The body remembers: Legacies of chattel slavery hauntings in South Africa and the United States

Abstract

As museum scholars and practitioners coming from quite different geographies and practicalities, we have chosen to focus on chattel slavery as an extreme form of incarceration in South Africa and the United States. In this essay we reflect on its legacies, referencing physical, psychological as well as cultural dimensions. We hold a mirror to power structures infected by commodification and violence as we examine the stories and tools of enslavement and refer particularly to the covert ways in which resistance was enacted. We bring a “sites of conscience” framework into the dialogue, believing that sites can be transformative tools for forging broader understandings both about what took place at these sites, and why it matters in the present. Our methods of engagement include mutual interviewing, based partially on autoethnographic reflection and, significantly, our own practices within museums and communities. Because of the organic nature of our dialogue, we present it as an essay rather than as a typical academic paper.