CI-NEWS

Bimbia Slave Village: Seeking to become World Heritage Site.

2019-06-11

No: 431

Bimbia Slave Village:

Seeking to become World Heritage Site (Photo of Professor Milton Guran)

The government of Cameroon is leaving no stone unturned to make the historic Bimbia Slave Trade Village to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To this effect, it sought the expertise of Professor Milton Guran, Anthropologist from the Federal University of Fluminense in Brazil. It is on record that Prof Guran who has experience on such files had worked and succeeded in inscribing Cape de Vallongue Slave Trade Site in Brazil into a world heritage site. He is therefore in Cameroon to work with the Ministry of Arts and Culture on what to do and how to submit request for Bimbia Slave Trade village to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Accompanied by Theophile Eyango, Technical Advicer No 1 in the Ministry of Arts and Culture, and other officials, Prof. Milton Guran was then led through a guided tour in the Bimbia Slave Trade Village on June 4, 2019, by the Mayor of Limbe III municipality, Nseke Luma. Through the various departments where slaves were treated like Slave warehouse, Open air market of enslaved, weighing and inspection station, Water and feeding station, Children’s warehouse with door of no return and finally the awful journey of no return into the sea, Mayor Nseke at each stage rendered horrific inhumane accounts of possible activities that occurred there. The tour ended in the sea where the journey of no return by the slaves to the western world started.

Prof Mbida Mindzie Christophe, Director of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Arts and Culture, indicated that the project is very important for the building of Cameroonian identity. Given that the slave activities had involved many tribes in Cameroon, it is therefore such a historic concern to all. “We want to build up this site of memory so that people don’t forget it. It is now history and we have to assume it. It was a sad history as there was nothing positive in enslaving people. But we want to take advantage of it in a more positive way by developing the touristic aspect of it,” Prof Mbida explained. He added that they have done some statistics and can have 200 million visitors per year at the Bimbia Slave Trade Village when the project goes operational.

Prof. Guran, a Brazilian white who has trace of ancestral lineage in Mozambique, insisted that slave trade is a crime against humanity and that the malice is still ongoing but in a different form.

He spoke to the press and began stating the object of his visit to the Slave Trade Village. Excerpts:

I was invited by Cameroon government with the support of Brazilian government to share our experience and expertise in world patrimony. We just succeeded in classifying the most important place at the other side. The place where slaved Africans arrived in America which is called Cape de Vallongue walls in Rio de Janerio. I think that something between 500 thousand and one million enslaved Africans got into Brazil through this Vallongue Walls. I am very impressed about this Bimbia Slave Trade Village and this is the most completed site of slave trade memory I have seen in Africa. May be Mozambique is so important. There are also more important sites like Gold Coast, Gole etc. These are very big constructions from Europeans but here in Bimbia it is a unique African site.

There are so many qualities that this slave trade village has that make it stand out. Could you give one quality that makes it different from others in Africa?

I have been to Benin, Ghana, Angola, Senegal but I never find something like this. With the ruins here we can feel how strong and big the slave activities were. I am sure that archaeological research will reveal very important information about the slave trade and memory. We have seen the ships that went to Brazil and we have more than half the population which is Afro Brazilian. We are talking about 110 million people with a lot of Cameroonians there. This is very strong for a Brazilian like me.

What is that one strong message that you will tell the world as you leave this place?

The strongest message is that slave trade is a crime against humanity and it is still going on. It is not finished. The slaving of Africans to Americans is finished. But there is more into slaving now. There are women’s, children’s and workers’ slavery which is still ongoing in the world. This is why it is very important to classify Bimbia as a memory place, a world heritage. It will help everybody to never forget that slave trafficking is a crime to humanity.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune.

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Bimbia Slave Village: Seeking to become World Heritage Site.