Two Visits to the House of Slaves, by Michael Pakaluk

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, June 10, 2020

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America.  …

Pope John Paul II visited the Maison des Esclaves, the “House of Slaves,” on the island of Gorée off the coast of Senegal in 1992. And President Obama visited it as well in 2013, over thirty years later.  What did each say, and what does the difference tell us?

Gorée Island, designated a World Heritage site in 1978, was a locus for the slave trade from the 15^th to the 19^th centuries under four different European governments – Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French.   Marked by a contrast between lovely colonial homes and dark dungeons for processing slaves, UNESCO refers to it as “memory island” and intends that it remain “a symbol of human exploitation and a sanctuary for reconciliation.”

The “House of Slaves”, with its ominous “Door of No Return,” said to be the last sight of Africa for slaves being loaded on boats for the New World, was made a museum in 1962 and is now a major tourist destination.  …

Read more here:   https://www.thecatholicthing.org/