Yesterday, May 5, was African World Heritage Day, designated by UNESCO to give greater visibility to a lesser-known heritage.
In fact, of the 1,199 sites in the world listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites, only 148 are in Africa.
Interviewed by Le Monde on the uniqueness of African heritage, Lazare Eloundou, head of Unesco's World Heritage Center, believes that African heritage should not be seen through the prism of Western societies. For him, what counts is the significance of the place, its social use, its symbolic power in terms of beliefs and traditions.
At the Lab, we believe that the various historical sites of the slave trade should be listed and protected as World Heritage Sites, as they are the guardians of a history that continues to influence the world we live in today. This is particularly true of Loango Bay, which we recently mentioned here, a historic site of the transatlantic slave trade that is threatened by coastal erosion.
Located near Pointe Noire in the Republic of Congo, Loango Bay served as a port for the Portuguese, Dutch, British and French to ship enslaved people between the 16th and 19th centuries. With no real protection, Loango Bay is sinking into the sea year after year, taking with it the traces of an important site of remembrance of the transatlantic slave trade.
Read more about the interview with Mr. Lazare Eloundou here (in French): https://lnkd.in/eghXQXrR