The price of prosperity
The early modern period is the time in history where, following explorations and trade expansion, western Europe could secure a massive advantage over the rest of the world. Before the establishment of colonial empires, European merchants used to trade with local leaders based on the West-African coast, exchanging things of negligible value with enslaved people that would become the labour force in plantations in the Americas.
To put it plain and simple: the Atlantic slave trade is one of the most serious crimes perpetrated by European societies against humanity, with over 12 million enslaved Africans shipped across the ocean and approximately 1.2–2.4 million that died in the journey. On the other hand, that was the origin of the fortune of some cities located in the Atlantic region of Europe, whose ruling class sensed right away the massive profits that they could gain with the slave trade.
This article is about some of those prosperous European cities that in the early modern period thrived, away from the horror they contributed to create, in dialogue with some of the places in West Africa that witnessed the passage of enslaved people over a span of 400 years. I will start with Bordeaux (France) and Dakar (Senegal, a former French colony).
Dakar-Bordeaux
The Bordeaux-operated slave trade is the origin of the deportation of 150.000 people, which puts the city at the second position (after Nantes) in the French score. Despite slave trade representing only a minor part in the port activity of Bordeaux, it contributed enormously to the economic development of the city, due to the acquisition of plantations in the colonised lands and the trade of goods produced there by enslaved people.
Dakar, conversely, was just a village in the early modern period. The city was developped along with the peanut trade, when this business overtook the slave trade, whose regional centre was Gorée, a small island situated at about 2 km from the mainland. The site of Gorée, and the Maison des Esclaves (“House of slaves”) that was built there in the late XVIII century have become the most emblematic and well known place associated to the slave trade in West Africa.
It is interesting to notice how the superposition of the two layers creates at times place correspondences that are meaningful or just very well-functioning in terms of the way different urban patterns interact and fit together. The latter is the case of the Sandaga Market (Dakar), whose block fits perfectly between the street Henri IV and Cours Pasteur (Bordeaux) on the north-west corner of Place de la Victoire.
Sandaga was one of Dakar’s most distinctive markets, built in the 1930s in an authentic west-African style. it was defined as a sanctuary of the informal sector, which to date accounts for the 41.6 % of the country’s GDP, employing almost half of the population of Senegal. After a long dispute with vendors, authorities could implement their plan to relocate activities in other parts of the city and started the demolition of the market in August 2020.
One meaningful correspondence between the two layers is that between the monumental core of Bordeaux, the area of Place de la Bourse, and the main cultural hub of the Senegalese capital. Place de la Bourse, dominated on its north side by the building of the stock exchange, is the symbol of the prosperity achieved by the city of Bordeaux in the early modern period. In the corresponding area of Dakar we find the two most representative buildings of Dakar’s Parc Culturel.
The Museum of Black Civilisations in particular, is the realisation of the vision of Senegal’s former president Senghor, who was a major theoretician of Négritude, a critical framework aimed at raising black consciousness.
The map superposition of these two emblematic areas allows the creation of imaginary landscapes. For instance: the Museum of Black Civilisations acquiring an exceptional location on the main waterfront of central Bordeaux.
I mentioned above that the slave trade and the profits that could be made with it were an intuition of, among others, the ruling class of Bordeaux. Between the XVII and the XIX century the most influential families in town invested part of their capital in the construction of sumptuous mansions that are the visible manifestation of the wealth acquired in the colonies.
An hôtel particulier is a typically French upper-class town mansion, conceived for one family only, and their servants. Hôtels particuliers are a defining element of the architectural heritage of Bordeaux. I chose two that are particularly emblematic and created fictional scenaries with elements of Layer 2 (Dakar) that correspond to the same spot in the map mashup.
Despite implications in one of the most horrific businesses of human history, some slave-traders belonging to notable families of Bordeaux have their names celebrated in the city’s public space. Controversies have pushed city authorities to include context explanations in the street-name plaques, to clarify the notable person’s responsibilities in the trade, in an attempt to calm things down.
Plaques are an important part of the strategy adopted by Bordeaux city councils to deal with the darkest chapter of the city’s history. The place where the first slave ship sailed for west Africa has also become a place of remembrance.
Let’s turn now to the places slave ships would come across, once they are already loaded with enslaved human beings. As I mentioned above, the island of Gorée is THE spot in the area of Dakar. In layer 1, the island of Gorée correspond to an upper class green suburb in the municipality of Floirac, which borders the municipality of Bordeaux on the east.
