International
Day of Remembrance of the Victims
of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
2014
Theme: “Victory over Slavery: Haiti and Beyond”
For
over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims
of the tragic Transatlantic Slave Trade, one of the darkest chapters in human
history.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was the largest forced migration in history, and undeniably one of the most inhumane. the extensive exodus of Africans spread to many areas of the world over this 400-year period and was unprecedented in the annals of recorded human history.
As a direct result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the greatest movement of Africans was to the Americas - with 96 per cent of the captives from the African coasts arriving on cramped slave ships at posts in South America and the Caribbean Islands.
From 1501 to 1830, four Enslaved Africans crossed the Atlantic for every one european, making the demographics of the Americas in that era more of an extension of the African diaspora than a european one. The legacy of this migration is still evident today, with large populations of people of African descent living throughout the Americas.
Every
year on 25 March, the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of
Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade offers the opportunity to honour
and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the brutal slavery
system. The International Day also aims at raising awareness about the dangers
of racism and prejudice today.
Sources:
http://www.un.org/en/events/slaveryremembranceday/
http://www.unric.org/en/latest-un-buzz/29115-remember-honour-and-seek-change
