims visiting their holiest shrines than tourists.
Most visitors don't even spent the night on Goree. There is only one hotel, Chevalier des Boufflers. Many people are afraid of Goree. They are afraid of the past memory, especially, because the curator and guardian of Goree, Mr. Jo Ndiaye keeps on telling the visitors: 'Those two things, the Jewish Concentration Camps and the Slaves House must remain for the coming generation to see, so that it will never repeat'. During his visit to Goree in 1981, the former French prime minister, Michel Rocard, confessed that 'It is not easy for a white man, in all honesty, to visit this Slave House without feeling ill-at-ease'. As Michel Renaudeau puts it, 'Not a single step can one take along the streets of Goree without being reminded of that abominable trade'.

Jo Ndiaye sumaries the horror in the following words: "The Toll of miseries and lives which the Negro Slave Trade claimed is beyond anything one can imagine. Uprooted from their native land, driven to a foreign land, without common language, ...sold out to masters at random, overburdened with hard labour and without any other education but obedience or flogging, these Blacks reduced to the status of stray individuals could not reconstitute families".

THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE
Goree was so important for the slave merchants, because in terms of geography the Senegalese coast is more pointed to the Americas. Goree was therefore an ideal place for the triangle traders (Europe-Africa-America). The island is just 3 km off the Senegalese coast, its tiny size makes it easy for the slave merchants to control their captives. The surrounding waters are so deep that any attempt at escaping would mean sure drowning. With 5 kg metal ball permanently attached to their feet or necks, the victims knew too well what jumping into the deep sea would bring. They had seen how quick the resisting slaves, sank down to the bottom after having been thrown into the sea. The local people say that this attracted a lot of sharks to the shores of Goree.

WORLD HERITAGE
Since its designation as world heritage by UNESCO in 1978, Goree has become a centre for meetings and exchange of ideas and tolerance. Despite its sad history, Goree has managed to keep its African hospitality and spirit. Already before the turn of the century Goree hosted the first teachers training college (William Ponty) in French West Africa. From this school graduated the first West African intelligentsia. Now there is a school for the 30 smartest girls (Mariama Ba) who achieve the highest mark for the annual secondary school exams in Senegal. The school is named after a female writer who died at early age. There is a centre for development and democracy with its base at the Sudan House.

In fact the whole island is a museum. It hosts the historical museum of Senegal, the maritime museum, the women's museum and above all the Slave House. During his visit to Goree in 1991, the Pope knelt for 30 minutes and asked Africa for forgiveness. Among the personalities who made a pilgrimage to Goree were Jesse Jackson, Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela. There is a major project to build a memorial of Goree on the main land. This will help Africa forgive without forgetting the crime of slavery. As Jo Ndiaye 'insists' those two things the Concentration Camps and the Slave House must remain for the coming generation to see so that it would never repeat'.

LISE WITTEN, African-American third time pilgrim from New York.

Q: Why do you come to Goree and to the Slaves House?

A: I come here because I wanted to experience being here again. I was here in 19770, I was only 21 years old then. I remember screening the impact of being here then and that I was not involved as now. I learnt a lot about slavery in the college. I think I just wasn't ready to feel it. I was here twice in 1992 and I didn't want to come back. But this time I felt I wanted to come back just to be here where my ancestors were. Slavery is something that I think about almost every day of my life. To be here, in this part of the world which was such an important transition place, is very special. I want to be here and learn more about it. I was an adult then but very young adult, but now I am 40.

Q: You are 40 and you are still crying about slavery, I saw you crying.

A: Yes, I think part of why I cry is that my mother took a picture of my little sister in 1977, and my sister had looked in the room of the children and when she turned around, she was not crying but she had a very pained look in her face and I could she that picture of my sister in my mind and I also thought about my niece and my nephew and it was very hard to think about what happened here.

Q: Do you know whether your ancestors came from here, this part of West Africa or from somewhere else?

