Senegal
Since 2014, the Slave Wrecks Project has fostered a network of researchers based in the Laboratoire d’Archéologie Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop. Our ongoing work in Senegal includes our groundbreaking international and interdisciplinary training project, Slave Wrecks Project Academy.
Since 2014, the Slave Wrecks Project (SWP) has fostered a network of researchers based in the Laboratoire d’Archéologie Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop. Through nearly a decade of dive training, skill building in maritime archaeological technique, and remote survey work, SWP is helping its national partners build West Africa’s first maritime archaeological team composed of and led by archaeologists from Africa. SWP’s commitment to providing unique opportunities for global training and collaboration through its global network have allowed Senegalese partners to participate in fieldwork, conservation, and museum workshops in St. Croix, U.S.V.I., Mozambique, and South Africa, in addition to Senegal. Likewise, Mozambican and South African SWP members have provided dive training and participated in fieldwork in Senegal.
SWP will continue to develop these opportunities in our theaters to protect cultural heritage and encourage more research about slavery and its legacies. SWP is building our research profile to look toward identifying the wrecks of slavers off the coast of Senegal. Like our other sites of exploration, we are engaging in underwater and terrestrial archaeology, capacity building, community engagement, and preservation with our global partners the National Park Service – Submerged Resources Center and Southeast Archeological Center, The George Washington University, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Learn more about our work on Slave Wrecks Project Academy in Senegal in the video below!