The Middle Passage Initiative (MPI) began when acclaimed writer Caryl Phillips designed and taught the course, “Literature of the Middle Passage.” At the end of the semester, he took students to Ghana to participate in an academic exchange between Barnard and Ghanaian faculty.
In 2006, MPI moved to Barnard’s Africana Studies Program. Under the leadership of Kim F. Hall, the Africana Director, the program launched a competition to find undergraduates to document an historic conference on Abolition. On the strength of their project proposals, interviews and academic performance, six Barnard undergraduates were named Barnard-Gilder Fellows; these Fellows traveled to Ghana during the summer of 2007. They met Ghanaians working in social justice movements, visited slave sites and interviewed scholars from around the world on the complex legacies of slavery and abolition. Upon their return, the students built a website, Ghana, mete wo nne (Ghana, I hear you), which documents the conference and the trip from a unique student perspective. The site offers materials for middle school teachers as well as undergraduates interested in slavery, abolition or Ghana.
The Africana Studies program looks forward to creating more ways for Barnard students to learn and disseminate knowledge about the Middle Passage.