August 23: UNESCO Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Every year, the UNESCO dedicates August 23 as an international day to celebrate the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Abolition. The date was chosen because during the night of August 22 to August 23, 1791, on the island of Saint Domingue in the French colony, enslaved Africans started an uprising that lead to the very first revolution against slavery and the first republic of Haiti.

To honor this specific UNESCO Day in 2022, the radio station BR2 and the Augsburger Allgemeine Tageszeitung offered interviews with Heike Raphael-Hernandez about the slave trade in general and about German involvement in this history. Raphael-Hernandez was part of the re-modelling of the Fugger and Welser Museum in Augsburg. The photo is part of the museum’s new installation that opened on July 4, 2022.

Interview BR2: https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/radiowelt/transatlantischer-sklavenhandel-die-rolle-deutschlands-100.html (6:21)

Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung (kostenpflichtig): https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/augsburg/kultur/geschichte-wie-fugger-und-welser-in-augsburg-vom-sklavenhandel-profitierten-id63659366.html