LIVERPOOL.- The International Slavery Museum in Liverpool revealed the first of its major 10th anniversary events with the opening of a brand new exhibition, Ink and blood: Stories of abolition, on Monday 21 August.

The anniversary exhibition explores abolition (the ending of slavery) and reveal the lives, losses, and triumphs of the people it affected in the 18th and 19th centuries and their later freedom.

Ink and blood: Stories of abolition shows abolition up close through ink (paper) and blood (people), revealing personal stories from Argentina, Cuba, Jamaica, the United States and Bahrain, through powerful modern creative responses to abolition, significant historical documents and rare objects.

The International Slavery Museum is the only museum in the world to look at the Transatlantic Slave Trade and modern slavery. It opened on 23 August 2007 – the bicentenary year of the abolition of the British slave trade, and the annual date of Slavery Remembrance Day.

Dr Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum said: “The opening of this exhibition, which looks at the human face of abolition, is a great reminder of the Museum’s roots, opening on the Bicentenary of An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, an important moment in the history of slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.”

Highlights of Ink and Blood include a newly acquired sculpture of Olaudah Equiano entitled OLAUDAH EQUIANO - African, slave, author, abolitionist by London sculptor Christy Symington; an artwork called UK Diaspora by Black British artist Kimathi Donkor, and a plantation stock book for Roslin Castle estate, which has never been on display before - a crucial and touching book of accounts with key information about life on a Jamaican plantation.

Jean Francois Manicom, Curator, International Slavery Museum, said: “For me this exhibition is the perfect time to bring personal adventures and stories back into Official History. Just a few grams of paper but millions of human lives and shattered destinies: Ink and Blood.”

OLAUDAH EQUIANO - African, slave, author, abolitionist by Christy Symington MRBS
Writer and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano (1745-97) was considered highly influential in ending the African slave trade for Britain and its colonies, through his campaigning and autobiography of 1789 entitled 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African'.

Kidnapped from his African village when he was just a child, Equiano was enslaved and taken to the West Indies where he experienced terrible abuse and suffering. Eventually, he managed to buy his own freedom and reached England, where he took an active part in campaigning to end the British slave trade.

Sculptor Christy Symington MRBS responded to this narrative, saying: “When I learnt of Equiano and his huge significance in UK history, I was shocked to discover that, like me, many people I spoke to had also not heard of him and I wanted to share his story. It was leading up to the 2007 Bicentenary commemorations of the Act to end slavery in Britain, so I made this sculpture to give physical presence to his life.

“The sculpture reflects Equiano’s social standing through his clothing and hairstyle which was unusual for a Black man in that period and the continent of Africa is implied by the shape of the back of his shoulders. Broken shackles and chains are sculpted around the base of the sculpture, prompting his opposition to slavery. Imprints of the Brooke’s slave ship diagram and an enlarged detail of a single enslaved female figure from the diagram are found on the stem of the sculpture.

“My focus on making sculptures of people hidden in our history is to bring their presence into our lives. After a decade of journeys to exhibitions in the UK and overseas, I hope that the sculpture being on display in the context of the 10th anniversary of the International Slavery Museum, encourages more people to learn about Equiano’s life.”

UK Diaspora by Kimathi Donkor
UK Diaspora is a mixed-media artwork by Black British artist Kimathi Donkor, which includes ten vibrant collages of objects and images symbolising British involvement in transatlantic slavery. Arranged like a map of Great Britain, it includes portraits of famous participants in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and imagery from the artist's visit to Cape Coast Castle in Ghana.

Kimathi Donkor said: “In 2007, as we remembered Parliament’s abolition of the UK slave trade, I wondered if glamourous movies about Queen Elizabeth I, or portraits of George Washington on the dollar bill, made us forget how they and others masterminded slavery? As a person of both African and Jewish heritage, I wondered what I’d think if Germany tried to put Hitler on the Euro? So, in UK Diaspora, alongside Washington’s portrait, I’ve included things like his call for help in recapturing those who escaped his private slave-labour camp (which, at first, was part of Britain’s empire). My intention with these unusual juxtapositions is to question how historic images and institutions shape the perceptions of contemporary society.”