Further images / Return to 2015
Description: The Trans-Atlantic slave trade flourished between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries operating between the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia) and New World (North American and South America). Over seventeen million Africans were forcibly removed from their land by Europeans and sold into labour to produce commodity crops and agricultural products. Six of the core products from this trade were: Sugar, Cotton, Coffee, Rum, Indigo and Cacao. England, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark and Sweden were the main trading countries. Recognising that the African diaspora continues to face discrimination in these European countries and individuals remain socially, economically and politically disadvantaged, how can this black history be acknowledged? The Action Researcher/Performer purchased a sample of the products derived from the slave-labour plantations and placed each inside a glass jar. The jars where then positioned around the edges of the Seine river on the Île Saint-Louis and the Île de La Cité.