Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves (Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania)

Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar, includes five nude torsos of enslaved Africans. Their rough and pebbled texture resemble the stones that fill the concrete pit that surround them. The five cast concrete figures, all but one of whom are chained around the neck, are located on the site of the last slave market in Africa.
Stone torso of a young girl from the Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
Stone torso of a young boy from the Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
Stone torso of a young woman from the Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
Stone torso of a woman from the Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
Stone torso of a young man from the Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

Dublin Core

Title

Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves (Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania)

Subject

Subject (Topic)
Enslaved persons
Slave market--Zanzibar
Slave trade--Indian Ocean
Slavery--Zanzibar
Tanzania--Zanzibar--Stone Town

Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

Description

Created by the Swedish artist Clara Sörnäs at the Bagamoyo Arts and Cultural Institute, the monument includes five nude torsos of enslaved Africans who emerge from stone pillars. The surface of the pillars is rough and a pebbled texture that resembles the stones that fill the concrete pit that surround the five figures. The five cast concrete figures, all but one of whom are chained around the neck, are located on the site of the last slave market in Africa in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

Creator

Sörnäs, Clara, 1966-

Source

Photographs by Adrienne Childs

Date

1998

Contributor

Benot Ulin; Tanzania Cigarette Company; Boliden Contech; Adea Brown Boveri; Okanska; Owed Fund; Ericsson; Bagamoyo Arts and Cultural Institute

Rights

Ministry of Tourism and Heritage, The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Mnazi Mmoja, Zanzibar, P. O. Box 2277, Zanzibar

Format

JPEG

Language

English

Type

Visual Arts-Sculpture

Coverage

Christ Church, Stonetown, Zanzibar, Tanzania

Has Part

Signage:
Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa
Memory for the Slaves

Sponsored by Benot Ulin
Tanzania Cigarette Company
Boliden Contech
Adea Brown Boveri
Okanska
Owed Fund
Ericsson

Made by Clara Sörnäs
at Sculpture Project Bagamoyo: 1997-98

Medium

Concrete; Iron

Bibliographic Citation

Rhodes, Daniel T. "History, Materialization, and Presentation of Slavery in Tanzania." Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 7, no. 2 (2018): 165-191.

Fouéré, Marie-Aude. "Museumizing the Slave Trade and Slavery in Zanzibar: Truth, Untruth, and Uncertainty at the Old Slave Market." Ethnologie française 50 (2020): 109-124. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://shs.cairn.info/journal-ethnologie-francaise-2020-1-page-109?lang=en.

Sansone, Livio and Wilson Profírio Nicaquela. "O Futuro da Mémoria da Escravidão no Índico: Lembrar e Esquecer na Ilha de Moçambique e Zanzibar." Afro-Ásia no. 71 (2025): 1-46. (The Future of the Memory of Slavery in the Indian Ocean: Remembering and Forgetting on the Island of Mozambique and Zanzibar)

Rights Holder

Renée Ater

Still Image Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Sculpture

Citation

Sörnäs, Clara, 1966-, “Kumbukumbu Ya Historia Ya Watumwa/Memory for the Slaves (Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania),” Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, accessed October 1, 2026, https://slaverymonuments.org/items/show/1150.

Geolocation