TROPICAL DIASPORA #1 by Various Tape Cassette Edition

Tropical Diaspora® Records compilation volume 1 is available for pre-orders and will be released in a limited edition for vinyl and cassette. This record is featuring 9 independent bands from all over the world with a total of 10 tracks. The record is transparent and contain a inner sleeve with the song lyrics plus a poster. This record is a powerful network of remembrances. It gives voice to the daughters and sons of the slave trade. It is testimony of how African slaves kept their cultures and history alive giving birth to one of the most amazing cultural experiments of humankind.

Cover Release Notes

The Tree of Forgetfulness and the Door of No Return

All had forts there. The Portuguese, the French, the British, the Danes and the Dutch. The slave port of Ouidah in today’s Benin, 40 kilometers west of the city of Cotonou, was witness of one of the most serious crimes against humanity. Slave auctions took place there. Over three centuries the site saw the departure of millions of slaves to the Americas. Today, on the beach, the Door of No Return keeps the memories alive. Slave trade was more than simple human traffic. The symbolic rituals involved reveal the brutality of European slavers. They sought to dispossess Africans of their humanity. Slaves were forced to go around the Tree of Forgetfulness, nine times for men, seven times for woman, in order to forget their lives and cultures. Then, they were kept in the Zomai, barracks without light, before their final departure. Many died there. Detentions centers on the fringe of Europe seem a farce compared to them, but equally effective. In the borders of the US history repeats itself. Natives in Latin-America know all about it.

Tropical Diaspora #1 remembers. The compilation revisits this chapter of human cruelty, the horrible history of slave trade. But it isn’t just another piece of memory, a site for sorrow. The record transforms the Tree of Forgetfulness into a powerful network of remembrances. It gives voice to the daughters and sons of the slave trade. It is testimony of how African slaves kept their cultures and history alive giving birth to one of the most amazing cultural experiments of humankind.

The record is not only inspired but is dedicated to all the ancestors of the modern great Afro Diaspora that kept their cultures alive.