Slaveryland: A new genre of African heritage abuse

Abstract

The topic of human enslavement is an emotional and painful one. However, we must confront its existence for the sake of education about the human condition, both in history and at present. Yet where do we draw the line to separate education from exploitation? Studies of the African diaspora and those ethnographic material remains representing the atrocities of slavery provide us with important resources for re-educational purposes. Nonetheless, those diaspora issues and objects are now also being exploited for the purely financial benefit of multinationals and individual entrepreneurs. The goal of this paper is to suggest that a long-term future partnership between African diaspora heritage and cultural tourism requires clear definitions of acceptable values that represent the priorities of the host societies, including an established code of ethics, and the need for a stronger linkage of the historical development of Africans in the diaspora to the broad topic of global economic systems, including tourism.