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Annalisa
The visit at the museum Memorial ACTe was very emotional. Through objects, art, videos and pictures it tells the history of slavery from the slaves'point of view. It's not easy to understand or to accept that humans can use other humans as objects. According to me there is an important aspect of the story: people coming from different places created s new language and a new culture blending all the different cultures they brought with them.

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Saverio
Today we visited the Memorial ACTe in the city of Pointe-à-Pitre, a very interesting museum about slavery and the history and culture of the Antilles, focusing on the islands which belonged to the French colonial empire. Portraits of important personalities who fought for the emancipation of black people, such as Toussaint Louverture, Patrice Lumumba and Malcolm X, are shown there. Later, in the city centre, I could also notice an impressive mural commemorating the brutal repression of the 1967 revolt in Pointe-à-Pitre, when the Gendarmerie opened fire on a crowd protesting against a racist aggression, causing a number of victims which is still unknown.

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Visiting the Memorial ACTe was great in so many ways; the surrounding, the building itself and the substance of the exhibition. Slavery and slave trade is a horrible chapter in the history of mankind  and takeing it as "a single story" makes it even more appalling. It deprives interpretations of victims and distort the sense of consequences. When there is only one voice and one story it is possible to justify almost any actions - and not only in the past! That "danger of a single story" is with us in various situations and one should be very alert about that.
When it comes to identity I wonder how this kind of  history of slavery impact the national -, family - and personal identity. And on the other hand, how flexible and brave people  can be. Within decades, centuries and generations they have been able to create a beautiful culture (even a language!) and make life worth being proud of it.
I found that exhibition very touching.

In my picture there are two houses with different histories and different memories :)

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Today, I started a bit nervous. How will it be at the MemorialACT? How will I feel about the history which is told – guilty, ashamed, sad? I wasn’t sure.

And yes, the fact of surpression of human beings made me sad and angry. Once again I couldn’t understand why people don’t treat others like they deserve it – as a human being.

But the people in Guadeloupe did their best. They believed in themselves and tried hard . They didn’t stop fighting for their rights and a happy life, like they once had.

And although they might have belonged to different cultures first, they discovered skills which have been similar or useful. And if not, they developed even something new like the creol language.

With regard to this, I learnt that it is possible to create a national identity although there are different people and cultures living in one place.

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Today was a day filled with a lot of information we gathered in self study.

I learned the term „ the danger of a single story“ today, coined by Chimananda Adichie. It describes the danger of a „single story“ told mostly through the powerful about the „powerless“ (in terms of wealth and political power) on the world stage.

A single story can produce prejudice and can be easily used to to degrade groups of people or even whole communitiues or societies. In the case of the single story, the narrator has the exclusive power to decide on the content of the story and the way people are presented to the „audience“. In a position of power, the narrator can also block out any „alternative stories“ as well as their distribution.

In the MermorialACTe Museum, of Pointe a Pitre, the Museum of the Memory of the Carribean Slave-Trade, I learned in which ways „a single story“ was used by European colonizers as well as the Catholic church to justify the cruelty of the enslavement of Millions of Africans. In dehumanizing the people of African heritage and other people of colour in the way they were shown to the Western world, the Colonizers created a story that enabled them to forcefully enslave them, exploit them and sell them as possesions.

A single story that I discovered in my own knowledge was, that I always saw the African people as the victims of slavery opposed to the White Europeans as the sole perpetrators. Although this is generally right, learning that Africans were also involved in the slave trade made me realize, I thought of Africans solely as victims in this context. With the new information given, this generalization then seemed like a paternalizing view to me. You can surely not divide into good and bad solely by ethnicity. I also discovered that I, as many Europeans, tend to see Africa as a whole instead of distinct countries with different languages and cultures.

I really much liked that the museum offered diverse stories about the slaves. There was a big focus on methods of resistance like the (so impressive!) „Slave gardens“, the ways of boycotting workforce as empowerment, the use of music and dance. I felt, that these are stories of strength, resilience and survival to be really proud of as a heritage.

I think that the museum gave a positive outlook for the future of Guadeloupe, different ethnicities that once were surpressed creating a unique culture together and finding power in their own traditions. Still there is a question mark for me, how the white European settlers fit in the bigger picture. I have a feeling, racism and inequality are still ongoing. A work in progress.

As someone who works with a lot of immigrant children who struggle with their identity and self- worth I first-hand know the „danger of a single story“. I am deeply motivated to work harder to offer a broader range of stories to our pupils about both their heritage and their possibilities of becoming.

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Today, I learnt a lot about the history of the region. The people(s) of Guadeloupe are a mixture of many nationalities and do not necessarily share one national identity. They speak one language which had to be invented as they were discovered- although they didn't ask to be discovered. They shipped slaves to Guadeloupe from many African countries, India etc. It's a mixture of many cultures, identities. The history of the slavery is appalling and it's good to be studied all over again. It's not the plague of the past- only- but there is modern slavery all over the world.

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I was reflecting on different backgrounds and cultural connections coming together into one culture. I associated it to a picture. You see something and you can divide it into objects and colours. But that is not the individual level, that is the big picture. Lets say you zoom in on a part that is brown, if you zoom in enough you start to see those individual pixels. Maybe a blue, yellow and red on standing together, those are the individuals that together produce your brown color. Same thing with people.  I Like my street art so that will be my picture of today: