TST Roundup: 2004 The International Year for the Commemoration of the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition

March 2004: Focus on the Indian Ocean Slave Trade Historians, experts and ASPnet National Co-ordinators and teachers from the Comores, Madagascar, Mauritius, la Réunion, the Seychelles, South Africa and Tanzania took part in the Third Workshop on “Learning about our Common Past to Build a Peaceful Future”: Teaching About the Causes and Consequences of the Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean, 8-12 March 2004, Maputo, Mozambique. Participants also took part in pedagogical workshops and planned the next stage of the Indian Ocean Slave Trade Education Project. This meeting, which followed regional workshops in La Réunion (2000) and South Africa (2000), resulted in a two-year Plan of Action. April 2004: The TST on the Web An extensive redesign and updating of the TST website was carried out with new information on the project, its aims, activities, recent events, publications, photo and art ‘galleries’, links to the online educational resource developed by and for the project and a special section to celebrate 2004, the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition.(http://www.unesco.org/education/asp/tst) May 2004: The TST on TV and in International Workshop, Oslo, Norway A CNN World Report was broadcast twice on 20 May on the subject of the “Celebrating the African Diaspora” Regional Youth Fora in Denmark and Benin in November 2003. Selected ASPnet and TST National Co-ordinators, teachers and students from the three regions of the TST project (Cuba, Denmark, Ghana, France, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana and the United States) took part in an International TST Workshop in preparation for the TST International Youth Forum (November 2004) was held in Oslo, Norway (24-27 May, 2004) June 2004: The TST in the USA A Summer Institute for TST teachers was held in Pennsylvania State University, State College Pennsylvania, United States from 25-28 June 2004. July 2004 : A New TST Brochure Publication of a new 16-page TST brochure in English and French about the ASPnet Transatlantic Slave Trade (TST) Education Project to replace the blue “Breaking the Silence” documents. August 2004: TST in UNESCO and on TV The TST project was featured in an exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris on 23 August, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, while a second CNN World Report was broadcast on 25 August on the subject of the “Celebrating the African Diaspora” Regional Youth Fora in Denmark and Benin in November 2003. October 2004 : The TST in Geneva The TST project was featured in the exhibition "Lest We Forget..." 5 -25 October, Palais des Nations, Geneva. November 2004: The TST in France: the International TST Forum: the TST Task Force Meeting and the ASPnet Time Project November was the busiest month in 2004! It kicked off with a seminar on Teaching about the TST (4 - 6 November) in Marly-le-Roi, France, which gathered all ASPnet teachers in France along with leading academics, curriculum developers and artists. The highlight of the TST year was the TST International Youth Forum (12-16 November 2004), in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in celebration of the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition. It was organized in close co-operation with the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry for Education and the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO. The Forum benefitted from the three Regional Youth Fora of the TST Project held in Denmark, Benin and Barbados in November and December 2003 and involved experts, resource persons and teacher and student representatives of countries from Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. Through panel discussions, pedagogical and artistic workshops, they explored the causes and consequences of slavery, celebrated the African diaspora and prepared an international schools campaign against racism to be launched on 21 March 2005. The Sixth International TST Task Force Meeting followed the Youth Forum on 17 November. Members conducted an analysis of the major achievements and shortcomings of the TST project in the six years of its existence, planned the third volume of the TST trilogy, “Slave Visions”, and examined the need for user-friendly educational resource material, including the production of specific material on TST places of memory. It also made proposals for the consolidation of the TST project in 2005 and reviewed the mandate and renewal of TST Task Force members. The Time Project, a 24-hour communications project involving ASPnet schools all over the world across different time zones, took ‘Slavery, Yesterday and Today’ as its theme, thus contributing to the ‘multiplier effect’ beyond the countries taking part in the TST Project. In UNESCO Paris Elizabeth Khawajkie, International ASPnet Co-ordinator, and Jean O’Sullivan, took part in discussions with schools in Sweden and the Netherlands via videoconference. November - December 2004: The TST in Europe A national seminar on Teaching about the TST (4 - 6 November) in Marly-le-Roi, France gathered all ASPnet teachers in France along with leading academics, curriculum developers and artists. Organized by the French National Commission for UNESCO, the meeting explored in depth the academic foundations for the study and teaching of the slave trade and slavery and examined different ways to incorporate it into the French National curriculum. National ASPnet Co-ordinators from Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom were invited to make presentations on teaching and learning activities on slavery at an International Teacher Training Seminar: "Slavery - yesterday and today", Salzburg, Austria (30 November - 3 December 2004) organized by the Austrian National Commission for UNESCO. Participants from Portugal, Spain (Galicia) and Brazil at the ‘Young Scientists’ meeting for teachers and students at the Sá da Bandeira Secondary School in Portugal in January 2004 presented research on modern forms of slavery and mounted an exhibition on slavery through the ages. Michelangelo lower secondary school, Bari, Italy, published their project on historical and modern slavery called North-South: Yesterday’s and Today’s Chains, on CD-Roms. The school also held a two-day meeting in May 2004 meeting attended by the Mayor of Bari, the Italian ASPnet National Coordinator, the Ambassador of Haiti to the Holy See and other municipal and regional officials. December 2004: The TST in UNESCO, on TV and in the UNESCO Courier The TST project was featured in an exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris as part of a series of events taking at UNESCO Headquarters from December 3 to 5, to mark the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery (December 2) and the closure of the International Year for the Commemoration of the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition. The TST materials were featured briefly on national French news on 4 December as part of a feature on slavery. An article entitled 'Studying Slavery in Schools' in the UNESCO Courier, sent to all member states, focussed on the activities of the TST in 2004 as detailed above and looked ahead to 2005. All through 2004: The TST Flash The TST Flash electronic bulletin appeared at regular intervals in 2004 giving news the TST Project. Prospects for 2005: A New Campaign The major event for 2005 will be the launch of the Schools Campaign “All equal in diversity: schools mobilizing schools against racism, discrimination and exclusion." on March 21, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The year 2004 can thus be seen not a single, isolated tribute but rather the point of departure for a major worldwide school campaign to bring about greater knowledge and reflection of the slave trade and its consequences and to oppose all forms of discrimination. The aims of the campaign are as follows: to enable students to better understand the root causes of racism and discrimination including its links to the legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade; to involve students in learning more about the social, economic, cultural and scientific contributions of the African diaspora to the development of modern societies; to become more aware of the struggle against slavery and its abolition to become familiar with international instruments in support of Human Rights and the elimination of racism and discrimination (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Durban Declaration, International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination; UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity); to enable students to be knowledgeable about sustained forms of racism, discrimination, exclusion, human trafficking and modern forms of slavery. to mobilize students to observe March 21, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. A Campaign Kit is in preparation and more details will be provided in due course. International TST Summer Institute A new and ambitious orientation for the TST project is the organization of an annual International Summer Institute on teaching about the TST. The aims of the Summer Institute are: to improve teacher training and curriculum design, to raise awareness of the TST as a theme of study and to ensure sustainability and the multiplier effect of the project along with its partial financing. The University of the West Indies (Barbados campus) was proposed as a venue and Task Force members agreed to pursue related possibilities in terms of conceptualisation, accreditation, partners and selection of speakers and tutors. Task Force members approved the campaign proposal and kit. Continued development of educational resource material remains a priority. Development of TST Educational Materials Educational resource material, currently in preparation, is to be finalized in 2005. The third volume of the TST trilogy, “Slave Visions”and user-friendly educational resource material on TST places of memory.