Obama’s slave trade photo op a ‘scam,’ historians call it 'Garbage' dump.

Obama’s slave trade photo op a ‘scam,’ historians call it 'Garbage' dump.HT: BizPacReview.

Historians claim Obama's 'Door of No Return' which he visited to highlight the evils of slavery is a 'scam' and was actually used as a garbage dump

When President Barack Obama visited the 'Door of No Return' on a Senegalese island on Thursday, he believed he was looking at where Africans were shipped across the Atlantic into slavery. But not all may be as it first seemed. Historians claim that the entrance of Slave House on Goree Island where Obama posed for a photo opportunity was most likely only used for disposing of garbage.

As reported by the Telegraph, Professor Ralph Austen of the University of Chicago said: 'There are literally no historians who believe the Slave House is what they're claiming it to be, or that believe Goree was statistically significant in terms of the slave trade,'

According to the Daily Mail, Philip Curtin an emeritus professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and a prolific author of books on the Atlantic slave trade, was one of the first to question the authenticity of the Slave House back in the 1990s.

Curtain said in an online discussion forum that he believed the “hoax” began when the site became a museum and the first curator, Joseph Ndiaye, told dramatic stories of the millions who passed through and the horrors they endured.

When Curtin visited in 1992, Ndiaye told of 40 million who would become slaves, which Curtin said was four times the total number of slaves ultimately exported from Africa.

“A lot of people have been taken in by the Goree scam,” Curtin wrote. “Though Goree is a picturesque place, it was marginal to the slave trade.”

Pictures have circulated showing Obama, standing with Michelle, in the infamous doorway, but the Telegraph reported another historian’s analysis of the site:

Despite the claims that millions of slaves passed through the door, its most likely use is now thought to have been for disposing of rubbish. Likewise, the waters it overlooks are too rocky and shallow for a slave ship to have used it as a loading bay.

“There are literally no historians who believe the Slave House is what they’re claiming it to be, or that believe Goree was statistically significant in terms of the slave trade,” said Ralph Austen, a professor at the University of Chicago who has researched the subject.

The Daily Mail said the debate over the site’s historical value is “emotionally charged and politically treacherous” in Senegal. Numerous high-profile tourists are attracted to the island museum, and past visitors have included Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II and former U.S presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush.Read and see the full story here, more here.