Memories on Atlantic Slavery. France and Spain, the French Caribbean and Cuba Compared, in the Context of Global Debates on the Commemoration of Slave Trade and Slavery

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Ulrike Schmieder
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 393718958

In the context of the global Cultural Heritage Boom, where local, national, and global politics of history and identity constructions are involved and intertwined with interests in cultural tourism, sites of memory of colonialism and slavery related with historical guilt and subsequent responsibility are a field of social conflicts. In the crisis year 2020 the tensions became visible in the global Black Lives Matter Movement and found their expression in the toppling of statues of enslavers and colonial conquerors.In the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) there is a debate in Europe and the former colonies in Africa and America, if, where and how slavery should be remembered, who should apologize to whom and who should indemnify whom. Societies discuss how to handle remnants of slavery, which monuments should be demolished or commented, which museums and memorials have to be established or reformed. If the coming to terms with recent dictatorships does not interfere with the remembrance of colonial times (Spain, Portugal), the controversies on the colonial past play a more important role in countries with a longer colonial history and many immigrants from their former colonies (England, France, Netherlands) than in Germany. Here, the disputes had concentrated for a long time on the handling of the Nazi past. In the last years the legacy of colonialism in Germany and the German involvement in Atlantic slavery attracted more attention.On the basis of the knowledge on slavery and post-emancipation, particularly on the French Caribbean island Martinique and former Spanish Cuba, the research is dedicated to the handling of historical remnants (plantations, manor houses, housing of the enslaved) and the establishment of sites of commemoration (memorials and museums) in France and Spain, the French Caribbean with focus on Martinique and Cuba. The dominant historiographical focus on the Anglophone space is overcome. Beside a survey and analysis of the sites of memory the project investigates their socio-cultural context. The central questions are which protagonists promoted the establishment of sites of memory, which protagonists tried to impede them, who uses the sites how and to which purpose, or ignore them and why. This research makes visible current power relations, (social and racist) inclusions and exclusions in the society which remembers or forgets. On selected places in Martinique and Cuba the counter-memories of descendants of the enslaved and their relation to the sites of memory shall be studied through Oral History methods. Interviews with experts and activists in the capitals and port towns of the former colonial powers France and Spain and in the Caribbean as well as documents from local archives and libraries provide further sources.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants