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Portuguese slave ship wreck declared SA Heritage Site

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The wreck of the Portuguese slave ship, São José which lies off the coast at Clifton in Cape Town, has been declared a South African National Heritage Site.

It’s the first shipwreck ever found in the country’s waters that was identified as a slave ship that carried slaves when it sank. For the first time, artefacts of the ship are on public display, bringing to light its horrific past.

The United States Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation granted R7 million towards the Slave Wrecks Project two years ago. Just beyond the crashing waves of one of Cape Town’s most scenic beaches lies the evidence of the horrors of history.

For over 200 years it lay hidden, slowly deteriorating, but finally the ship’s gruesome purpose was brought to light. More than 400 slaves en route from East Africa to Brazil were on board. A storm destroyed the vessel, claiming the lives of more than 200 people.

Marine archaeologist, Jaco Boshoff, has been instrumental in the project and says the exhibit brings science and history together.

“It’s a story that wasn’t told fully and very clearly in history. In history, it was a footnote and that was our aim to tell the story, to uncover this history. In fact, our title for this exhibition is unshackled history. So, we want to break the bonds of the past and tell people about this,” says Iziko Museums South Africa, Jaco Boshoff.

Pioneering research by South African and American teams is one of the first successful efforts in the world to document the archaeological vestiges of one of the thousands of vessels that carried slaves across the Atlantic.

“Silenced people now, we may be able to hear some of their voices as well through this kind of research. It’s not just research that’s locked in archives where people have to go and pour through the archive., but now it is in the public domain and open and accessible to the public,” says CEO Iziko Museums of South Africa, Rooksana Omar.

“Mozambique saved my life. Mozambique kept me as a refugee. South Africans came to Mozambique to try to kill me, two Mozambicans died and today when Mozambicans come to South Africa, they’re told go away foreigner; ‘we don’t want you.’ Such shame, such shame on our country. And this project now is a way of reconnecting us with Africa, with our brother and sisters to the north of us in Africa,” says Judge Albie Sachs.

Work on the project continues – an effort to remember and honour those who died, those that survived and eventually sold as slaves at the Cape and whose descendants became part of the story of a nation.

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