UNESCO hands Cape Verde certificates on historical records of slavery
Unesco has presented Cape Verde with two certificates confirming the inscription of documents on slavery in the International Memory of the World Register. The award, considered symbolic and historic, reinforces the preservation of the country's collective memory.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) officially handed Cape Verde two certificates confirming the inscription of historical documents on slavery on the International Memory of the World Register. The information was published by Forbes Africa.
The documents include records from the Fundo Arquivístico da Secretaria-Geral do Governo (1842-1869) and the census of slaves in Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique (1854), made up of 79 manuscript books, 11 of which belong to Cape Verde.
"This is a proud moment for Cape Verde and the region, while at the same time reinforcing our commitment to preserving collective memory and passing on the universal value of our archives to future generations," declared the Minister of Culture and Creative Industries, Augusto Veiga, during the handover ceremony held in the city of Praia.
Veiga added that "it's a symbolic handover, but a very significant one for Cape Verde and also for Unesco's documentary records, as these documents are now in the public domain and protected by the international organization."
UNESCO's Deputy Director-General for Communication and Information, Tawfik Jelassi, who was present at the ceremony, stressed that these records "are important documents" for history and represent "acts of reparation" in relation to centuries of slavery in Africa. According to Jelassi, "they are not just documents, but silent testimonies of millions of men and women who were reduced to slavery".
