Source: Listin Diario
The exhibition “Slavery and the cultural legacy of Africa in the Caribbean,” which tells the history of slavery from the capture and transfer of more than 12 million Africans to America, was opened by the Institute of History of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) of Spain in partnership with the Center for Caribbean Studies of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (Pucmm). The exhibition is being staged by Virginia Flores Sasso, a professor at Pucmm, and will be on display at the Santo Domingo Fortress from October 18 through January 7, 2023. The history institute of the Spanish Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) houses the Spanish exhibition, which was organized by research professor Miguel Angel Puig-Samper and the institute’s director Consuelo Naranjo Orovio.
It is “a song about human diversity and miscegenation that celebrates African heritage in the Caribbean region,” claims Consuelo Naranjo Orovio. The exhibition provides a journey through history through 34 panels of photographic material enhanced with artistic elements and QR codes that detail historical topics like the transatlantic slave trade, the methods used to capture them, and the jobs they performed, particularly after they arrived in the colonized Caribbean.
The exhibition aims to explore the history of slavery in order to combat the stigmatization that still affects slaves’ descendants. “We think that understanding the legacies is very beneficial.” The process of creation, which involved more than 100 researchers, was somewhat “tortuous” because of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, according to Miguel Angel Puig-Samper. According to Naranjo Orovio, this is a way to defend cultural admixture, highlight the diversity of the Caribbean, and draw attention to indigenous and Afro-descendant populations that do not have the same influence and weight as they should. The process of creation, which involved more than 100 researchers, was somewhat “tortuous” because of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, according to Miguel Angel Puig-Samper.
Through the Pucmm Center for Caribbean Studies, the Dominican Republic is a participant in the Spanish CSIC initiative Connected Worlds: The Caribbean, Origin of the Modern World, which is dedicated to researching the history of the Caribbean. The León Center in Santiago will also show the exhibition.