Memories on Atlantic Slavery. France and Spain, the French Caribbean and Cuba Compared, in the Context of Global Debates on the Commemoration of Slave Trade and Slavery

在全球文化遗产繁荣的背景下，地方、国家和全球的历史政治和身份建设涉及并交织着文化旅游的利益，与历史罪恶感和随后的责任相关的殖民主义和奴隶制记忆遗址是一个社会冲突领域。在2020年的危机年，这种紧张关系在全球黑人生命也是运动中显现出来，并表现为奴隶和殖民征服者雕像被推倒。在非洲裔人国际十年(2015-2024年)，欧洲以及非洲和美洲的前殖民地都在辩论，是否应该、在哪里以及如何纪念奴隶制，谁应该向谁道歉，谁应该赔偿谁。社会讨论如何处理奴隶制的残余物，哪些纪念碑应该被拆除或评论，哪些博物馆和纪念馆必须建立或改革。如果接受最近的独裁统治不会干扰对殖民时代(西班牙、葡萄牙)的记忆，那么关于殖民历史的争议在殖民历史更长的国家和许多来自前殖民地(英国、法国、荷兰)的移民中发挥着比德国更重要的作用。在这里，很长一段时间以来，争议都集中在对纳粹历史的处理上。在过去的几年里，德国殖民主义的遗产和德国参与大西洋奴隶制引起了更多的关注。根据关于奴隶制和解放后的知识，特别是在法国加勒比海马提尼克岛和前西班牙古巴，这项研究致力于处理历史遗迹(种植园、庄园、被奴役者的住房)，并在法国和西班牙、法属加勒比地区建立纪念场所(纪念馆和博物馆)，重点是马提尼克岛和古巴。占主导地位的历史学对英语空间的关注被克服了。除了对纪念地进行调查和分析外，该项目还调查了它们的社会文化背景。核心问题是，哪些主人公推动了记忆网站的建立，哪些主人公试图阻止他们，谁使用这些网站的方式和目的，或者忽视他们和为什么。这项研究使当前的权力关系、(社会和种族主义)包容和排斥在记住或忘记的社会中变得可见。在马提尼克岛和古巴选定的地方，应通过口述历史方法研究被奴役的后代的反记忆及其与记忆地点的关系。对前殖民国家法国、西班牙和加勒比的首都和港口城市的专家和活动家的访谈以及当地档案馆和图书馆的文件提供了进一步的资料来源。

In the context of the global Cultural Heritage Boom, where local, national, and global politics of history and identity constructions are involved and intertwined with interests in cultural tourism, sites of memory of colonialism and slavery related with historical guilt and subsequent responsibility are a field of social conflicts. In the crisis year 2020 the tensions became visible in the global Black Lives Matter Movement and found their expression in the toppling of statues of enslavers and colonial conquerors.In the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) there is a debate in Europe and the former colonies in Africa and America, if, where and how slavery should be remembered, who should apologize to whom and who should indemnify whom. Societies discuss how to handle remnants of slavery, which monuments should be demolished or commented, which museums and memorials have to be established or reformed. If the coming to terms with recent dictatorships does not interfere with the remembrance of colonial times (Spain, Portugal), the controversies on the colonial past play a more important role in countries with a longer colonial history and many immigrants from their former colonies (England, France, Netherlands) than in Germany. Here, the disputes had concentrated for a long time on the handling of the Nazi past. In the last years the legacy of colonialism in Germany and the German involvement in Atlantic slavery attracted more attention.On the basis of the knowledge on slavery and post-emancipation, particularly on the French Caribbean island Martinique and former Spanish Cuba, the research is dedicated to the handling of historical remnants (plantations, manor houses, housing of the enslaved) and the establishment of sites of commemoration (memorials and museums) in France and Spain, the French Caribbean with focus on Martinique and Cuba. The dominant historiographical focus on the Anglophone space is overcome. Beside a survey and analysis of the sites of memory the project investigates their socio-cultural context. The central questions are which protagonists promoted the establishment of sites of memory, which protagonists tried to impede them, who uses the sites how and to which purpose, or ignore them and why. This research makes visible current power relations, (social and racist) inclusions and exclusions in the society which remembers or forgets. On selected places in Martinique and Cuba the counter-memories of descendants of the enslaved and their relation to the sites of memory shall be studied through Oral History methods. Interviews with experts and activists in the capitals and port towns of the former colonial powers France and Spain and in the Caribbean as well as documents from local archives and libraries provide further sources.