“I am very impressed”

Could you state the objective of your visit to the Bimbia Slave Trade Village?

I was invited by Cameroon government with the support of Brazilian government to share our experience and expertise in world patrimony. We just succeeded in classifying the most important place at the other side. The place where slaved Africans arrived in America which is call Cape de Vallongue walls in Rio de Janerio. I think that something between 500 thousand and one million enslaved Africans got into Brazil through this Vallongue Walls. I am very impressed about this Bimbia Slave Trade Village and this is the most completed site of slave trade memory I have seen in Africa. May be Mozambique is so important. There are also more important sites like Gold Coast, Gole etc. These are very big constructions from Europeans but here in Bimbia it is a unique African site.

There are so many qualities that this slave trade village has that make it stand out. Could you give one quality that makes it different from others in Africa?

I have been to Benin, Ghana, Angola, Senegal but I never find something like this. With the ruins here we can feel how strong and big the slave activities were. I am sure that archaeological research will reveal very important information about the slave trade and memory. We have seen the ships that went to Brazil and we have more than half the population whic...