UNESCO Webinar: Healing Through Transforming Narratives & Public Spaces 15 JUNE 2023 @16.00 UTC / 17.00 BST / 18.00 CEST

The UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project and the Global Humanity for Peace Institute, University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD), are jointly hosting an exciting international webinar series entitled: New Perspectives on Collective Healing, Social Justice and Well-Being. These webinars are supported by AfroSpectives, and Spirit of Humanity Forum.

Keynote Speakers

Dr Ali Moussa Iye is a writer and researcher. He holds a PhD in political Science from the Institute of Political Science (Grenoble, France). He was a journalist, Editor-in-chief of a weekly newspaper and Director of Press and Audio-visual in his country (Djibouti) before joining UNESCO. Within UNESCO, through various posts, he actively contributed to the elaboration of the UNESCO Strategy against Racism and Discrimination and the creation of the International Coalition of Cities against Racism. From 2004 and 2019, Dr Moussa Iye was the Head of the History and Memory for Dialogue Department and directed two important UNESCO Programmes: the Routes of Dialogue (Slave Route Project and Silk Roads Project) and the General and Regional Histories (History of Humanity, General History of Africa, General History of Latin America; General History of the Caribbean, History of Civilisations of Central Asia; Different Aspects of Islamic Culture). He has initiated and coordinated the pedagogical use of the General History of Africa and the drafting of the last three volumes of this prestigious collection to update it and address the new challenges faced by Africa and its diasporas.

Dr Moussa Iye is currently pursuing research in the field of political anthropology and is working in particular on the revalorisation of African endogenous knowledge. He is the founder and Chair of the Think-Tank “AFROSPECTIVES, a Global Africa initiative” to re-imagine Africa’s presence and contribution to the World. Among his publications are “The Verdict of the Tree: An Essay of an African Endogenous Democracy” (2014) and “Slavery, Resistance and Abolitions: A Pluralist Perspective” (2019).

Esther A. Armah is an author, playwright, international public speaker, and former journalist. She is CEO of The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice (The AIEJ), a global institute creating racial healing resources and tools working across Accra, New York, and London. She is author of “EMOTIONAL JUSTICE: a roadmap for racial healing“, a #1 New Release on Amazon in the category General Sociology of Race Relations for six straight weeks. Emotional Justice is a racial healing roadmap Esther created over a 15-year period through assignment, research and community engagement in Accra, Philadelphia, South Africa and New York. As a journalist she has worked in London, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

Esther was the Spring 2022 Distinguished Activist in Residence at New York University’s Center for Black Visual Culture. Her Emotional Justice essays are featured in the New York Times best-selling book “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America“; the award-winning Love with Accountability, Charleston Syllabus, and Women & Migrations (II). She has written five Emotional Justice plays that have been produced and performed in New York, Chicago and Ghana. For her Emotional Justice work, she won the ‘Community Healer Award’ at the 2016 Valuing Black Lives Global Emotional Emancipation Summit in Washington DC. Esther was named ‘Most Valuable NY Radio Host’ in The Nation’s Progressive Honors List for her work on Wake-Up Call on Pacifica’s, WBAI.

Panel Dialogue: “Owning Slavery, Pursuing Justice, Seeking Reconciliation: Lessons from Georgetown and the U.S. Jesuits”

This is a panel dialogue that took place online on April 29, 2021. The background is that in 1838, the Jesuits sold 272 enslaved people, including men, women and children. This was the largest single sale of enslaved people in human history. Some of the proceeds were used to support the development of Georgetown University.

In 2015, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia established a Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, which led to dialogue with and apology to Descendants and key efforts to address the legacy of slavery and overcome racism at Georgetown, in Washington, and beyond. On March 15 of this year, U.S. Jesuits and descendant leaders announced the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, which will support the educational aspirations of Descendants of Jesuit slaveholding and racial healing efforts in the United States.

