ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I reflect on the sexual trafficking of Africana females during the transatlantic slave trade. Attention to this historical trauma elucidates the convergence of ethnic, gender, class, legal, and other oppressions as characteristic of both sexual trafficking and colonial cultures. Further, it illuminates Africa and India as vulnerable geographies where females are targeted and from which they are transported for sexual and labor exploitation. I highlight that sexual trafficking necessitates the transgression of bodily, spatial, and geographical boundaries and argue that these transgressions are evidenced in the legal movement of Africana and other minoritized bodies, both in the sacred text and during the slave trade. I also discuss how and by whom boundaries are mapped and movement is facilitated in both contexts. In addition, this chapter locates sexual trafficking during the Maafa as a site of collective memory for Africana girls and women and delineates how these collective experiences and memories shape many subsequent experiences and relationships of Africana females. Finally, I illustrate that collective memories are tools that provide a link to the past, present, and future, with a specific focus on traumatic experiences and attacks against Africana female bodies and identities. The communication of these collective memories is a form of polyvocality and activism (namely an iteration of #SayHerName) that gives voice to and allows their experiences of institutionalized rape to be articulated and challenged.
