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Leicester Libraries is collecting oral histories from African
Caribbean people brought down through the generations from the
long period of the transatlantic slave trade.
2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of of the
slave trade throughout the British Empire. For hundreds of years
before 1807, millions of Africans were transported to the Americas
and forced into slavery. Because of the millions of Africans
who died, this slave trade has been called the African Holocaust.
Health and healing were essential to slave life. Slave masters
cared only that slaves could do their work and gave little medical
treatment. But enslaved Africans developed their own storehouse
of healing knowledge and looked after their own health needs.
The secret knowledge of treatments and remedies was an important
way for slaves to assert control over their own lives. Calabash
will record this secret knowledge by collecting oral histories
passed down to descendents of enslaved Africans at workshops
and educational sessions. Stories of traditional remedies, treatments,
beauty products and more will be collected in a publication and
archived online in a website for the future use of the whole
community.
For more information about Calabash please
contact:
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