Sculpture Tours UK to Mark 200th Anniversary of Abolition of Slave Trade

As the UK commemorates the end of the slave trade, the Freedom! sculpture is touring the nation from London to Bristol.

The Freedom! sculpture is an original sculpture that has been commissioned by Christian Aid and National Museums Liverpool from a group of Haitian artists representing their continuing struggle for freedom and human rights.

The sculpture has been unveiled on February 26 in Liverpool's Merseyside Maritime Museum. Following the tour, it will return to Liverpool where it will remain on permanent display in the new International Slavery Museum, which opens on August 23.

The Freedom! sculpture, made out of recycled objects such as metal car parts and raw junk found in the dangerous slums of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, was created by young Haitians and sculptors Eugène, Céleur and Guyodo from Atis Rezistans in collaboration with Mario Benjamin, an internationally renowned Haitian artist who has represented his country at biennials in Venice, São Paulo and Johannesburg.

Despite the fact that Parliament abolished the slave trade in Britain 200 years ago, global inequalities still exist today, says Christian Aid.

As a result of the first successful slave revolt, Haiti became the first black republic. However, because of unfair terms of trade and hefty international debt repayments, Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere with 82 per cent of the rural population living below the poverty line, according to the UN, while 70 per cent of the population is unemployed.

David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, said "This remarkable sculpture is an important work of art in its own right, but it also symbolises the links between the historic transatlantic slave trade and contemporary issues of freedom, enslavement and global inequalities. It is fitting that its permanent home will be in the International Slavery Museum, due to open on the anniversary of the revolution which created Haiti, the world's first independent Black republic."

Unfair terms of global trade make it impossible for local farmers to compete with food imports from richer countries. Haiti is a stark example of this kind of economic injustice, which makes many thousands of people flood into the cities to find jobs. But few find work and with no source of income many succumb to the temptation to use guns as a means of survival.

To incorporate a sense of what freedom and slavery mean to people in Haiti today, the artists held workshops with young people benefiting from the work of APROSIFA, a Christian Aid-supported organisation in Haiti set up to provide basic education, run health clinics and work towards an end to gang fighting.

Ronald Cadet, one of the young collaborators said: "People don't have chains on their arms and legs now, but people still have chains in their minds. When you have problems getting enough food, housing and education, you are not living in a free country."