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Slavery as Theme Park: How a West African Country is Making Tourism of Atrocity

January 2, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

A lifesize replica of a slave ship called the "ship of departure" in a marketing video by the Hotel Benin. The replica would be part of a tourism development centered around a slave-trading location in Benin.
A lifesize replica of a slave ship called the “ship of departure” in a marketing video by the Hotel Benin. The replica would be part of a tourism development centered around a slave-trading location in Benin, in West Africa.

By Dominique Somda

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Benin is building a theme park to remember slavery – is history up for sale?

A lifesize replica of a slave ship graces Project Marina.
Screenshot/YouTube/Presidency of Benin

Dominique Somda, University of Cape Town




The Marina Project is a vast memorial and tourist complex under construction in Ouidah, a coastal town in the Republic of Benin in West Africa. The country hopes to market itself as a major destination for Afro-descendant tourists in the diaspora. Neighbouring Nigeria and its population of 220 million potential visitors also makes serene and diminutive Benin an enviable location for large scale tourist attractions.

The waterfront development is located at what was the main slave port for the Bight of Benin. From this region almost two million enslaved Africans departed during the transatlantic slave trade. At its height – from the 1790s to the 1860s – Ouidah was controlled by the kingdom of Dahomey.

The future complex will include a hotel spa, a lifesize replica of a slave ship, memorial gardens, a craft market and an arena for vodun performances. Vodun is a religion practised in Benin and among the descendants of enslaved Africans in the US, Haiti and beyond.




The local success of the Hollywood film The Woman King revealed a strong interest in this historical period, still neglected in school syllabuses.

The Marina Project could lead to a better understanding of the transatlantic slave trade. But it raises many questions. In its design and scope it epitomises contested directions of slave heritage tourism. The commodification of heritage may debase the experiences of painful pasts. The spectacle of culture produced by the tourist industry is often met with contempt.

Anthropologists and “well-travelled tourists” often regard the likes of “tourist dances” as particularly tacky, according to US scholar Edward M. Bruner. And yet, fellow anthropologist Paulla Ebron argues that heritage tourists may also be pilgrims and their commercial cultural experiences may be intimate and sincere. She notes:

Africa became sacred and commercial, authentic and spectacular.

The Marina Project is also contested for other reasons. Some fear that mass tourism will have an adverse impact on an area known for its unique ecosystem and biodiversity. Adding to concerns is the development of another gigantic seaside resort nearby, Club Med’s d’Avlékété.

There are already numerous slavery heritage sites in Benin. These range from the European forts in Ouidah to the royal palaces of the kings of Abomey, Porto Novo and Allada.

It’s my view, as an anthropologist, that the latest developments are walking a fine line, balancing education and remembrance with crude commerce.

Teaching slavery in Africa

Slavery and the slave trade remained insufficiently taught in schools. In 1998, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) implemented the Transatlantic Slave Trade education project. Participating countries in West Africa like Ghana, Senegal and The Gambia helped address the issue.




On the beach in Ouidah, the Door of No Return is a concrete and bronze arch with poignant images of shackled bodies of enslaved Africans. It’s one of the city’s most notable landmarks – but only one among hundreds. The road from the slave market to the monumental gate was marked by two dozen sculptures and symbolic stops commemorating the march of the captives.

A large archway facing the sea. It is cream and bronze in colour with stylised bas-relief sculptures on it showing chained human bodies and ships.
The Door of No Return in Ouidah.
jbdodane/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The Unesco drive is part of the organisation’s flagship Slave Route Project (renamed Routes of Enslaved Peoples), launched in 1994 from Ouidah. It sparked the global development of research projects dedicated to studying slavery. It also set off new commemorations of slavery and the slave trade on the continent and beyond. In Benin, it transformed the memorial landscape.

For example, the Da-Silva Museum in Porto Novo, Benin’s administrative capital, opened in 1998. The private institution offers resources (exhibitions, documents, spaces) for school pupils to learn about slavery. Its founder, Urbain-Karim-Elisio da Silva, is a prominent aguda – part of an Afro-Brazilian community related to slave traders and former slave returnees.

New memorials in a complicated landscape

On my last visit to Ouidah in February 2022, the Door of No Return and museum were undergoing renovations. The sculptures had been removed while the road was rebuilt. The museum is to be reborn as the International Museum for Memory and Slavery.

But the Marina Project, next to the door, is the most spectacular of the new developments. A video clip released by the government lists several of its buildings. Their names – “Afro-Brésilien”, “Bénin”, “Caraïbes” – acknowledge the descendants of enslaved Africans.

The new structures add to an already multi-faceted (and sometimes disputed) treatment of the country’s complicated involvement with the slave trade. Descendants of slave raiders and slave traders live alongside the descendants of enslaved people. Their competing memories and separate interests have led to differing memorial strategies.

A circular structure on the beach with a tree at its centre and seating all around it.
The arena for vodun performances at the Marina Project.
Screenshot/YouTube/Presidency of Benin

Anthropologist C. Ciarcia cites two opposing stances. In Ouidah, where tourism infrastructures are concentrated, forgiveness – through ritual atonement and commemoration – is sought publicly. In Abomey, the former capital of Dahomey and its slave raiders, narratives are less apologetic. For fellow anthropologist Anna Seiderer, the presence of vodun, in particular, has been important for tourists who are eager to imagine and enact their roots.

