For me, grappling with the concept of slavery was one of the most troubling aspects of my journey through the Guianas.
On the one hand, slavery seemed to have disappeared completely; the ‘yards’ have gone, and the impedimenta has rotted away (the photo shows a rare set of manacles, owned by a friend in Guyana).
For me, grappling with the concept of slavery was one of the most troubling aspects of my journey through the Guianas.
On the one hand, slavery seemed to have disappeared completely; the ‘yards’ have gone, and the impedimenta has rotted away (the photo shows a rare set of manacles, owned by a friend in Guyana).
On the other hand, slavery was everywhere, even in the food (Jackfruit and saltfish were both introduced to feed the slaves). It also surfaced in debates about marriage, work, domestic violence, and – in Suriname – who owns the Interior.
In fact, occasionally, I felt as if slavery was like some weird metaphorical telephone exchange and that every strand of Guianese life somehow led back to this point.
This, of course, is to say nothing of the difficult questions we Europeans must ask. How did Europe manage to suspend a basic tenet of humanity for almost three hundred years? And was slavery a last relic of medieval thought, or was it the beginning of a modern phenomenon, where – if the price is right – anything goes?
