Goree Island -BOMA Minute 4 22 17

On this day April 22 we remember Goree, a small 45-acre Island off the coast of Senegal, West Africa. Goree Island became the golden gateway to the European Slave Trade with the first recorded slave transactions dating back to 1536. It is believed that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to set foot on the African Isle around 1444. 

However, the house of slaves was built by the Dutch in the late 1700’s. It is believed that between 1550 and 1850 upwards of 20 million Africans passed through the Door of No Return. Imagine 20 million, chained, shackled and manacled human beings confined, naked, 30 at-a-time, to an 8x8 concrete cell. Fed gruel once a day; forced to lie in their own excrement; waiting weeks at-a-time for their only relief, to be packed like sardines in the hold of a slave ship. Today Goree Island has become a tourist attraction, a Historical Museum where visitors swear they can see, hear and feel the spirits of those who passed through The Door of No Return.

This has been a Breath of My Ancestors Minute brought to you by the Institute of Radical Reconciliation… #WeMustNeverForget