ABSTRACT
Many of the men, women and children are seeking refuge from wars and starvation, many are enslaved to traffickers and are bound for dispersal around the world. But we also have victories in the solidarities that are produced by those experiences and sustained by the memory of the social struggles and resistance of our ancestors — crossing borders and reaching to others across borders. The politicised nature of memory and history should not be underestimated. Memory continues to be part of the resources of hope for contemporary trafficked and enslaved populations. The politics of memory lies less in the replication and resurrection of the struggles in past historical moments than in 'ransacking' that archive for resources in current struggles. If the slave ship is an exemplary trope of modernity we have still much to learn from the ghosts in their holds.
