Teachers from three regions learn lessons about the slave trade
Garifuna father and child
To mark the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition (23 August), teachers from UNESCO Associated Schools (ASPnet) in Africa, the Caribbean and Europe and North America gathered at an international teacher professional development workshop inAccra, Ghana, 11 – 13 August.
From Denmark, Ghana, Gambia, Trinidad and Tobago, the UK and the USA, the teachers shared their experience of teaching the slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic, notably through school-based projects.
Discussions showed commonalities and differences in approaching this difficult theme, and the will to promote intercultural dialogue in future school cooperation projects. One participant said she felt she "gained a sense of unity with the participants of the workshop", and "felt that [they] were all together on the same quest".
Specific training sessions shed light on links between past and present, the manifold legacies of the slave trade and forms of contemporary slavery. In interactive exercises, participants were also introduced to student-centered teaching methodologies such as the use of arts and drama, images and artifacts. Visits to the Ghana National Museum and the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture in Accra completed the workshop.
The training aimed to enhance teaching about the Transatlantic Slave Trade (TST) and foster meaningful intercultural school partnerships.
The Workshop also marked the International Year for People of African Descent, 2011.
Other commemoration activities worldwide around 23 August took place in Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, Grenada, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago and the UK, among other countries. This is Donn Bobb reporting.
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