Websites
Project Coordinator. Website. “Equiano's World - Gustavus Vassa and the Abolition of the British Slave Trade” . SSHRC (since 2016)
The project focuses on the abolition movement and the ways in which this remarkable man has been remembered in history. The subject of the project is the life of Olaudah Equiano, alias Gustavus Vassa, the African, whose Interesting Narrative, published in 1789, has been credited as being influential in the abolition of the British slave trade, implemented in 1807. His autobiography went through nine editions in the early 1790s, the heady days influenced by Revolutionary France on those interested in British Parliamentary reform, the abolition of the slave trade, and the ending of slavery. Vassa was arguably the most influential person of African descent in London, at a time when the black community numbered perhaps 20,000, making London one of the largest “African” cities in the world at the time.
Project Coordinator. Website. “Islamic Protest and National Security in Africa - IPTSA” . York University, SSHRC (since 2018)
Islamic Protest and National Security in Africa - IPTSA project highlights one of the most serious problems of the contemporary world: ideologically and religious motivated violence. Movements like Boko Haram and its distortions represent a challenge to an understanding of contemporary Islam. The resonance between local conditions and trans-national problems raises serious issues regarding public policy and national security. Such complexities are perceived in religious terms that have dangerous consequences in terms of a wider perspective over Islam that undermine efforts to promote multicultural societies and peaceful interaction globally. Researchers and partners assembled around the IPTSA project want to engage in a dialog of inquiry that attempts to determine strategies of response and initiate policies of change making accessible new knowledge about these movements. It is hoped that helps promote political stability and social justice not only in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad but also globally.
Director. Website. “Baquaqua Project” . York University, MinC Brasil (since 2014)
Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua was born free and as many other Africans enslaved in the Americas had a hometown, a family and in his youth suffered from the violence of war. He was enslaved and exported through the slave close to Ouidah (Whydah) and sent to Brazil in a slave ship. After escaping slavery, he attended school at New York Central College, from where he wrote many letters to noted abolitionists. In 1854 he completed his autobiography in Chatham, which was published in Detroit. Baquaqua’s memories are a particularly important narrative of the African diaspora. As with other biographical accounts, it permits us to hear the voice of the individual beyond the the slavery context. Project Baquaqua provides the opportunity to imagine, understand and learn from the isolation of otherness that those called slaves had to endure through empathy and projection.
Project Coordinator and Co-Director. Website. “SHADD-Hub” . York University, MinC Brasil (since 2014)
Named in honour of the feminist and abolitionist Mary Ann Shad (Cary), the series SHADD (Studies in the History of the African Diaspora – Documents) hosts an extensive collection of primary documents and archival inventories that are housed at the Harriet Tubman Institute under the direction of Distinguished Research Professor Paul E. Lovejoy, York University. Founded in association with the UNESCO Slave Route Project with support from the SSHRC, SHADD has evolved into an umbrella that links to various research initiatives, including Freedom Narratives, Baquaqua Project, Equiano’s World, Liberated Africans, Le Marronnage dans le Monde Atlantique, Slavery Images, amongst others. SHADD also publishes manuscripts, documents and transcriptions in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Hausa and other languages relevant to the history of the African diaspora. Sources which must be digitized or accessible for digitization, according to copyrights standards.
Project Coordinator. Website and Database. “Freedom Narratives of the African Diasporas” . Mellon Foundation, USA / SSHRC, Canada (2017-2019)
Freedom Narratives focuses on the enforced migration of “Atlantic Africans,” that is enslaved Africans in the Atlantic world during the era of the slave trade, through an examination of biographical accounts of individuals born in West Africa who were enslaved between the 16th and19th century. The Project seeks to use an online digital repository of autobiographical accounts and biographical data of Atlantic Africans to analyze patterns in slavery and society in West Africa, specifically in terms of where individuals came from, why they were enslaved, and what happened to them. The accounts are often included in the genre referred to as “slave narratives” but because those who were born in Africa were free until they were enslaved, we can more accurately call their stories “freedom narratives” because most individuals whose accounts have survived subsequently regained their freedom.