I luoghi della tratta degli schiavi in Africa tra memoria, identità e turismo

Memory is a key feature in the study and commemoration of an episode that has deeply structured global history – the slave trade and slavery – a phenomenon that is not only debated by historians but has also inspired the analysis of several other disciplines. This essay investigates the drawbacks of the tourist use of the places of the slave trade in Africa: despite allowing the local residents obtain an economic revenue, it has impacted their being symbols of the collective memory, fundamental for the identity of many tourists-especially Afro-American tourists–who tend, on the contrary, to experience them as sacred places, making them become the destination of pilgrimages in search of their origins. The cultural and tourist use of such places brings about a discussion on the relationship that tourists and residents have with their culture, tradition and identity, while promoting a reflection on this dark episode of global history.