New Stories at Maison des Esclaves, Senegal

Linda served as project director for the re-interpretation of Maison des Esclaves in an innovative partnership between the government of Senegal and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.  The goals of the project were to expand the visitors’ understanding of the house itself and of the trans-Atlantic trade of enslaved Africans and to connect that story with modern-day slavery.

We worked towards those goals with an international scholarly committee, audience and community surveys, regular consultations with a group of young women from a local school, and the commissioning of work by notable Senegalese artists.

“The rehabilitation of Maison des Esclaves represents a vital step in our universal efforts to break the historical silence that has long surrounded the transatlantic slave trade, and the political, social, cultural, and economic invisibility of its victims, including those who are still suffering from its brutal legacies today.” - Doudou DIÈNE,  the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.