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Sister Omega
United Kingdom
2085 Posts |
 Posted - 04 Nov 2006 : 16:11:52
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Shaka I get your points, I am aware Senegal has invested a lot of revenue in restoring its historical buildings. However let's be real Senegal also since independence invested more in its human resources through education than Gambia. Also Arts within the Francophone has traditionally commanded more revenue from the state compared to Anglophone ones.However Shaka I agree with you that more resources should be channelled into preserving, restoring historical buildings. Fort James could be virtually reconstructed because as, it stands at present, the fortalso symbolises abolition that's why its in ruins.
Peace
Sister Omega |
Peace
Sister Omega |
Edited by - Sister Omega on 04 Nov 2006 16:15:35 |
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Momodou
Denmark
11512 Posts |
Posted - 04 Nov 2006 : 16:49:12
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I did a search on Maurel & Prom, the company that last occupied this building and found the following:
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History of Maurel & Prom
In 1813, Maurel & Prom, founded by two famous families in Bordeaux, was set up to ship goods by boat from Bordeaux to the French colonies in West Africa. The shipping company of the same name was founded in 1830. Over the years, the company acquired several trading posts and became one of the main shipping companies servicing Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon and Congo.
At the end of the XIXth century, Joseph Prom founded the Maurel & Prom oil factory, which was fed with groundnut imported from Senegal.
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr~hfmpr.html
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So, Maurel & Prom came here after the British already bought the place. |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 04 Nov 2006 : 16:59:02
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I think that restoration should be done, but NOT rebuilding. Things are best preserved for the future to tell their history.
I also think great care and thought needs to be given to what these old buildings are used for. Would you really want a restaurant in somewhere that such terrible events have taken place. That seems a bit disrespectful to me. Like wise in the UK the trend for making old churches into pubs and so on seems a bit strange to me. IN York there is an old church that has been made into a cafe. It is unlicensed and only open in the day time. It is run by anohter church and has a spiritual feel to it. It as a fair trade shop and so on and this feels quite appropriate.
In the uk we have 'english heritage' and 'the national trust' that both work in this area. I wonder does Gambia have any charitable organisation doing this work? It is a bit of a luxury when people are still in need of clean drinking water and an education, I suppose.
How about The Gambia experience setting up a charity called Gambian Heritage?!  |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 04 Nov 2006 : 18:35:27
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quote:
Originally posted by gambiabev
How about The Gambia experience setting up a charity called Gambian Heritage?!
No thank you. we would like to do it ourselves.
you misunderstand what i said. the House at Albreda was not a slave house, it was a French/ Portugese trading post. thats why i said it should be turned into a commercial entity like a restaurant/hotel.
often when we talk about solutions we forget how 'poor' governments themselves are. thats why i suggested a private initiative.
Momodou, Maurel & Prom is still alive. its into shipping and oil these days. i think they were very close to CFAO as well in the gambia, i remember some houses near our compound being sold off.
http://www.maureletprom.com/
http://www.maureletprom.com/1_discover/saga.php?rub=2
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 04 Nov 2006 : 23:39:58
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You say the government is poor, and I agree they have more important things to spend their money on. That is why I suggested the firm that has benefited from tourism most could put something back. From their brochure I see they support various community innitiatives, but on a very small scale. To me it stinks of tokenism. It makes the company look good!  
The muslim ideal is 10% of profits (or income)for charitable purposes. If Gambia experience gave 10% of profits to a heritage charity that could make quite an impact!
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shaka
996 Posts |
Posted - 05 Nov 2006 : 11:31:18
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| The government has more important things to spend their money. Like what? Buying a runned down hotel for D300 millions and spending more to refurbish it, building a palace in Kanilai, no to mention the grand arch among other things. If that money was spent to restore our historical heritage and turn them into tourist attractions, income generated from such venture would far exceed that of the hotel, arch etc. Besides we would have our national heritage intact for generations and generations to come. No Gambian government seem to understand the value of art and culture in 41years of independence. This is a real shame and tragedy. |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 05 Nov 2006 : 13:38:02
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| I agree preservation is very important for its own sake, and for the tourist interest it may generate. BUT feeding the people, giving them clean water, malaria and hiv medication, a good free education, an electricity supply and decent roads would all come before buildings for me. Governments have to prioritise. Does this government have a plan of work? Do the people that voted them in know what they are planning on spending tax payers money on? |
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LEMON TIME
Afghanistan
1295 Posts |
Posted - 05 Nov 2006 : 14:00:14
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Do the people that voted them in know what they are planning on spending tax payers money on?
