On the occasion of his visit to Senegal in February 1992, Pope John Paul II crossed over from Dakar to the island of Gorée to make a pilgrimage to the slave house.

" These men, women and children were the victims of a shameful trade which was run by baptised people who did not live out their faith. How can we forget the sufferings that were inflicted on these people being deported from the African continent, with complete disregard for even their most basic human rights? Or the human lives that were destroyed by slavery? This sin must be confessed in all humility, a sin of man against man, of man against God".

A trade in slaves

Gorée is one of the places on the Atlantic coast of Africa where men, women and children were sold into slavery by the slave-traders. There is a large rectangular building by the sea. The upper floor is accessible by a double curved staircase; it was here that the traders lived in luxury above their victims. The place of detention was on the level of an interior courtyard: one cell for men, another for women, a third for young girls and a fourth for children. There was also a room for weighing the slaves; a minimum weight was insisted upon. The traders maintained certain health standards so that their merchandise would still be alive when it reached the other side of the Atlantic. To lose a slave on the journey was to lose money.

"Victims of a shameful trade"

Form the beginning of the XVI century, shortly after the discoveries of Christopher Columbus, the slave ships began to leave Africa for America. In all, about twenty million Africans were captured, sold several times and shipped abroad to become free labour for their new masters.

At the end of the XVIII century, their conditions of living were so bad that a royal ordinance was published in France : the "Black Code" of Colbert. It aimed at giving a minimum of protection to slaves in the French colonies in America. For example,

" We declare that slaves can have nothing that does not belong to their masters.

• The slave who strikes his master, mistress, the husband of his mistress, or their children, producing contusions or loss of blood, will be punished by death.

• Only their masters, when they believe that their slaves deserve it, have the right to put them in chains or beat them with whips: we forbid them to use torture or to mutilate any of their members.

• We decree that slaves are property...and as such are to be divided equally amongst inheritors.

• All the slaves in our islands will be baptised and instructed in the Roman, Catholic, Apostolic religion.

• We decree that those who purchase newly-arrived slaves must inform the governors and administrators of the said islands within eight days, under pain of an arbitrary fine; the authorities will give the necessary orders to ensure their instruction and baptism within the stipulated time".

This code was never observed. For centuries, the Westerners and Arabs had become used to slavery which had been practised since ancient times. The abolition of this degenerating trade in human beings began towards the end of the XVIII century amongst the Anglo-Saxon immigrants to the United States. The dominant western nations adopted this abolition into their political programmes, but one has to wait until the middle of the XIX century before the European powers decided to track down the traders and effectively abolish slavery.

Protestant movements

Protestant missionaries came back to Africa with the repatriated slaves with the aim of giving them support and helping them to find their feet. In Sierra Leone, they were absorbed into the Anglican Church and the American missionaries from different denominations integrated them into their Churches in Liberia

The decline and renewal of catholic missionary activities

As regards the Catholic Church, the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 and political upheavals in the western countries led to a significant falling-off of missionary activity.

The French Revolution and its consequences for the Church also played a part in this diminution of missionary effort. Missionary congregations were suppressed and the conflicts between Rome and Napoleon prevented any new initiatives until the fall of the Emperor.

But a sign of renewal of mission could be seen when Mother Javouhey sent the first groups of Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny to Bourbon in 1817, Senegal in 1818, Guyana and Sierra Leone in 1822, Martinique in 1824, St . Pierre and Miquelon in 1826 and Pondichery in 1827.

In 1822, the French Protestants started the Society of Evangelical Missions, and in the same year, Pauline Jaricot founded the association of the Propagation of the Faith at Lyon. These events gave rise to a renewed interest in the missions. From 1825, news coming from missionaries around the world was published in the Annals of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith. After some initial hesitation, the French bishops joined in the movement some fifteen years later, just as Francis Libermann was launching the missionaries of the Holy Heart of Mary.