The return to the Memory Island: Images and Histories of Gorée among African Diaspora Artists

Abstract

This paper takes the question of the “return to Africa” as the main argument to delve into a series of artworks by visual artists of the Black diaspora – including, Chester Higgins Jr., Ayrson Heráclito, Carrie Mae Weems and Maria Magdalena Campos Pons – who disembarked in Senegal and found on the Island of Gorée the culmination of their journeys on African soil. For this, I will analyze how the use of certain narrative strategies – such as the contemplation of the past, historical continuity, and ritualistic expurgation – encompass a metaphorical return to this place of memory. Throughout this paper, I also demonstrate how the narratives of belonging fostered in this context relate with the processes of patrimonialization of Gorée, challenging the current historiography on slavery, without invalidating it.