At a time of national reckoning on racism and dialogue on how to pursue justice, this Initiative Dialogue explored personal, religious, and institutional responsibilities for the legacy of slavery and the reality of structural racism. The dialogue around institutional responses to enslavement has raised important questions, offered new possibilities for collaboration, and new paths forward for our nation and the U.S. Catholic Church.

2nd Int’l Symposium: Collective Healing of Traumas: New Possibilities for Peace in Communities Sept 2019

Collective and community initiatives can empower those suffering from the wounds of a violent past to collaborate towards mutual healing, thus creating new possibilities for peace. To better understand the significance of these community-rooted collective healing endeavours, the GHFP and the UNESCO Slave Route Project hosted a one-day International Symposium, at the Royal Society for the Arts in London. The event brought together practitioners and scholars who have experiences and expertise in the field of communal and collective healing of mass traumas, for an intimate dialogue focused around three core questions:
  1. What are the typical psychological and social symptoms encountered in communities resulting from the experience and legacies of past atrocities?
  2. What might constitute collective healing in these situations? 
  3. How do community-based processes and practices contribute to collective healing? (And how would the community evaluate collective healing? What are the relevant indicators that some healing has taken place?)
Presentations included the Australia’s journey of healing through the Sorry Day marches, the Healing the Wounds of History programme in Lebanon, Foresee Research Group’s restorative healing approaches in Hungary, critical reflection on the structural conditions of healing from the perspectives of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation, the Initiatives of Change International’s Trustbuilding in the communities programme, and the Peace Charter of Forgiveness and Reconciliation.    Read here the Collective_Healing_of_Trauma_Concept_Note.  Please return soon for updates on the Symposium’s participants, their bios, and presentations, and conclusions.

Overcoming structural racism requires more of people, but also healing

Louis Menand writes in New Yorker February 4th 2019 issue:

“institutional racism” or “structural racism”—is much harder to address. It requires more of people than just striking down a law.

Read the full article entitled: “The Supreme Court Case That Enshrined White Supremacy in Law How Plessy v. Ferguson shaped the history of racial discrimination in America.”

UNGA: Commemorating the abolition of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade

General Assembly 73rd Session: 38th Plenary Meeting, 21 Nov 2018
Commemoration of the abolition of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. Speakers Call for Greater Awareness‑Raising about Dangers of Racism, Prejudice, as General Assembly Reviews Education Programme on Transatlantic Slave Trade – Agenda Item 121.

http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/watch/general-assembly-73rd-session-38th-plenary-meeting/5970052087001/?term=

UNESCO Healing the Wounds of Slavery Symposium: Questions discussed

On October 18th and 19th, twenty-eight renowned caring and inspirational experts from multi-disciplinary backgrounds met at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for days of deep sharing, exchange and dialogue around the topic of “Healing the Wounds of Slavery”. The symposium included four observers.

At the Opening Session, Prof Thomas Banchoff, Georgetown’s Vice President for Global Engagement, welcomed the international experts to the Berkley Center where he previously served as the founding director. Prof Banchoff shared Georgetown’s recognition of this important UNESCO initiative, and expressed his good will for the outcome of the Symposium.

The participants and contributors discussed the following questions:

  1. What are the historical contexts, foundations and underpinnings of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery?
  2. What lessons can we learn from these and other dehumanizing tragedies in world history?
  3. What are the latest research findings on the psycho-social consequences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery?
  4. How do the different approaches, experiences and processes contribute to the healing the wounds left by such historical traumas?
  5. What would be the necessary approaches to healing the wounds of transatlantic slave trade and slavery?
  6. What would be the appropriate strategies to communicate and inform the public for a better understanding of the challenges to the overcoming of these legacies?
  7. Who are the key stakeholders and partners to associate with the healing
    processes and dialogues?

At the concluding session of the Symposium, a number of proposals were made and the group are working to identify strategic steps forward.

Symposium event photography is now available to share, thank you.