Slave House

This is the first floor of an 18th century merchant's house on the pretty French colonial Ile de Goree, just off the coast of Dakar. On the ground floor is a network of dimly lit dungeons where humans were stored as cargo before being shipped to America.

From the 20 million slaves who were taken from Africa during the slave trade, it's thought that around 300 each year left from Goree. And of course, this human trafficking is still deeply rooted in the consciousness of the country - contemporary art depicts the suffering, an African dance show I saw titled 'My Exile is in my Head' was a powerful reminder, and one local journalist I was on a long bus ride with told me "he blamed people like me". I told him we should concentrate on stopping the illegal people trafficking which continues to exist in the world we live in...