Slave heritage tourism and its discontents

Slave heritage tourism in Africa caters mainly to the interests of foreign visitors, especially descendants of enslaved Africans in North and South America and the Caribbean region. Several Unesco world heritage centres curate these legacies for tourists: Gorée island (Senegal), slave castles (Ghana), and Stone Town (Tanzania). To be sure, tourism development was always part of the slave route project, even before Unesco.




Ouidah’s new developments are featured in the Benin Révélé – a grand development programme imagined by president Patrice Talon. According to some detractors, a lot of these projects will become white elephants, used by few.

Another recurring criticism is that new museums, memorials and events are fashioned by foreign experts rather than local talents. The new sites are designed, built and staged by mostly French or Chinese architects, engineers and curators.

The Marina Project is one of many projects that memorialise Benin’s past. The combining of commercial and memorial goals doesn’t make them less able to teach history or offer intimate processes of remembrance. But the new trend in high end cultural consumption is seemingly more problematic.

Dominique Somda is Junior research fellow at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA), University of Cape Town.


The Conversation arose out of deep-seated concerns for the fading quality of our public discourse and recognition of the vital role that academic experts could play in the public arena. Information has always been essential to democracy. It’s a societal good, like clean water. But many now find it difficult to put their trust in the media and experts who have spent years researching a topic. Instead, they listen to those who have the loudest voices. Those uninformed views are amplified by social media networks that reward those who spark outrage instead of insight or thoughtful discussion. The Conversation seeks to be part of the solution to this problem, to raise up the voices of true experts and to make their knowledge available to everyone. The Conversation publishes nightly at 9 p.m. on FlaglerLive.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jimbo99 says

    January 3, 2023 at 1:51 am

    That moment when you realize that St Augustine is just 30 miles away. How long has the Castillo de San Marcos been a tourism hot spot in FL ? Ft Matanzas is even closer.

    Reply
  2. Atwm says

    January 3, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    As a student in Ga we were taught the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews, a land across the ocean. I never heard how many of my ancestors were murdered by the white man in this country where my Black Ancestors live and were murdered by the tens of thousands. We may never know. Slavery Theme Park wow. Will not have a long comment, makes me very angry at the white man. Believe if it wasn’t for the white man my ancestors would have had a better life. A lot more to say better for me to cut my comments short.

    Reply
    • Over It says

      January 3, 2023 at 10:35 pm

      You should educate yourself on the subject instead of getting eaten up by all that hate you seem to hold. You may not like what you find on who was actually handing over your “ancestors” whom I am almost certain you dont even know any of their names…… Your ancestors were selling their own to the North African countries centuries before the North American slave trade started. Your ancestors would raid other tribes of your ancestors and capture them to bring to the slave market. They would then trade them for goods to the Portuguese and English in the early days of the North American slave trade. Maybe you should go protest outside of the Portuguese American Club. You hold malice and hate for white people that you dont even know…. guess what that makes you? An uneducated racist.

      Reply
      • Laurel says

        January 5, 2023 at 4:34 pm

        Not to mention that there were also black plantation owners who held black slaves. People are people, and cannot be judged by the color of their skin.

        Reply
        • guilty white tears says

          January 11, 2023 at 10:35 am

          since whites went across the world spreading disease rape and genocide, skin color kind of matters but you know keep admitting to your own ignorance and guilt

          Reply
    • Jimbo99 says

      January 4, 2023 at 12:50 am

      Since you went there ? At the core of every African that was enslaved was an African that kidnapped or captured to sell off a tribal POW. Most recently Boko Haram was recruiting slaves. Don’t hate another for the color of their skin, hate the one’s that did it to anyone. Can we refer to this theme park as “African Black Disney (ABD)” going forward ? I just think your anger & frustrations are misplaced.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Coast_of_West_Africa
      https://www.britannica.com/place/Dahomey-historical-kingdom-Africa
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram

      Reply
      • guilty white tears says

        January 11, 2023 at 10:23 am

        why do you whites insist on downplaying your evil and sin? because you know your guilty

        Reply
    • The Unvarnished Truth says

      January 4, 2023 at 8:12 am

      Better life? Have you ever been to Africa? They weren’t sold here and look at how they are living. You’d be like that African exchange student I met that was fascinated by how we can have toilets that returned clean water no matter many times he flushed it. You don’t have to go to “Africa” to get the experience of what the absence of white people would feel like, go to Flint MI, Jackson MS, Baltimore, Chicago, and a slew of other “Black ran” cities and come back and tell me how much better you would be. No. I am not a white man apologist. No. I am not the colorful name you are conjuring up in your head. I am a critical thinker without blinders or excuses.
      The only way a “slavery theme park” would be authentic would be to have another Black person taking money for your ticket to be whisked away to another land …like OUR ancestors had done. You ignore that part, huh?

      Reply
      • whites are guilty says

        January 11, 2023 at 10:20 am

        so many guilty whites in the comments, cant handle the fact that your people are evil hey?

        Reply
  3. Deborah Coffey says

    January 3, 2023 at 8:22 pm

    Well, I like it! Reading all the way through, I felt like people thought they needed to apologize for “another” project or were attempting to find a problem where there isn’t one. Go, Africans! You teach it. If you build it, they will come.

    Reply
    • Laurel says

      January 5, 2023 at 4:39 pm

      Deborah: Yeah, I guess. There are plenty of historical parks to visit that are based on horrific events. They lost me though, with a spa. My guess is that the souvenirs will be made in China as well.

      Reply
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