![]() The first part introduces the broad context of the emergence of the public memory of slavery and slave trade tourism in West Africa. This article argues these multiple discourses emanating from public manifestations with the public discourses of local social actors who during the last twenty years actively participated in the debates surrounding the implementation of slave trade tourism initiatives. Consequently, public memory of slavery is not direct transmission, but belongs to the scope of postmemory (Hirsch 1997), to a transitional space where this past is relived, re-enacted, and re-experienced (Robin 2002). It argues that the work of memory conveyed through festivals, monuments, and local museums remembering slavery and the Atlantic slave trade allows recreating, reinventing, and rethinking this painful past. To examine the public memory of slavery and its relations with the development of African diaspora tourism, this article develops a historical and ethnographic analysis of Atlantic slave trade commemoration initiatives. In the Americas, Europe, and Africa, emerging initiatives highlighting the memory of slavery in the public space largely resulted from the political struggle of social actors fighting for social justice or seeking to occupy the public space to obtain political prestige and economic profits. Over the last two decades the Atlantic slave past has received increased attention. L'article conclut que le tourisme patrimonial de l'esclavage a aidé à placer le Bénin au rang des destinations touristiques internationales de la traite atlantique, mais en contrepartie il a aussi contribué à mettre en évidence les mémoires plurielles de l'esclavage et à transformer les patrimoines matériel et immatériel africains en objets de consommation. Il discute aussi de l'articulation des mémoires plurielles de l'esclavage avec les attentes des touristes afro-américains et afro-caribéens, qui constituent le public cible des projets de promotion du patrimoine culturel de la traite atlantique des esclaves et du tourisme des racines. L'article montre que l'expansion de la mémoire publique de la traite des esclaves au Bénin ne fut pas une entreprise isolée et que des initiatives similaires furent également développées dans d'autres pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. L'article examine l'émergence de la mémoire publique de l'esclavage et de la traite atlantique des esclaves dans la République du Bénin, en soulignant le rôle crucial de la patrimonialisation de l'esclavage dans le développement de l'industrie touristique locale. The article concludes that although slavery heritage tourism helped to place Benin among the international slavery tourist destinations, it also contributed to make visible the plural memories of slavery and to commodify African tangible and intangible heritage. The article also discusses how the plural memories of slavery are articulated with the expectations of African American and Afro-Caribbean tourists, who are the main target of projects focusing on slavery cultural heritage and roots tourism. The article shows that the rise of the public memory of the Atlantic slave trade in Benin is not an isolated venture and that similar initiatives were also developed in other West African countries. ![]() This article examines the emergence of the public memory of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade in the Republic of Benin, by explaining how the heritagization of slavery was crucial for the development of a local tourism industry.
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