THE MIDDLE PASSAGE - AFRICAN HOLOCAUST, "MAAFA" ("TERRIBLE THING" IN SWAHILI) BROOCH

The Middle Passage - African Holocaust, "Maafa" ("terrible thing" in Swahili) Brooch, 1993–96
Designed by Phyllis Bowdwin (American, b. 1941), USA
Brass, cowrie shell; H x W x D: 6.5 x 10.2 x 1.3 cm (2 9/16 x 4 x 1/2in.); 1997-3-1
Museum purchase from Monet Jewelry Fund.

This brooch is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts Department. Its manufacturer is Who Deserves it More Than You?

Born in the Bronx, New York, Phyllis Bowdwin is an activist, writer, mixed-media artist, and designer. The brooch depicts in diagrammatic form the hull of a slave ship and the arrangement of its tightly packed human cargo during the Middle Passage, the slaves' horrific voyage from Africa to the colonies. Five cowrie shells hang from the bottom of the pin. (The number five is a symbol of justice in African lore.) The pin commemorates 400 years of slavery and the deaths of millions of Africans in the slave trade. This image of the slave ship was first seen in "The Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament," a book by Thomas Clarkson that was published in 1808.