Launched in 2024, the Network aims to support the preservation of important sites tied to the history of enslavement and the slave trade, benefiting local communities and fostering a broader understanding of this history. An affiliated city-twinning programme will work to establish new connections between places in the network for mutual growth.
Now, Georgetown in Janjanbureh joins 28 such places in the world. This means that the Island will enjoy twinning with other similar sites, more support for conservation, and related community development. The Kankurang Festival will also get a publicity boost with this accolade.
Other places on the UNESCO list include Cape Coast Castle in Ghana; President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington, DC; Badagary in Nigeria; The International African American Museum in Charleston, USA; and Providence Island in Liberia.
Hassoum Ceesay, director general, National Centre for Arts and Culture, said the accolade is of paramount significance to the valorisation of Gambian history. He said it will enhance the role of Janjanbureh as a centre for history, memory, and emancipation.
He noted that it took the combined work of the NCAC and other stakeholders to make this inscription happen.
DG Ceesay thanked the GTBoard, the chief of McCarthy, the Kankurang Festival Committee, the National Assembly Member, and the Community of Janjanbureh for the support.
He revealed that the Bicentenary commemoration held last year helped to strengthen the nomination that the NCAC filed on behalf of The Gambia.
“We did serious archival research to unearth supporting documents like the 1823 treaty between the British and the King of Niani ceding the Island to Queen Victoria’s agent Captain Alexander Grant for a few hundred iron bars,” the Director General said. He added that with this accolade, and the fact that in 2015 the historical rural town of Georgetown was nominated for the UNESCO tentative list, the Island’s built and intangible heritage must be protected from destruction so that it may become another Gambian UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The UNESCO inscription citation reads: This island, a place of remembrance of slavery and post-slavery, is located on the River Gambia, which was used throughout the slave trade in Senegambia to enter the interior of the lands. It was first a refuge for the Maroons and then a place where the ‘Liberated Africans’ (freedmen sent back to Africa after the abolition of the slave trade) settled.’
By Lamin Njie
Communications Officer
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
