When we speak about slave trade the common image that pops up in our minds is the plight of the Africans who were taken to western countries for hard labor. Slavery and slave trade dominated during the period of colonization which served as a perfect platform for all forms of suppression, oppression, and torture. Slavery was present almost everywhere in the world and our country was also a popular source. Exploiting the ignorance, lack of unity, and soft nature of the unfortunate people who lived in the third-world countries the so-called traders who visited initially for the valuable resources slowly turned into invaders mercilessly looting everything and transforming the natives into slaves. Only those communities who were fierce like the cannibals and the hunters resisted this social attack highlighting the fact that use of force is always required for survival and lack of it results in invasion and suppression. The invaders resorted to the use of force, violence, and weaponry to rule the natives silencing all sorts of resistance. The cultural peculiarities, soft-hearted nature, and lack of unity forced the real owners of the land to live in the shadows of the invaders blindly obeying them.
It is easy to miss this very important artwork by Sue Williamson which consists of some clothes hung to dry outside the Aspinwall House, the main venue of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018-2019. In the courtyard facing the backwaters, you can some clothes hung on a rope that is supported on bamboo poles. Getting closer you will see names of people from Cochin (Kochi, Kerala) written on it who were taken as slaves to Cape Town in the 16th century by the Dutch! This was a very shocking experience! Could not believe that our own people were also taken as slaves to other countries for hard labor! Were these their own names or been given to them by their sellers? Those people captured as slaves were forced to shed their identity and were treated like cheap commodities! They were no longer considered human beings.
Sue Williamson has collected the details of some of those from the sale deeds archive in Cape Town who had been taken away as slaves from Cochin (Kochi) to Cape Town and printed them on linen. She deliberately put them in mud symbolically representing slavery, brought them here and washed these clothes in the laundry. Those mud like oppression and hard labour get washed away symbolically being brought back to the home country and now they are now exhibited as her artwork overlooking the backwaters.
Slavery or chattel slavery in the true literal sense might have been abolished in the world but can we deny its other forms like bonded labour, forced migrant labour, sex slavery, and human trafficking non-existent? Modern slavery is often associated with poverty. Lack of proper societal infrastructure, no law and order, economically weak status, and poor educational facilities lead to modern slavery. There are arguments in the history that slavery existed everywhere in one form or the other from time immemorial. If we remain non-vigilant it will raise its ugly head within no time. It is our duty to ask questions, find out the source of the products we purchase, and about the labour that had been used for its manufacture.
Sue Williamson's 'One hundred and nineteen deeds of sale' is a fabulous art. Please do not miss this if you happen to visit Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
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