International Symposium

Welcome Address

By Elizabeth Khawajkie, International Co-ordinator, UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network

Distinguished Participants

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of UNESCO, I should like to welcome you all to this First International Symposium which is being conducted within the framework of our Flagship Project “Breaking the Silence - Teaching about the Transatlantic Slave Trade” implemented by the Associated Schools Project Network and under the UNESCO Slave Project directed by Mr. Doudou Diène who has been playing a crucial role in the launching and development of this Project.  Mr. Diène will be joining us tomorrow and bring us up to date on some of the recent development of the Slave Route Project and their implications for our Education Flagship Project.

We are particularly grateful to the Department of History, of the prestigious Tulane University which accepted to host this important encounter and we should like to express our deep appreciation to the University for making available to us such excellent facilities.  We are particularly indebted to  Dr. Sylvia Frey who has played a prominent role in organizing our Symposium.  We are most grateful to her staff and to all of her colleagues who have also been working very closely with us in making all of the necessary arrangements.

We are so pleased to have been able to bring together so many distinguished scholars, professors, educators and teachers and we thank you for accepting to take part in this important event which we will shed valuable light on effective ways and means to improve teaching about the past, in order to better understand the present and build together a future based on mutual respect, dignity, harmony, justice and well being for everyone. 

This year 2000 has been declared by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of a Culture of Peace and our Symposium is being held within this context.

This morning I should like to limit my remarks to replying to four main questions and my colleague, Sandra Gift, ASPnet/TST Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean will  also share with you information on experience and results gained in the Americas and the Caribbean. 

1.Why has UNESCO launched such an educational project?

2.  What are its main objectives?

3.  How was it launched and how it is being conducted?

4.     How can this Symposium contribute to the development of the TST?

Why the launching of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project?

Recently someone I have known for a long time asked me but why did you launch this project? The subject is well known and there has been so much research on it.  I immediately replied that yes of course many studies have been conducted, publications produced, etc. but unfortunately research findings and  objective data and information has not trickled down to the classroom and there is a formidable gap between research and results on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and what young people actually know and feel about this particular period in the history of humanity.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel has said “The executioner always kills twice, the second time with silence.”

In spite of  the scope, duration and cruelty  of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its far reaching consequences, relatively little attention is devoted to it in school curricula today in many countries in the Atlantic World.   Although this trade was built on brutality and the violation of all basic human rights, it lasted some four to five hundred years, it led to the enslavement of millions of men, women and children and changed the course of history of several continents, this period is often omitted or only partially reported on in school text books.

There are of course exceptions such as in the English-Speaking Caricom countries which have revised significantly their social studies curriculum but in many other places there is only scarce and fragmented mention of the TST.

Furthermore, we are preoccupied by sustained and in some instances, increased violence, prejudices, discrimination, stereotypes, and xenophobia as we are about to enter the XXIst Century as well as by modern day forms of enslavement particularly child labour and child prostitution.  In spite of the abolition of slavery, emancipation and decolonization the XXth century has been profoundly scarred by intolerance and abuse.

On a very personal note, my own son is multicultural emerging from three  continents – Africa, America and Asia and having grown up in a fourth - Europe.  I have always told him how fortunate he is to have such extraordinary cultural roots.  Yet at an early age he felt the sting of racism and the pain of discrimination.

Article one of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “All human rights are born free and equal in dignity and rights. When and how will this finally come into effect?  Doudou Diène often says “The struggle for human rights is a struggle for memory, for any tragedy not addressed can reappear in other forms.”

I have confidence, in you, the teachers and educators and in the youth of today and of tomorrow.  Education is one of the main keys to break the silence surrounding the past, to reaffirm identity,  to recall the enormous contributions made by the enslaved to the economic, scientific, technological, spiritual and cultural development of the Americas and the Caribbean, to Europe and to the world at large.  Education has a main role to play in   transforming mentalities, attitudes and behaviour which lead to mutual respect, solidarity and an appreciation of other cultures, life styles and traditions and bringing the young people of the world together in a climate of confidence.

Therefore, when the Norwegian National Commission for UNESCO invited UNESCO to consider launching such a project with the help of the Associated Schools Project Network, our reply was immediate and positive.  ASPnet in a unique international network of some 6,000 schools in 165 countries and the objective is to conduct pilot project and experimental activities in order to reinforce the humanistic, ethical and cultural dimensions of education from early childhood to teacher training.

How was the Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project launched, what are its objectives and how is it being conducted?

