The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery is pleased to announce that three representatives of the 2009 Emmy®-nominated documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North will be traveling to Cuba with the Freedom Schooner Amistad next week.

We are honored to be able to hold the Cuba premiere of the film during the Amistad’s visit. The ship is visiting Cuba from March 22-31 as part of the United Nations commemoration of March 25 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

For the press release from Amistad America please see: http://www.amistadamerica.org/content/view/1994/257/.

Traces of the Trade (Sundance 2008; POV/PBS 2008) chronicles Katrina Browne’s discovery that her ancestors from Rhode Island were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. As Browne and nine cousins retrace the Triangle Trade from Rhode Island, to Ghana, to Cuba, they uncover the hidden history of Northern complicity in slavery and grapple with the persistence of the black/white divide today. Havana was a regular stop on the D’Wolf “slaving” route—for selling Africans at auction—especially during the illegal period. Rhode Island and Cuba were central players during the period after the U.S. ban of 1808 and British ban of 1807. James and George D’Wolf eventually developed five sugar and coffee plantations on the island in order to control all sides of their “vertically integrated” triangle of commerce.

The Traces of the Trade premiere will be on Saturday, March 27 at Casa de Africa in Havana, hosted by Miguel Barnet, a preeminent Cuban cultural leader and ethnographer. This will be the first visit of family members since filming for the documentary took place in 2001 (which involved working with a Cuban crew and Cuban scholars). During next week’s visit, the team will also seek to locate two more D’Wolf plantations and perhaps meet Afro-Cuban descendants of people who had been enslaved there. Joining Producer/Director Katrina Browne in Cuba will be James DeWolf Perry, VI, a cousin in the film, an expert in the transatlantic slave trade, and a direct descendant of James D’Wolf (patriarch of the slave-trading dynasty, and a U.S. Senator); and Tulaine Marshall, a leader in Boston and in the community and youth development sectors nationally. Ms. Marshall serves as partnership coordinator between the film and Amistad America and facilitates use of the film for inter-racial dialogue.

Katrina Browne: “We are deeply moved to be part of this historic visit of the replica ship Amistad to Cuba. The successful revolt of Sengbe Pieh and the other captured Africans, in the waters off of Cuba in 1839, took place against a backdrop that our family now knows about all too well. It’s important to understand the details of that de-humanizing global economy that built so many nations. Its reverberations are still with us. We hope this visit will be a chance to deepen the dialogue.”

Relevant Film Credits:

Katrina Browne: Producer/Director/Writer
Alla Kovgan: Co-Director/Editor/Writer
Jude Ray: Co-Director/Executive Producer
Elizabeth Delude-Dix: Co-Producer/Executive Producer
Juanita Brown: Co-Producer
Director of Photography: Liz Dory
Production Sound Mixer: Jeffrey Livesey
Original Score: Roger C. Miller
Animation: Handcranked Productions

Cuban Crew:

Line Producer: Boris Iván Crespo
Unit Production Manager: Santiago Llapur
Second Unit Camera: Ariam R. Grass
Second Unit Sound: Ricardo Pérez Ramos
Gaffer: Luís Manuel Escuela
Electrician: Ovidio Gastón
Translator: María Teresa Ortega
Travel Guide: Raul Izquierdo

Cuban experts interviewed for the film:

Maria del Carmen Barcia
Natalia Bolivar
Carlos de Lara
Zoila Lapique (appears in final film)

The visit of the Traces of the Trade team to Cuba and the partnership with the Amistad for the Caribbean Heritage Tour has been generously supported through grants from the Wynecote Foundation and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.

Treasury Department Issues New General License to Boost Internet-Based Communication, Free Flow of Information in Iran, Sudan and Cuba.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today amended the Iranian Transactions Regulations, Sudanese Sanctions Regulations, and Cuban Assets Control Regulations to ensure that individuals in these countries can exercise their universal right to free speech and information to the greatest extent possible. The amendments add general licenses authorizing the exportation of certain personal Internet-based communications services – such as instant messaging, chat and email, and social networking – to Iran, Sudan and Cuba. The amendments also permit the exportation of related software to Iran and Sudan.

“Consistent with the Administration’s deep commitment to the universal rights of all the world’s citizens, the issuance of these general licenses will make it easier for individuals in Iran, Sudan and Cuba to use the Internet to communicate with each other and with the outside world. Today’s actions will enable Iranian, Sudanese and Cuban citizens to exercise their most basic rights,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin.

The new general licenses authorize exports from the United States or by U.S. persons to persons in Iran and Sudan of services and software related to the exchange of personal communications over the Internet, including web browsing, blogging, email, instant messaging, and chat; social networking; and photo and movie sharing. Today’s amendments also provide that specific licenses may be issued on a case-by-case basis for the exportation of services and software used to share information over the Internet that not covered by the general licenses.

“As recent events in Iran have shown, personal Internet-based communications like email, instant messaging and social networking are powerful tools. This software will foster and support the free flow of information – a basic human right – for all Iranians,” continued Wolin. “At the same time as we take these steps, the Administration will continue aggressively to enforce existing sanctions and to work with our international partners to increase the pressure on the Government of Iran to meet its international obligations.”

The sanctions regulations on Cuba also have been amended to include a similar authorization and statement of licensing policy for the exportation of such services to Cuba. Unlike Iran and Sudan, the exportation of goods and technology, including software, to Cuba is separately licensed or otherwise authorized by the Commerce Department.

Today’s action follows up on the December 2009 notification submitted to Congress by the State Department of a national interest waiver under the Iran Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act to authorize the exportation of free mass market software to Iran necessary for the exchange of personal communications and/or sharing of information over the Internet.