May 6
Spring Lefler Lecture - Dr. Katharine Gerbner
Title: Lost Words and Hidden Histories: Translating Damma’s Letter, from Gbe to Dutch Creole
In 1739, a formerly enslaved African woman named Damma – also known as Marotta or Madlena – either wrote or dictated a letter to the Queen of Denmark. Speaking for more than 250 Black women, she protested the mistreatment of Black Christians under Danish rule. In her letter, she also told the story of her spiritual journey from West Africa to the Caribbean. What makes Damma’s letter especially remarkable is that she wrote it in two languages: Dutch Creole and Gbe, her native West African language. It is one of only two written records of Gbe from the 18th century. However, until now, only the Dutch Creole part of the letter had been translated. Our research team has worked to unlock the meaning of the Gbe portion for the first time. This talk will share our discoveries and explain why they matter. Translating Damma’s words helps us rethink ideas about race, nation, and religion in the Atlantic World. It also raises questions about how we preserve and share stories obscured by slavery and colonization. By combining history and linguistics, our method offers an exciting opportunity to reveal terms and categories of knowledge that have been obscured or forgotten due to slavery and colonization.
Dr. Gerbner teaches courses on Atlantic History, History of Religions, Magic & Medicine, and The Early Modern Archive. Her research explores the religious dimensions of race, authority, and freedom in early America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic world. Dr. Gerbner’s first book, Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World, shows how debates between slave-owners, black Christians, and missionaries transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race.
from History