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A diverse new cohort of heritage organisations, research institutions and independent scholars from across West Africa and the Caribbean has received funding to preserve historical records related to transatlantic slavery.

A diverse new cohort of heritage organisations, research institutions and independent scholars from across West Africa and the Caribbean – including Barbados, Cameroon, Ghana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – has received funding to preserve historical records related to transatlantic slavery and lead research into the subject.

The funding – totalling £450,000 – has been awarded by The National Archives of the United Kingdom as part of PASSAGE – the Partnership for Atlantic Slavery Scholarship, Archiving and Global Exchange – funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

Dr Tara Inniss, Lecturer, University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados, recently said:

PASSAGE offers a vital platform to move beyond extractive research models by placing Caribbean and West African scholars and heritage organisations at the centre of shaping priorities, accessing archives, and producing work that is accountable to the communities most deeply connected to this history.

PASSAGE combines cataloguing and research into the collections at The National Archives with an international research mobility programme, which will fund researchers and heritage professionals in the Caribbean and West Africa.

The funding will be distributed across 15 projects, 13 institutions and five countries:

Barbados

• Barbados Archives Department - Conserving Records of Slavery
• Barbados Museum and Historical Society - Revoicing the archive: Library Fellowships and Artist-in-Residence
• Dr. Geoff Ward, Independent Scholar - Technological Determinism and the Evolution of Slaving Vessels Recorded in Barbados 1650-1850
• University of West Indies, Cave Hill - Transatlantic Slavery Research Fellowship and workshop

Cameroon

• Nkwiyir Marina Mungfub and Dr Samson Mengolo Mbel, University of Beau - Atlantic Identities and Ancestral Reconnections in Southern Cameroon

Ghana

• Kwesi Essel Blankson, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board - Further research into the history of Cape Coast Castle (1654-1877)
• Rita Bennisen, Si Hene - Living Structures
• Prof Emmanuel Saboro, University of Cape Coast - Sites of Memory: The Hidden and Lost Stories that Historical Sites and Spaces tell about the Atlantic Slave Trade in Ghana
• Paul Junior Boateng, Anita Kporkpor Pobi, and Gifty Emma Amiah, University of Cape Coast - International student archival travel bursaries
• Dr Mario Nisbett, University of Cape Coast - Building Archives, Scholarship, and Publications at the University of Cape Coast

Jamaica

• Jamaican Archives and Records Department - Cataloguing and Digitisation of the High Court of Vice Admiralty and Jamaica Vice Admiralty Records
• National Library of Jamaica - Digitization of Transatlantic Slavery Collections
• Dr. Suzanne Francis-Brown, Independent Scholar - Estate Ledgers and Life Histories: Enslaved People on Jamaican Properties Through Known and Potential Records
• University of West Indies, Mona - Teaching and researching transatlantic slavery at UWI Mona

Trinidad and Tobago

• University of the West Indies, St Augustine - Freedom for Unregistered Enslaved Persons in Trinidad from 1812 (Faculty Travel Bursary)

The projects represent a diverse and ambitious programme of work. Funding will support travel grants for scholars and students undertaking international archival research, as well as large-scale archival initiatives, including the cataloguing and digitisation of historically significant collections related to the history of slavery. The grants will benefit a wide range of organisations across the research and heritage sectors, including universities, archives, libraries, and cultural institutions.