Resulting from the superposition of Layers 1 and 2, two castles are situated at a distance of less than 300 m from each other. One used to be the manor of a wealthy Bordeaux-based family named Ledoux. The other used to be a prison created under French rule, today an history museum with the largest section dedicated to slave trade.
The site that is the most famous in Gorée, and probably in the whole of Dakar, is the House of Slaves. Despite a decades long historical debate where academics tend to downplay the role that the island and this building in particular actually had in the trade, popular culture has consecrated the Maison des Esclaves in Gorée as a major memorial site and the symbol of the Atlantic slave trade.
The corresponding suburban small house and the quiet residential area this one is situated in give off a vibe that clashes significantly with the gravitas of the House of Slaves.
The Atlantic slave trade has left massive scars in the collective consciousness of the African continent and above all in the various black communities of the African diaspora. The recent Pan-Africanist strategy to launch a new era of cooperation between Africa and the diaspora is at the origin of a revival of the concept of African Renaissance, that was first articulated by Senegalese intellectual Cheikh Anta Diop.
A massive statue representing the African Renaissance was erected by a North-Korean entreprise in the district of Ouakam, between 2006 and 2010. Despite the excessive endorsement to a patriarchal type of family, some think it is a cool complement to the landscape of Dakar. It surely adds a lot to the landscape of Eysines, a suburb north-west of Bordeaux. Interestingly enough, the address the statue correspond to, in Layer 1, is Rue Gabriel Moussa, which is named after someone with Senegalese origin, presumably. It is not clear whom the street is dedicated to. The most popular person bearing this name is a 19 years old football player.
French port cities are not the only ones who profited from slave trade in the early modern period. Among those that contributed the most there are the Portuguese, who opened the path for everyone, the British and the Dutch. I created a few more correspondences between cities of slave traders and cities of enslaved people. In order not to burden excessively this article, that is already long enough, for each couple of cities I will be as short as possible, including a few pictures only.
Middelburg-Elmina
Middelburg is the most important centre of the Dutch province of Zeeland. In the early modern period it became, after Amsterdam, the most important centre for the Dutch West India Company and as such it performed a major role in the Atlantic slave trade. For over two centuries the Dutch West India Company held an important base in Elmina, on the so called Gold Coast, today Ghana.
Lagos-Elmina
Elmina was the first European settlement in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was actually founded by the Portuguese in the XV century, which led me to pair it also with a small town in southern Portugal that back then was the main centre of Maritime expeditions down the African coast.
Lagos, situated in today’s hyper-touristic region of Algarve, is also the site of the first slave market of modern Europe (Mercado de Escravos, 1444).
Faro-Ouidah
Despite its proximity to the ocean at a short distance form Lagos, Faro (Portugal) did not develop as a major commercial centre, nor it had a particularly relevant role in the slave trade. It is included here mainly because of its location at about 4 km from the coast line, from which it is separated by a lagoon and marshy areas. These characteristics are at the origin of a striking resemblance between Faro and Ouidah, a small city in the coastal region of Benin. In the early modern period the area was known as Slave Coast.
Ouidah is the place where the Slave Route Project (Route Des Esclaves) was launched by the UNESCO in 1994. The project consists on a series of memorial sites located along the road that enslaved people had to walk from the former Portuguese fort to the ocean and culminates at the memorial arch called “Door of No Return”.
Bristol-Calabar
Over 500.000 enslaved African people were traded by Bristol merchants. The status and leadership positions of the members of the Merchant Venturers Society, representing the interests of influential slave traders, allowed them to successully oppose abolitionist movements for years, in order to maintain their source of wealth. 2 billion pounds were granted to Bristol-based plantation owners to compensate their “property loss” when slavery was abolished in the 1830s.
Calabar is a former city-state in southern Nigeria, where Bristol merchants settled in an area that they called Duke Town, making it the most important centre for slave trade in the region.
Edward Colston was an English merchant, member of the British parliament and philantropist, as villains are often described by official sources. He gave considerable financial support to schools, houses for the poor and hospitals. He was also responsible for the mass deportation of 84.000 enslaved African people. Readers who followed the protests in support of Black Lives Matter might remember an episode occurred to a statue in Bristol in June 2020.
Just like Bristol, Calabar seem to have, according to Google maps, something that ended up under water somehow. Mercifully it’s just another evangelical church, and not the only one karaoke of Marina Road.
Today Calabar has become an vibrant tourist destination, since it hosts the most important carnival of the entire continent. The festival, stage for Nollywood stars, has been labelled as “Africa’s biggest street party”.
