History

The Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage was a 13-month journey (1998–1999) that brought together a shifting community of pilgrims, at times numbering more than 80 at times who walked through the Eastern United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, Cape Verde, West Africa, and South Africa. At its heart was a core group of about 25 dedicated participants who completed the entire pilgrimage from beginning to end.

In the U.S. the pilgrims stopped at former auction blocks, slave plantations and quarters, burial grounds and lynching trees. During these visits, rituals and prayers were offered for the spirits of those who suffered and died. They also visited way stations of the Underground Railroad and other sites attesting to dignity and resistance in the face of slavery and racial oppression. This walk through history gave hope that in this century a more humane, compassionate and equitable world can be realized; a world where the ravages of racism no longer plague us and the human spirit is truly liberated.

Continuing on through The Caribbean, the pilgrims visited sugarcane plantations, and other sites of suffering.

Finally, the pilgrims traveled through West Africa, specifically Senegal, The Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria; many of the ancestral homelands of the African Diaspora. After 13 months, the journey continued to its end at the tip of the continent in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Pilgrimage, co-founded by Ingrid Askew and Sister Clare Carter, was initiated by the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order, of the New England Peace Pagoda, and open to all who wished to join.

The Pilgrimage was a living prayer for the sons and daughters of the African Diaspora. By acknowledging and embracing the terrible history of slavery and racial oppression, the journey sought to be a step in healing the wounds inflicted by this history and a purification of the hearts of all who were and are connected with this history.