A: It is hard to tell and one of the thing that is hard for me is that I don't see a lot of people here who look like me. I am mixed with a lot of other people. Some African-Americans come here and see people who just look like them, but I don't. So I can't tell. I know that I have some European ancestry and some Native American, but people tell me that I look Fulani. But I don't know if that because I am mixed or what. I know I attribute my height to my African ancestry, I am 6 feet tall and I have long skinny fingers like the Senegalese so I think my aunt has eyes that sort of Yoruba, I don't know, I feel very connected to the Senegalese I thought very connected to the Ghanians too, so I am not sure, and that is part of the things that we will never know where exactly we came from especially those of us who are so mixed.

When I was in Ghana some of the people have a characteristics of their eyes where there is a little turn on the inside of their eyes and there was a woman from the States who had that same little turn, I don't know how to describe it, eyes turned up so I figure that she is probably from there. I just thought connecting to all this part of the continent since I don't know where I came from. I may eventually try to find out where the enslaved people who where taken to the Bahamas came from because my grand parents where born there so that might be the way to trace down for at least one side of the family, but I don't really know.

Q: You know I am doing some research on the role of Goree as a base for slavery from the 15th to the 19th centuries, for anti-slavery campaigns and as a cultural centre. So, what do you think about Goree as a cultural base that can serve for intercultural communication?

A: I think that is a good idea, because I believe that the spirit of our ancestors is still here and so I think it is testimony to them and enshrinement of their spirit to keep ti, study, to preserve it and understand it.

SANDRA LOUIS, African-American pilgrim from New Jersey.

Q: Why do you coma here?

A: I come to Goree because I think it is important to remember what happened and it is very important for me to take it back and share it with young people who don't know anything about this or have very little idea about what it was really like for the Africans who were enslaved here and enslaved in America. And it is important for them to understand what we went through so that they feel that there is a reason to continue to be and to continue to struggle. We know that they can. I mean if anybody can survive this, you begin to understand that there is a strength in you that you can survive and you can do things in the world that are beyond what you have been made to think you can do.

INTERVIEW WITH ABDOULAYE CAMARA, Curator of the Historical Museum of Senegal, Goree.

Q: I was surprise that most of the people here on Goree are Fulanis as yourself, not the half breeds as I expected.

A: This is part of the history of Goree. At the beginning Goree was a European enclave with their slaves, and there was inter marriage and the mulattos were born. The mulattas entered commerce and at the time they could own houses and do commerce. The free natives were denied those rights by the white masters. This was Goree during the Slave Trade. Both and soon after independence, Goree suffered serious economic problems that many people moved to Dakar and Refisque. After independence Dakar sucked in more people from Goree and St Louis. The economic importance of Dakar made it attract people from the surrounding areas. So, the mulattos went to Dakar and some other people like those from the River came in to find jobs in the tourism or develop commerce here on Goree.

TOUR DE CHAMBRE OF THE SLAVE HOUSE With Jo Ndiaye:

Just follow me and start visiting the cells. The number of slaves held at a time in this house was from 150-250. They normally spent 3 months here before being shipped off to different destinations. Some times entire families were held here before they were taken to different countries: the father might go to the USA, the mother Haiti, some children to Brazil and so on.
They left Goree only with registeration numbers, and never with their African names. Once they reached the plantations, they wore their master's name. For example in the US they got British names, in Brazil Portuguese, on Cuba Spanish and in Haiti French. Therefore what they have now is not African names but slave names given to them by the slave masters.

This cell was only for men, the cells were 2-6 sq.m, chains and shackles around their feet and hands while sitting on the bare floor with their backs against the wall. They were released only once a day to satisfy their needs. The bad sanitation conditions led to the spread of plague epidemic that devastated the Island in 1779.

Here is the kid's cells where the mortality rate was the highest. Here is the narrow gallery leading you from the main door to the back. On the floor of this narrow gallery the slaves lay lined up like sardines in boxes. The age of a child was determined by his teeth due to the lack of registration. Here you have the young girl's cell. They were separated from the women because they were more valued than the adult women. The value of a girl depended on her virginity.

Some of these girls were sexually abused by the masters. Once they became pregnant, they were set free and sent to St-Louis in northern Senegal or kept one the Island. In 1815 at the Vienna conference when Goree was given back to France, these mulattos of white fathers and black mothers were given French citizenship. So this made many girls want to give themselves to the white masters in order to be free. As far freedom was concerned this was the only way of salvation.

