Explore the different ways communities continue to commemorate and research the history and memory of the slave ship São José Paquete d’África, which sunk off Cape Town, South Africa, in 1794. This story is far more than a single shipwreck site. It is a journey across geography and time that extends around the globe and exists on a crossroad between individuals and communities, cultures and nations, and descendants and ancestors.
Available in English and Portuguese
Stay tuned in 2024 for a digital exhibition on slavery and freedom in the United States Virgin Islands!
Diana Ferrus’ peom “My Name is February” written in commemoration of those who were enslaved aboard the São José Paquete D’Africa. While traveling from Mozambique to Brazil the São José sunk off the coast of South Africa. Those who survived were sold and enslaved in South Africa’s Western Cape.
As part of the practice of enslavement, the names of the enslaved were often stripped away and replaced with the months they arrived at the Cape of Good Hope.
Watch to see the search for and recovery of the slave ship São José Paquete d'Africa, with voices from the Slave Wrecks Project.