Ha Bev,its Gambia goverment no body has to know how Yaya spent our money.IF anybody trys to find out they be come History. |
There is no god but Allah |
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shaka
996 Posts |
Posted - 05 Nov 2006 : 14:42:08
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| Bev you are talking like the issue here is Taj Mahal, Buckingham Palace or the Empire State Bulding. For God's sake it is just the small matter of Fort Bullen, the slavehouse above, James Island among others. Are we suddenly asking for half the national budget here? Restoration work on a single site a year is not like asking for the heavens to open. Do you know how much the English heritage spend a year to restore historical buildings around England, while poor people are scarvenging off supermarket bins? Don't tell me its charity money or from lottery funding because money is money. Why did you not tell them to feed the poor and hungry first. We have 41 years to do something yet still not a single historical site had been enhanced. This not a case of robbimg bread from the poor's mouth to build the Millenium Dome or something of that magnitude but preserving our history and heritage for generations to come. Ok, woman!!1 |
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mbay
Germany
1007 Posts |
Posted - 05 Nov 2006 : 20:23:00
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Kon& co. very interested back check . Brings more when you have.
If get it well you also mention the name of the Gambia?
you are real right about the deferent views of that name.i have also being on tracks for some time.exampel i was passing by in Copenhagen 1990 visiting one library. In one historic book it was writing down that the name of the Gambia is driving out from the Portuguese of cambio /combio which means of exchanges. Some says that name also is much related to a type of a fish (Gambo) which you can find almost every where in the Gambia at that time. And not forgetting also the mandinka/manlike (I let that to a good speaking Mandingo to bring us that meaning. So to follow the tracks at the same time catching a history of the past as whole that has not be booked well isn’t easy think but giving up will be the fatal mistakes.
Shake you are right of ignorance of the authorities. Cose past is the future. But i beliefs things are not like the former regimes (no political offence but fact) there a more sign of heritage than before. Like SIS O had just mention. Indeed we are poor but I think we still have chance of not letting it go for even more loses.
(OH, GRÜSSE DICH LEMON TIME)
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Sister Omega
United Kingdom
2085 Posts |
Posted - 06 Nov 2006 : 10:18:39
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I don't see any reason why Gambia can't work with Senegal through bilateral agreement in the area of Arts and Culture on a slave house restoration project. The Senegalese have proven expertise in this area for Gambia to type into.
Peace
Sister Omega |
Peace
Sister Omega |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 06 Nov 2006 : 18:12:15
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quote:
Originally posted by Sister Omega
Kons just to bring to your attention that the transatlantic Slave Trade wasn't official abolished until 1807, and from looking at pictures which I took around the grounds of the Slave House in 2004 irons are visible where slaves were chained too. Mungo Parks commented that there were nine slave factories in Gambia, and he witnessed slaves being transported from Gambia up until 1796.
Shackle holder
Photo by Sophia Ba (c) 2004-2006
Peace
Sister Omega
Sister
Your this posting has made my analysis easier. If slavery was officially abolished in 1807, and the island was bought in 1785, then the island was bought when slavery was in full gear. Yet, they found no slave activity there nor was there any record of this building in accounts of the House of Commons Inquiry of 1785 relating to the purchase of the island nor in the accounts of the expedition team sent to survey the island before it was bought.
If we agree that the building was not there by 1785, then its not a slave house but a barn for food for liberated africans caught in the Atlantic. Many were Ghanians and Nigerians from the KRU Tribe.
The only record of people sent there for pubnishment were not slaves but liberated africans from sierrealeone and as such, it is unthinkable that they would be tied to shackles which very much defeats the purpose of the founding of the island.
This is a challenge not only to Bantaba readers but staff at the Archives, National Council for Arts and Culture,and the Ministry of Tourism to show the world the evidence why it was a slave house. I will change my mind with evidence to the contrary. |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
Posted - 06 Nov 2006 : 18:30:41
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Thanks Kons for your interesting comments and observations.
My firs early visits there were during my Primary school days. It looks like that there were chains on the walls but don't know whether they are still there? It appears to be a good rhelic or monument between slavery and that big reputable trading company mentioned as Maurel fresse or Maurel and Prom.
Perhaps reference to Dr. Florence Mahoney's renown and accredited History of the Gambia that was normally used in History lessons for Gambian High Schools, can help with your research and reservations. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 06 Nov 2006 : 18:59:15
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There is a reason why i am raising this topic. The evidence that its a slave house is merely based on local accounts trying to explain the hooks on the walls and some chains left behind and the deep "dungeon" in the basement of one of the buildings.
The land was bought during slavery but no one was on the islnad except for a handful of a religious family of Moro Kunda. I am not sure if this morokunda was related to Cherno Billo, a venerated Fulani leader who is said to have had a problem with natives and left the island to the north bank side. I think Cherno Billo is very much recent than the founding of the island in 1785.
I will cut my long bear if any one has proofs not assumptions and this is for everybody. |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 06 Nov 2006 : 20:22:51
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also the building could have had a dual purpose. whoeever owned it could have been invoved in both slavery and other mechantile activity. the thing is, any trade on the island would have to reach the coast by river and the island could have been used as a transit point.
there are shackles there. hence slavery was going on,perhaps only temporarily.we cannot agree when the building was built as you dont know that yourself. personally i believe it was there before, otherwise, if it was built by people in authority/prison it would have had military hardware liek cannons etc.
but you have got a lot of people thinking with very challenging questions.
therefore i will Declare November Bantaba Month of History. |
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