Providence Island

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Providence Island 1907

Providence Island is a river island in Liberia's capital, Monrovia . The island was put on its list of proposals for UNESCO World Heritage by Liberia in 2017 .

location

Providence Island is located just before the Mesurado River meets the Atlantic Ocean at the point where Stockton Creek , an estuary of the Saint Paul River , flows into the Mesurado River. The Gabriel Johnson Trucker Bridge, which spans the Mesurado River and connects Monrovia's districts of Vai Town and Crown Hill, runs roughly in the middle of the island. There are exits for pedestrians on both sides of the bridge.

history

The island was a Portuguese trading post called Dozoa in the early 19th century. In 1822 the American Colonization Society acquired a stretch of coastline on the Pepper Coast to return freed black African slaves to Africa. The first ship destined for this stretch of coast landed on Dozoa that same year. It was the second ship with Afro-American “returnees” after a first ship had brought 88 freed slaves to what is now Sierra Leone in 1820 . These and subsequent re-immigrants formed the political elite of Liberia, which in 1847 declared the country's independence as an independent republic.

After the landing of the African-American immigrants, the island was named Perseverance Island (Island of Perseverance), which was later changed to Providence Island (Island of Providence).

description

The island is about 450 meters long and at its widest point about 120 meters wide. It extends approximately in an east-west direction and has an area of ​​about 4.5 hectares . The island is mostly undeveloped and has no roads. On its southeast side there is a small mangrove forest .

World Heritage candidate

Liberia had already ratified the World Heritage Convention in 2002, but entered two sites on its tentative list for the first time in 2017 , including Providence Island.

In order to justify the outstanding universal meaning, among other things, the following is given:

Providence Island ... is very symbolic as a testimony to how freed slaves created a nation out of their forced calamities after they were freed through the abolition of slavery. This island, one of the widespread areas of the human slave trade on the African continent, served as a point of departure and return and thus provided a cruel symbol of inhumanity for humanity. The site depicts the reversal of the brutal cruelty of a dark civilization in which chiefs, governors, and heads of families of that time saw a swift means of satisfying their cravings for material things through the exchange of human cargo. The less important parishioners and those captured during the tribal wars were sacrificed and sold as slaves. Centuries later ... the island became the only point of entry and the first anchorage for the transportation of ships with freed slaves from America. … Today, Providence Island is a place of reconciliation, forgiveness and social cohesion in a country whose origins lie in the unfortunate enslavement of indigenous peoples in Africa.

Entry into the World Heritage List based on criteria (iv) and (vi) is sought.

(iv): Providence Island serves as the testimony of slavery, specifically an event related to the abolition of slavery where freed slaves contributed to the formation of a nation now known as Liberia. On this island, the freed slaves, or "pioneers" as they are called today, waited against attacks by natives, malaria infections and many other tropical diseases that resulted in the death of several members of their population, leading to the first designation of this area as " Perseverance Island ”.

(vi): Providence Island is directly related to the period of slavery, specifically social memory and the intangibles related to the abolition of the slave trade. Liberated slaves who landed on the island symbolized the beginning of a new culture which, after a period of confrontation, was largely merged with that of those born in the area.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Providence Island. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 12, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Liberia. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed August 2, 2017 .
  3. ^ Tentative list of Liberia. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 12, 2017 .

Coordinates: 6 ° 19 '11.9 "  N , 10 ° 48' 8.1"  W.