Justice Across Borders: DTRF in Cartagena

Just as the wounds of slavery did not stop at any single country's borders, nor does the work of healing. Across languages, across histories, and across generations, communities are asking the same questions: How do we tell the truth about what happened? How do we repair what was broken? How do we build something worth passing on?

In September, the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation traveled to Cartagena, Colombia, to join scholars, activists, and cultural leaders to ask and respond to these questions as part of the international seminar "Esclavizaciones y emancipaciones históricas y actuales" or "Historical and Contemporary Enslavements and Emancipations."

Organized by RIESCAR and regional partners, the gathering brought together voices from across the Americas and the Caribbean to examine the legacy of slavery in the hemisphere, and the work communities are doing today to confront that legacy with truth, memory, and repair.

DTRF was honored to share the story of Descendants in the United States and the path we are walking toward moral repair led by those whose ancestors were enslaved. We came home with new partners, new perspectives, and a renewed sense that the work we do here is part of something larger.