038840engo 2

Summary report of the meeting of experts

on the African slave trade

227

cultures in their educational syllabuses at all levels and the Caribbean

States should do the same with African cultures.

Assistance should be given for the microfilming of documents published all

over the world on the slave trade; one collection should be deposited in

a university centre in the Caribbean, another in a centre in Africa and

a third in a centre in the Indian Ocean region.

Economic studies of the slave trade in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries should be developed with particular reference to its effects on

the history of Africa and the history of the Americas.

The various forms of African resistance to the slave trade should be studied :

(a) in Africa itself; (b) on the slave ships; (c) in the Maroon communities;

(d) in the form of individual or collective cultural resistance to integration

in the receiving country, particularly in Brazil, the Caribbean and North

America.

A study should be made of the participation of Africans as soldiers and sailors

in the life of the Islamic world in North Africa, the Middle East and India.

The meeting was informed of the decisions taken by the Director-General of

Unesco concerning the development of studies of the cultures of the Caribbean

region : (a) assistance in the exchange of information between African research

workers and those in other countries; (b) organization in July 1978 of a multi-

disciplinary conference of experts in the Caribbean region, with the aim of

studying the different aspects of the cultures of the region and preparing a

research and publication programme; and (c) organization in 1979 of a meeting

of experts on ' The African Negro Presence in the Americas and the Caribbean ',

in connection with Unesco 's programme for the study of African cultures.

Closing session

At the end of the meeting, the Director-General stated:
In the last few weeks, I have been approached directly by black communities in various
Latin American countries, who are now taking an interest in problems related both
to their historical origins and to the situation of their contemporary cultures. I believe
this to be evidence of the existence of new aspirations, which Unesco should take into
consideration and which academic circles in general can no longer afford to ignore.
As far as the future is concerned, I am in a position to assure you that the Organization
will do everything in its power, in co-operation with the International Scientific
Committee, to find ways and means of ensuring that publications dealing with your
discussions are issued without delay, and of increasing our support for the research
under way in different universities and institutions. Indeed, we way decide to take
further measures to meet your wishes.
Your meeting has shown that specialists from different countries of the world
—from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America and America in general—