After securing a three-year commitment of support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD) our first step was to set up an International Task Force of Experts to advice us on the conceptualisation and implementation of the Project.  The Task Force met in Haiti in August 1998 and we elaborated the main objectives for the TST which can be summarised as follows:

·        to improve teaching about the root causes, consequences and legacy of the TST through a ‘triangular’ network of ASPnet schools in Africa, Americas/Caribbean and Europe and by using a common programme of study;

·        to mobilise young people to promote and preserve places of memory related to the TST including those inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List;

·        to ensure an intercultural dialogue and interactions amongst young people in the Atlantic world

·        to observe the International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, 23 August (it was in the night of 22/23 August 1791 that there was a rebellion of the enslaved in the French colony Santo Domingo which led to the first Black free State in the Caribbean – Haiti and which helped to pave the way for the abolition of slavery). 

Although the project was only launched two years ago to this date, much has happened since and time does not allow an exhaustive review of action taken.  Hence, my colleagues and  I would like to touch only upon some of the most significant accomplishments.              

I believe that this is the first major international attempt to improve teaching about the TST, to transform mentalities and to strengthen bonds of understanding, appreciation and solidarity amongst the young people in the Atlantic world.

One of the most important features of the TST is that it is a collective endeavour. We have some 100 strongly committed schools in some 21 countries engaged in following a common programme of study in  developing innovative approaches to teach effectively about the TST and to establish links with schools throughout the ‘triangle’.

A pre-questionnaire was produced by the University of the West Indies in order to determine students’ knowledge and attitudes with regard to the TST.

UNESCO collected articles and publications produced by UNESCO and provided them to schools as resource material.  We have asked schools to assess their usefulness and we are starting to receive their feedback which is indeed very positive.

We have produced information material on the TST and a special newsletter as well as three posters to commemorate 23 August.

Some original new educational material has been produced and is being experimented by the schools such as Slave Voices to be followed by Slave Voyages.

Each region is actively engaged in the Project and I invite my two colleagues to say a few words about the TST in their respective regions.

In Europe, a regional workshop was hosted by the city of Nantes, France in January 1999 and a follow-up workshop is scheduled for October 2000.  Most of the European countries have organized national TST workshops and a TST Youth Forum/Festival will be held in Bristol, United Kingdom in early December 2000.

How can this Symposium contribute to the development of the TST?

For all of us involved in this area, we are aware of the challenges, complexity, and sensitivity of such an endeavour.  Although we feel that we have come a long way in the past two years – it is obvious that we are still at the “tip of the iceberg”.   Much more is to be accomplished and urgently.

Hence, the time had come to examine closer where we stand in the state of the art of teaching about the TST and in forging an intercultural dialogue amongst young people in the Atlantic world.  We want to avoid ‘reinventing the wheel” but rather identify and build on what has already been effectively developed, experimented, assessed and mainstreamed into systems of education.

The TST Programme of Study is serving as a conceptual framework for our Project but we feel that it has to be reviewed and adjusted in the light of the presentations, discussions and proposals of this international symposium ,        

How to reinforce teaching about the TST is school curricula? Not only is history and social studies but across the curriculum?  Content concerning the TST spans across several centuries, it is broad and encompasses so many aspects and elements.  We should like to determine further, the essential dimensions which have to be covered. 

With regard to methodology, we have been advocating participatory methods, including research, creativity, interviews, extra-curricular activities, twinning amongst schools, fuller use of community resources, visits to places of memory, etc.  But what are the most effective methods?

Classroom teachers are at the heart of our concern, yet they need often further training, guidelines and suggestions to deal effectively with the intricate issues of identity formation, handling the psychological impact of such teaching, making the appropriate linkages between the past, the present and the future.

How to forge a true intercultural dialogue amongst young people in the Atlantic world?  How to ensure the sharing of cultures, and exchanges of views and opinions?  How can Information Technology help?  How to bring young people and educators together from the three regions? 

What type of educational resource materials can be of use to teachers and be made available to them, including visual material- videos, films, posters, maps, etc.?  What exists already and what should be produced?

How to conduct meaningful visits for students to places of memory, to archives, and museums?

So many questions, so many possibilities yet the need for more light to be shed in seeking replies and solutions.

Each and every one of you have been invited to this Symposium in your personal capacity as an expert in one of these fields.  With the help of your presentations, the discussions and proposals, we feel that this Symposium will serve as a major turning point in the continuation and development of our Project. 

For us to be able to pursue the valuable work commenced, it is obvious that we are in need of more partners and more support.  We hope therefore, that our Symposium will enable us to involve  more experts, receive more assistance and enlist some five schools here in the United States of America in the Project.

In co-operation with the History Department, Tulane University, we plan on publishing the papers presented, a summary of the discussions and proposals and hence diffuse broadly the outcome of the Symposium.

On behalf of UNESCO and my colleagues, I wish the Symposium much success.  As I mentioned at the outset we are delighted to be hosted by Tulane University in the beautiful city of New Orleans, a significant place of memory, a cradle and crossroads of culture.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Elizabeth Khawajkie, UNESCO ASPnet International Co-ordinator