The Names of Freedom: 1664-1848 From Slave to Citizen – Les noms de la liberté – forms part of an exhibition exchange between Iziko Museums of South Africa, the Reunion Departmental Council (France), and the Villèle Historical Museum. Shanaaz Galant, Curator of Enslavement at Iziko Slave Lodge, talks us through this significant exhibition.
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As Shanaaz Galant explains, this is the first exchange of exhibitions between two former colonies and Indian Ocean Slave
Trade repositories. The exhibition explores the history of slavery and the questions of identity. ‘The Names of Freedom: 1660-1848: From slave to citizen’ opened at the Iziko Slave Lodge on Emancipation Day, 1 December 2023. And on 20 December 1848 slaves were freed in Reunion.
The focus of the exhibition is the Indian Ocean Slave Trade and sharing the narrative of slavery in Reunion with that of South Africa.
The exhibition focuses on how the enslaved were given their names just before and after emancipation, and what that means – even now – for their descendants who still have the names originally recorded in the historic registers.
Pre-1994, slavery was not in the South African school curriculum. The exhibition helps to tell that story to learners as well as local and international visitors.
It is also important that we are dealing with individuals and not an homogeneous group. ‘The Column of Memory’, which is part of the permanent exhibition at the Slave Lodge similarly seeks to identify people by specify where they originally came from.
The Names of Freedom: 1664-1848 From Slave to Citizen is informative and visually engaging with its centre-piece being the names scrolling down a screen – lest we forget.
WHAT: The Names of Freedom: 1664-1848 From Slave to Citizen
WHERE: Iziko Slave Lodge, Corner Adderley Street and Wale St, Cape Town, 8001
WHEN: 09h00 and 17h00 Monday to Saturday
INFO: T +27 (0) 21 467 7229 | VISIT | See also Cape Town Green Map
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