Sevilla Negra

So about a week ago, we attended an English walking tour put on by Sevilla Negra. As best as I can tell, Sevilla Negra has two roles 1) to document and enshrine the Black / African history in Sevilla and 2) to support the Black / African population in Sevilla today.

The walking took about two and a half hours and was really interesting / sobering. So some brief history, according to the tour, the first slaves were brought to Sevilla around 1441, keep in mind that Columbus didn't set sail for the Americas until 1492. There were roughly a total of 9,000 in Sevilla from 1441 through 1837, when slavery was outlawed in Spain. So that's roughly 9,000 slaves over 400 years. For comparison, there were an estimate 400,000 slaves sent to the United States. Also, Cidade Velha was founded in Cabo Verde in 1462.

Sevilla was the major port in Spain and Cristoforo Colombo and Fernao de Magalhaes walked these streets before they set sail. (Side note, why were we taught the Anglicized versions of their names in like 5th grade?)

So the slaves when they arrived in Sevilla were branded with the SI brand above, which is believes indicates "Without Rights." (SI).

Of course, one of the slave markets was the Catholic Cathedral (which had been converted from a Mosque like less than a hundred years earlier.) Apparently, when the slaves got too old to work productively, they were given their freedom (was a concept). In order to support those freed slaves and support other freed Africans, there were three African Fraternal Organizations that were established one that is still active.