- Tweeter
republish
This weekend, the United States commemorates 400 years of Angela's arrival on American soil. Angela is the first slave officially registered by British settlers. Arriving by boat from the Ndongo - the ancient name of Angola - in 1619, she docked in the state of Virginia, where a memorial is now built. Called Fort Monroe, it is this weekend the theater of festivities to pay tribute to Angela and the millions of other Africans enslaved.
The ceremonies of Fort Monroe have a specific purpose: to celebrate the contribution of enslaved Africans to American society. Readings, concerts, conferences ... The program of the weekend is charged, with a climax Sunday.
" Sunday will be called Healing Day, " said Terry E. Brown, Superintendent of the Fort Monroe Memorial. We will bring a bell, and we will ring it all over the country at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We will ring it for 4 minutes. Every minute will represent a century. "
Terry E. Brown is himself a descendant of slaves. His family is from Cameroon. He explains the importance of paying tribute to the first American slaves.
" They have endured some of the most oppressive living conditions, " he says. But they were able to reinvent themselves. They did not just survive the slavery, they created this fresh and vibrant response by building families, music, languages, new forms of art. So we will pay tribute to their value system, perseverance and beauty. I am honored to be able to do it. "
In the United States, slavery officially lasted 246 years, since the arrival of the first slaves in 1619 until its abolition in 1865.
♦ "I discovered my links with Cameroon"
Terry E. Brown has been leading this memorial since 2016. He is the first African-American to hold this position, and has recently discovered, through a DNA test, that his family has also been subjected to slavery. . He told it to RFI.
" I've always wanted to know more about my past, and when I arrived at Fort Monroe in 2016, I learned what had happened here, I knew I had to know more about my own story. When I learned that I had ties to Cameroon, it made everything so special. I sat down and cried because it was so emotional to know about my family's journey. I could finally begin to piece together the puzzle. "
" I do not know much about my ancestors at the moment, except that they arrived in the United States from the states of Virginia and North Carolina. It's interesting because it means they've certainly been through Cape Old Comfort, where Fort Monroe is. I can not stop thinking, "Wow, did my ancestors come here in 1619?" I have no idea, but it does not matter. My culture has been slaved, and I realize it every day in Fort Monroe. "
► See also: United States: slavery reparations in the House of Representatives
Archaeologists on the trail of Angela's owner
Arrived by the State of Virginia, Angela had been purchased by Captain William Pierce, a wealthy plant merchant. Today, an association of archaeologists, the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation tries to understand the life of Angela and its owner by searching the site where they lived.
In almost two years of research, the team of archaeologists has uncovered many objects of the property of Colonel William Pierce.
" We found 300 objects that bear witness to the North American slave system," says David Givens, who directs the excavations. On the site, we have 246 years of slavery before our eyes, revealed by archeology. The site is divided into several parts. There is a first site, that of Angela, but we are also working on a 19th century plantation. "
The excavation site is located in Jamestown, about sixty kilometers from Cape Old Comfort, where Angela set foot in the United States in 1619. For David Givens, this archaeological work not only allows to understand the past of the States -United.
" These excavations also show what we are, as a nation, " he says. So I will probably spend the rest of my career trying to understand not just how two cultures, settlers and slaves, made our nation, but how we became Americans. "
The excavations of the site are planned until the end of the year 2019.
► See also: On the Road to Civil Rights in the Southern United States