Africatown

and the Aftermath of the Discovery of the Clotilda: The Last American Ship of Enslaved Africans

Africatown was founded by survivors of the brutal, six-week transatlantic journey from Ouidah (present-day Benin), West Africa to Alabama in the cramped hold of a ship named the Clotilda in 1860; more than 50 years after importing newly enslaved people was outlawed in the US. The schooner Clotilda—the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America’s shores— used to smuggle 110 African young men, women, and children, was recently discovered in a remote part of Alabama’s Mobile River.

Now the descendants of the survivors of the Clotilda seek to rebuild their town, devastated by over a century of systemic white-supremacy set upon them since the towns founding, the condition of the town further exacerbated by the recent discovery of the ship. 

Presenter: Dr. Afia Zakiya is the Executive Director of the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation.  She is Political Ecologist, Africana Studies scholar-activist, and Public Policy, Health and Organizational Development expert.

This will be a virtual program on Saturday, March 25th, 2023

11am - 1:00pm

Please register in advance. You will receive a Reminder by 9 am on the day of the presentation with the ZOOM login link/info for the event.  If you register on the day of, you will receive the login link/info at that time.