Discovery of its history and archaeological remains.
Dr. Tokie Laotan Brown, A joint Ph.D. with a Doctor of Science in Economics and Techniques in the Conservation of Architectural and Environmental Heritage and an Expert/Voter Member on the ISCCL (International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes) representing Nigeria and Ireland on ICOMOS-IFLA has been working actively on Diaspora heritage outside the shores of Africa. Her first stop during this international tour was Vidal-Mondelice, a historical site located in Rémire Monjotly, French Guiana. It is the most ancient relic of the past linked to the slavery of African Descent. The historical character of Vidal-Mondélice has an ecological element to it: the presence of the Amerindian people of Guyana and vestiges of enslaved Africans. It also shares a French colonial past, where enslaved people dwelt and worked in the cultivation of sugarcane. The site also preserves an industrial Mill that was brought into Guyana from Liverpool to crush the sugarcane. Around the site are many bamboos signifying lands of the slaves.
The French colonial Octagonal Mill is made of Ashlar and Brick, 7 meters wide, 2.50 meters in height, and a depth of 3.30 meters. A long ramp of about 30 meters is built onto the upper level of a 12-meter circular courtyard, allowing access for oxen or mules to move around on the top-level courtyard walkway. All around the landscape of the site are 30ft tall bamboos. They are remains of the Vidal-Mondélice building at the foot of Mount Mahury. Some artifacts on the site are the French colonial house, lots of bamboos designating boundaries of slave lands, bamboo structures of slave dwellings, Liverpool industrial mills, and several polders around the mill.
The Vidal de Lingendes family installed a sugar factory on a 60-hectare site. They later built the purge, the Mill, and introduced steam engines in the 17th Century. It was one of the largest plantations in Guiana, with 300 slaves. Thanks to Dr. Brown for partnering with AlizéLaVie Media to educate the Diaspora by sharing her cultural findings which will be presented also at the 20th Triennial General Assembly of International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in October 2020 in Sydney, Australia. We look forward to reading more about her next discovery during her international tour.
Thanks to historian Eugene Epailly for the visit.
By Alizé Utteryn
Remire-Monjotly, French Guiana
References or sources of information:
lhttps://monumentum.fr/vestiges-ancienne-habitation-vidal-mondelice-pa00135691.html
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000032482057?r=Z0ZcDftZre
