Complex pasts, diverse futures |23 April 2021

Guests in a souvenir photograph with the monument in the background. Artist Egbert Marday is 3rd from right (Photo: Jude Morel)

Liberated Slave monument unveiled

International Monuments, Sites and Heritage week brings with it many reminiscent memories for our nation especially relating to places like the Venn’s Town Mission Ruins Heritage Site.

Seychelles is this year celebrating the week under the theme ‘Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures’, joining many other countries to celebrate the diversity of our heritage and how we can safeguard and better interpret it, for future generations.

Venn’s Town Mission Ruins is a site of outstanding significance, which marks the history of slavery and its aftermath.

In commemoration of the week, the Seychelles Heritage Foundation (SHF) unveiled a new monument – the Liberated Slave monument – in a small ceremony yesterday morning at the Mission Ruins, Sans Soucis.

The monument was unveiled by the Mayor of Victoria David Andre and the chief executive of SHF Benjamine Rose in the presence of principal secretary in the department of Culture, Cecile Kalebi; the chairperson of the National Monuments Board, Brian Changty Seng, among other distinguished guests.

The Liberated Slave monument is an artistic interpretation of the residents of Venn’s Town industrial school which was built by the Anglican missionary to provide shelter and basic skills to the children of liberated slaves. The school operated from 1876 to 1889.

This monument depicts three sculpted statues of two liberated slave children and a headmaster. It symbolises the significance of the site as a great contributor towards the growth of the Seychellois Nation adding more value to it, thus creating better understanding for our daily visitors.

Ms Rose stressed the importance of protecting and maintaining our heritage.

“As we develop and grow as a nation, let us continue to focus on the contributions that have helped to shape our cultural development. Let us learn from our ancestors that we must preserve and protect our tangible and intangible heritage at all cost,” she said.

“I take this opportunity to call on friends of the heritage to support our cause in preserving, conserving our cultural heritage and ensuring that there is transmission of knowledge. This new monument will not only serve as photo opportunity for visitors, but it will also give historical value to the site as well as informing our younger generation of our historical journey. This ceremony would have not been possible without the tremendous help and generous contributions from the friends of the heritage,” added Ms Rose.

The Liberated Slave monument was sculpted by local artist Egbert Marday, who gave a few comments about its creation and inspiration.

“I am always inspired by history, so I was very pleased when I was approached by the SHF to create this piece which we hope will give this heritage site the historic value it deserves and help inform tourists as well as locals about the history of Venn’s Town Mission Ruins Heritage Site,” Mr Marday said.

“To create these sculpted statues I welded steel rods together to form the skeletons which I then wrapped in mesh, after which I used concrete for final surface modelling, finishing the piece off with epoxy resin and metal powder,” explained Mr Marday.

Also present for the unveiling of the monument was a small group of pupils from Port Glaud primary school. The teacher accompanying them, Jenny Labaleine, suggested that children be brought to visit and taught about these monuments during social studies classes so as to keep the upcoming generation well informed about the history and culture of our country.

Iza Amade