Racism is a legacy of the slave trade that has refused to become history.
The International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade – on 25 March - is an opportunity to recommit to ending slavery’s legacy of racism in all the forms it takes today.?
It is a time to consider the pain and loss, as well as the courage and endurance of those enslaved.
For four hundred years, the transatlantic slave trade ripped millions of women, men and children from their land of birth, and their kin. A global economic system of brutal exploitation, the transatlantic slave trade entrenched racism.
Despite the violence visited on them, the enslaved peoples kept the memory of their homeland and their culture alive, resisting the process of dehumanization. Their courage is evident in the actions taken by the enslaved to escape, in their determination to find ways of recording their experience and to help others to freedom.
On 25 March, the Department of Global Communications (DGC), UNESCO, UNFPA, and the Decade of People of African Descent, will host an online event:
One highlight of the event is a multilingual reading by youth from around the world, of Maya Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise, a powerful expression of liberation and survival. The Outreach Programme in DGC collaborated with UN Information Centres in Bogota, Nairobi, Rio and Yaoundé, as well as UN Radio Kiswahili, UN Interpretation, and UNESCO to produce the multilingual rendition of the poem.
The event includes a “fireside chat” with award-winning journalist Melissa Noel, and the Honorable Jean Augustine, social activist, educator and ground-breaking parliamentarian, as well as a performance by hip-hop artist Webster.
Melissa Fleming, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, will moderate the event, and is joined by the UN Deputy Secretary-General, UNESCO Deputy Director-General, UNFPA’s Executive Director, and the permanent observers of the African Union and CARICOM.
Join us for International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade events:
