Catalonia's role in slave trade explored in Barcelona Maritime Museum exhibition

Catalonia's role in colonial slavery and its enduring impact today is the focus of a new exhibition at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, running until October 5. 

'The Infamy: Catalan Involvement in Colonial Slavery' centers on the period from 1821, when the transatlantic slave trade was outlawed – but conversely Catalonia's involvement grew – until 1886, when slavery was abolished in Cuba, the last Spanish colony where it was still legal. 

"It's an exhibition that proposes a change of perspective," Mireia Mayolas, head of education at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, tells Catalan News. 

"I think that we are at a historic moment in which we are considering many things that require a change of perspective, and this is causing a great shock," she says. 

Mayolas explains that cultural institutions in Spain and Portugal are "a bit behind" other European countries in examining their role in slavery and colonialism. 

For this reason, the museum wanted to "join the reflection that Europeans are doing about our participation in the trafficking of people and slavery in general." 

Europe, Africa, and America  

Visitors begin their journey in 19th century Barcelona, one of the richest regions in Europe, an industrial city expanding and taking center stage with the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition.  

But, the exhibition explains, part of the wealth enjoyed by the Catalan bourgeoisie was derived from the exploitation of slave labor and human trafficking between Africa and the Spanish colonies in the Americas, particularly Cuba and Puerto Rico. 

Through objects, maps, paintings, models and text, visitors learn about the kidnapping of young men, women, and children in Africa, their imprisonment in "factories" on the coast – some of them owned by Catalans – and their trafficking across the Atlantic to work as slave labor on sugar plantations. 

Racism that remains 

The exhibition also examines the legacy of slavery: racism. Although there were Arab, Turkish and Eastern European slaves in Catalonia since the Middle Ages, slavery was almost exclusively associated with African people form the 18th century onward. 

As a result, in Catalan popular culture, black people were stereotyped as inferior to Europeans and caricatured as simple characters.  

The museum also shows how today's world is dealing with the legacy of colonialism, such as the removal in 2018 of a statue in Barcelona of slave trader Antonio López. 

"It's a good exhibition for us to rethink as a society," Mayolas says, especially considering how Catalonia is more diverse than ever. "It's not about saying, 'we were awful,' but rather, 'this happened.'" 

"It's the moment to reconcile history."