St Helena skeleton burial to kick-start slave trade tourism

ST HELENA is to give more than 300 freed slaves formal burial as part of a project to make the island a “hub” for slavery-related tourism.

Following the discovery of their remains in 2008, the British Overseas Territory has commissioned coffins for Africans who died there more than 150 years ago after being liberated by the Royal Navy.

More than 300 skeletons will be buried on Anglican church land in the first stage of a £333,000 project to make the Atlantic island an “international hub” for slavery-related “discourse and cultural tourism”.

St Helena, which attracts visitors as the site of Napoleon’s final exile, will seek to make itself a “niche” destination appealing to African and African diaspora tourists who are increasingly travelling to learn about the “Triangular Trade” transatlantic sailing routes taken by British slave traders. Authorities plan to build a memorial to the island’s freed slaves, update school history curriculums and develop St Helena into a centre for “global scholarly research” on slavery.

Plans were recommended to the St Helena government, which recently secured a £30 million funding package for investments from the UK, by the island’s Liberated African Advisory Committee.

Shelley Magellan-wade, its secretary, said: “Reburial will be the first longterm, tangible step in memorialising the ‘liberated African’ site.

“It is considered the most significant physical remaining trace of the transatlantic slave trade on Earth. It therefore could also become an international hub for research, discourse and cultural tourism – a unique location where people from across the globe can connect with this poignant part of history.”

St Helena, about 1,200 miles off the coast of west Africa, has been under British control since the 1650s.