Contesting Narratives:

 Ancestral vs Public Memory in Saving Historic Black Towns, Freedmen’s settlements, and Communities - An Update on AfricaTown USA

Africatown was founded by 32 of 110 survivors of the MAAFA after a 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--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 community, devastated by over a century of systemic white-domination, environmental destruction and socio-economic marginalization. Meanwhile ancestral and public memories are being contested and displayed in a local museum for anticipated tourism revenue centered on the slaveholders vessel as indicated by the name of the Museum's major showcase: "The Clotilda Exhibit".

Presenter: Dr. Afia Zakiya, Independent African Centered Scholar/Activist & Founder AIDIKI, Political Ecologist, Africana Studies scholar-activist, and Public Policy, Health and Organizational Development expert.

This will be a virtual program on Saturday, March 9th, 2024

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.