Public Discourses on the Silence of Inherited Trauma

这将是对当代围绕奴役的话语的调查，特别是关注安提瓜和巴布达（加勒比地区的前英国殖民地）围绕奴隶制话题的沉默。我的目的是调查这些话语的积极和消极方面可能意味着加勒比黑人社区，以及赔偿和奴役后福利的社会政策。卡伦·福格-奥维格（2007）指出，加勒比地区以前被奴役的人的后代“有意识地忘记”了这段高度情绪化的历史时期。这种“遗忘”表现在安提瓜和巴布达人对奴隶制的讨论明显沉默。尽管如此，在许多加勒比岛屿上，尤其是在安提瓜岛上，仍然可以清楚地看到奴役时期的实物证据。这项工作遵循了Gueye和Michelin提出的类似的脉络，他们汇编了奴隶制的“集体”，“公共”和“官方”记忆，这是关于这个问题的几次会议和辩论的高潮。他们的工作重点是“承认或否认奴隶制的记忆在（非洲，欧洲和美洲）.作为一个悲剧，尽管它对“过去三百年的历史进程”的形成做出了贡献，但在许多现代国家，它已经沉默了世纪。（Gueye & Michel，2018; 18）.我的目标是通过对设在安提瓜的TOSTEM“解放故事”博物馆项目的民族志进一步研究这一主题，当他们试图提出颠覆安提瓜和巴布达以及英国的沉默的敏感而困难的任务时，这项研究将看到我参与一个多-TOSTEM组织在安提瓜和巴布达和英国实施博物馆项目时的实地民族志。使用一系列的方法论方法，我将集中在如何项目isreceived安提瓜和巴布达社区，并在英国的加勒比后裔。这项研究可以产生一个宝贵的一步，和解奴隶制的暴力历史与跨代的影响，今天所面临的后裔。公开开始这类对话也可能对推进前奴隶后裔赔偿案件产生影响。此外，它还可以在相关领域开辟未来的调查渠道，如承认和重新认识加勒比人民在被奴役之前的更全面的历史。这是一个在加勒比海和英国教育系统中没有代表性的领域：它在沉默中尖叫着寻求关注。TOSTEM的愿景是建立一个“支持保护我们非洲遗产和纪念我们非洲祖先的社会”。从世纪到解放，保护安提瓜和巴布达被奴役者及其后代的历史，并创造对我们非洲遗产的持续意识“（Edith Oladele，TOSTEM协调员，2017年）。这项研究也特别及时，因为TOSTEM的倡议是安提瓜历史上调查和传播等待的独特见解的理想时刻。

This will be an investigation into contemporary discourses around enslavement, particularly with a focuson the silence that surrounds the topic of slavery in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, a formerBritish colony in the Caribbean. I aim to investigate what the positive and negative aspects of thesediscourses could potentially mean for the Black Caribbean community, and for a social policy ofreparations and post-enslavement wellbeing. Karen Fog- Olwig (2007) points to a 'conscious forgetting' ofthis highly emotive historical period among the descendants of formerly enslaved peoples in theCaribbean. This 'forgetting' is manifested in an apparent silence on discussions of slavery among Antiguan's andBarbudan's. Despite this, physical evidence of the period of enslavement is clearly observable on manyCaribbean islands, not least in Antigua. This work follows a similar vein as proffered by Gueye and Michelin their compilation of 'Collective', 'Public' and 'Official' memories of slavery, which was the culminationof several conferences and debates on the subject. Their work focuses on 'the recognition or the denial ofthe memory of slavery in (Africa, Europe and The Americas) ... as a tragedy which has been silenced forover a century in many modern states' despite its contribution to the shaping of 'the course of history inthe past three hundred years' (Gueye & Michel, 2018; 18).I aim to examine this subject further through an ethnography of the Antiguan based TOSTEM'Emancipation Stories' Museum Project, as they attempt to broach the sensitive and difficult task ofsubverting the silence in Antigua and Barbuda and the UK.This research will see me engaging in a multi-sited ethnography of the TOSTEM organisation as they implement their Museum Project in Antigua andBarbuda and in the UK. Using a range of methodological approaches I will focus upon how the project isreceived by the Antiguan and Barbudan community, and amongst Caribbean descendants in the UK.This research could engender an invaluable step towards reconciling the violent history of slavery withthe transgenerational impacts that are faced by descendants today. The public commencement of thistype of dialogue could also prove impactful in furthering the case of reparations for the descendants offormer slaves. Further, it could generate future avenues of investigation in related areas such asacknowledgement and reclamation of a fuller picture of the history of Caribbean people prior to theirenslavement. This is a sorely unrepresented area that is absent from the Caribbean and UK educationsystems: it is screaming for attention in its silencing's. TOSTEM's vision is for a 'society that supports thepreservation of our African heritage and the memory of our African Ancestors... to preserve the history ofthe enslaved and their descendants in Antigua and Barbuda from the 17th century through Emancipationto successive generations, and to create ongoing consciousness of our African Heritage' (Edith Oladele,TOSTEM Coordinator, 2017). This research is also particularly timely as TOSTEM's initiatives are an idealmoment in Antiguan history to investigate and disseminate the unique insights that await.