Angolan artist builds slavery memorial in Lisbon
The project ‘Plantation – Prosperity and Nightmare’ (translated), by Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, was chosen for the construction of a slavery memorial and interpretive center next to Campo das Cebolas, in Lisbon.
The memorial was one of the winning projects of the 2017/2018 Lisbon Participatory Budget. The project will start from the representation of a plantation of the raw material that was the origin of the trafficking of enslaved people: the sugar cane, the so-called white gold.
It will consist of 540 feet of sugar cane in black aluminum, each three meters high and eight in diameter. Between the feet of the canes there are regular spaces, the intention of which is an invitation to walk and reflect.
The construction of this memorial was unanimously approved at a public meeting of the Lisbon City Council on June 25 last year, and intends, in addition to honoring the victims, to celebrate the abolition of slavery and the trafficking of enslaved people.
