Not a Distant History

The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in human history—an unparalleled crime against humanity that saw more than 12.5 million men, women, and children stolen from the Continent of Africa and forced into brutal labor to fuel colonization. Entire societies were torn apart, and the legacy of this atrocity still echoes today.

While slavery in the United States was abolished in 1865, the struggle for racial justice continues. Systemic inequality, economic exclusion, and environmental racism remain daily realities for the descendants of those taken. Though we cannot change the past, we can grow a new connection between Africa and the Americas—one rooted in justice, healing, and hope.

Climate Breakdown
in the Sahel:
A New Form of Displacement

The forces that once fuelled the slave trade—extraction, exploitation, and inequality—continue today in new forms: systemic racism, environmental degradation, and forced migration.In the Sahel, climate breakdown is destroying livelihoods, pushing young people to leave home in search of hope.

In the U.S., Black communities disproportionately face the effects of pollution, poverty, and marginalisation.

The Atlantic Slave Memorial links these injustices, showing they share a common root—and offers a unifying, life-giving response.

This is what the Atlantic Slave Memorial seeks to do. By planting 12.5 million trees along the Northern Bank of the Gambian River, as part of the Great Green Wall Initiative, this living memorial will:

Restore degraded lands and fight desertification

Strengthen communities by making the land productive again

Inspire action across Africa in the fight against climate change

Create jobs and opportunities for young Gambians

The Atlantic Slave Memorial is a living response to the legacy of slavery—one that turns loss into life, pain into progress, and memory into movement. Together, we can grow a future rooted in justice.