Badagry Slave Routes

One of the plenary sessions of the just concluded International Colloquium on Slavery, Slave Trade and their Consequences was 'Slave Markets, Routes, Monuments, Relics and Tourism'. It emerged that little is known among the general Nigerian public about Nigeria's slave relics, especially places like Badagry, and not enough people visit these places. It was a bit unfortunate when Dr Yusuf Abdallah Usman, delivering his paper, talked about plans for better preservation and presentation of places like Badagry, so that people could go there for, amongst other worthy things, "entertainment". Delegates promptly advised him to remove such a word from his vocabulary as far as the Transtlantic slave trade is concerned. No one goes to Auschwitz for entertainment.

But the message came out very clearly: we should see Badagry and other places to help us come to terms, if such were possible, with what happened to millions of enslaved Africans shipped across the Atlantic for several hundred years.

Which is why I'm posting this flyer for a tour of Badagry slave routes, setting off from Lagos tomorrow.