Here was the weighing room. The ideal weight of a slave was 6okg. Those who weighed less than 60 kg were stocked inside in order to be fattened like beasts. Mmm mm!!! As grooming. This staircase leads you down to the cell were the rebellious slaves were kept with just an opening in an iron bar to allow them to breath a little. They number of days slaves were kept inside the hole depended on the scale of their rebellion.

When we got the chance to receive Nelson Mandela here in 1991, he insisted in entering this hole and staying there for two minutes. When he came out his eyes were completely red with dust all over his clothes. Perhaps he thought about the prison conditions in Apartheid South Africa. This hole was built in 1848 after slavery was abolished by the French revolution in 1789, but Napoleon had to start it again because his wife Josephine De Bournet was slave owner. She ended up being divorced in 1809 on behalf of our ancestors which was very good for that lady, mmm! mm! mm!
This is the big cell for the rebellious slaves, the only clothing they had was a piece of cloth around their loin. Many of them died because of pneumia and other diseases.

The biggest problem on the island was the lack of water. Water was collected during the rainy season and then distributed among the slaves in small portion like eye drops. The black guards were very brutal against their fellow slaves. Now you are going through the door of no return, why because once you stepped out of that door it was bye bye Africa for ever. There was a palm tree bar on which the slaves step unto the ships. During shipment, there were attempts to escape. They were either shot by the guards or eaten up by the sharks.

When the Pope came here in 1992, upon reaching this door he applogised to Africa, because many catholic missionaries were involved in the slave trade. Those slaves who were too violent were thrown into the water by the guards who tied a 5 kg metal ball around their necks.

Here is where the men were lined up after having been weighed. Being in the middle court yard gave the European merchants who rested on their elbows leaning down on the slaves. The weight and prices were marked on the slaves, because each African had his specialization, his price depended on his skills and weights. The most valued was the Yoruba from Western Nigeria and eastern Benin. In the plantation the Europeans notices that the Yoruba were especially good for breeding slave babies. Many of those who found their way to Cuba, Haiti and Brazil were Yoruba.

Here is the shackle they used to have when going to the rest room. In the middle of the chain there was this heavy metal ball the slaves were obliged to pull with. Should the slave try to escape by jumping into the water, he would immediately get drown no matter how good swimmer he was, because of heavy weight of the metal ball. This metal ball was donated to the Slaves House by the vice mayor of Bordeau. Here is the way they were loaded in the ship, 350-400 slaves sharing 13 meters long, 8 m large this led to the high mortality rate. There were several attempts of rebellion by the slaves on the ship.
They were hanged by the waist to die little by little on the ship when caught. This happened between in western Surinam. Black slavery was the biggest genocide that humanity has ever known.

People talk a lot about the Jewish concentration camps, but those camps lasted only 12 years while black slavery lasted for 350 years and people never talk about! During these 350 years 15-20 black slaves were taken via Goree. Why was Goree so important, because in terms of geography the Senegalese coast is more pointed to the American coast & million of them died because of mistreatment. It should be recalled that it was the most beautiful African race that left to the America because it was selected. African Americans today are the best athlets in the world. Just imagine that they had to stay here for 3 months and spend 3-4 months across the atlantic making it 7 months to reach the Americas, you had to be very strong to survive.

Up stairs doesn't need comment because that was where the European merchants used to live. And I have been wondering so many times how could those merchants live upstairs and what was on going down here. Now it is up to you to imagine how they could do that. On the second floor, you can enjoy a beautiful exhibition which was opened in December 1990 by Madam Danielle Mittrand the president of the French Association "France Liberty". She came here especially for the inauguration of the exhibition and she has helped us a lot in renovating the Salves House. If you feel like donating the green box over there is available.

Those two things, the Jewish Concentration Camps and the Slaves House must remain for the coming generation to see, so that it will never repeat.

Thank you very much for your pilgrimage and have a nice stay in your ancestral homeland.

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