Description
- Abstract:
- Located on the sandy shores of Ouidah, Benin, the monumental concrete red, white, and yellow-painted gate and the metal sculptures that flank it, commemorate the horrors of the Transatlantic slave trade. The memorial gate, which marks the point where African captives were forced onto transatlantic slave ships, is connected by a path, known as the “Slave Route,” to the market square, where enslaved people were once sold. The memorial arch is embellished with a frieze, depicting two lines of enslaved people bound at their hands and chained together as they walk towards waiting ships. The columns are adorned with sculptures depicting men and women captives, Their extremities bound, as they kneel and await their fate in Portuguese-built forts. The back of the gate is adorned with depictions of their native towns. Yves Ahouangnimon was the architect for the project; Fortuné Bandiera created figures and bas reliefs on the columns; Yves Apollinaire Pèdé created the bas-reliefs on the center arch and two free-standing egungun; and Dominique Kouas created the copper statues.
- Notes:
- La Porte du Non Retour (Ouidah, Republic of Benin), Brown University Library
- Digital object made available by: Brown University Library, Center for Digital Scholarship, Box A, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, U.S.A., (http://library.brown.edu/)
Access Conditions
- Rights
- CC BY-SA 2.0
- Restrictions on Use
- Collection is open for research.
Citation
Sloan, Dan (Flickr),
"La Porte du Non Retour (Ouidah, Republic of Benin)"
(1995).
Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:53tmqf3n/
Relations
Collection:
-
Transatlantic Slave Trade
...This collection focuses on commemorative works dedicated to the transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, between ten million and twelve million enslaved Africans were forcibly taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. …