Source: UN News. Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa – A slavery memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania
James, the title of this month’s read at the Panafro Book Club created much discussion, critique, and questioning both to each other and deeply inwards. More than twenty of us sat around a large table at the back of a coffee shop/restaurant during their slow period, in the early Saturday afternoon. The main city square, market place and the Grand Duke’s palace were all just outside the door. Inside this eclectic group of readers grappled with the savagery, inhumanity, bigotry, power and gain within the pages of James. They are all too close to our world in 2026. The novel is full of ironic beauty, despite Percival Everett’s construct of the mid-1800s, when reading the most cruel forms of punishment, inflicted on the bodies of children and adults alike, made me flinch with each blow. Yet there is power in the determination of one man to return to what is most loved, most cherished and reclaim who he rightfully is; James. His full name.
https://www.instagram.com/the.panafro.bookclub/
And our names can carry weight, signal ancestry, bondage and appropriation. They can also hold deep meaning, connection and responsibility. They often signal times past and carry hope into the future. They signal place, time and possibility. But within all this, they signal identity and the fullness of our being. When we are re-named, our past story is erased and another, superimposed. Mark Twain’s Jim, is not James.
Earlier this month I went to see the documentary The Marbles which debates the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, often referred to, erroneously, as the ‘Elgin Marbles’. So how does Elgin own something that was never his to own? And why does the British Museum house stolen artefacts, religious icons, sacred pieces, human remains and other looted works of unimaginable value? And how is it that the greatest number of visitors to the British Museum are not British, but come from, or originate from places all over the world, to view stolen pieces from their own countries, religions or ancestry? They do not belong there. The film director’s proposal is that the British Museum, as its name indicates, should only house objects that are British. The implications are huge.
https://www.guerilla-films.com/the-marbles
“There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this
very moment, and they are listening for one word only: Justice”
Esther Philips, First Poet Laureate of Barbados
The complete poem was delivered by Esther Philips in the UN Assembly Room. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1456224035879707
Her poem was read in person at this historic moment, on 25 March of this year, when 123 member states voted in favour of adopting the resolution to declare the transatlantic slave trade as “The Gravest Crime Against Humanity”. Slavery, created the wealth and the continuing prosperity and power for the 53 states, who abstained. Three nation states voted against; Israel, the USA and Argentina. Therein lies much more than the vote.
Enslavement and its trade, continues to be the gravest crime against humanity. Its name reverberates in my mind, in my heart and in my soul. Its legacy, is our struggle.
What are you holding in a name?
Patricia Angoy 