About the Enslaved Spaces Project

Lead Researcher

Project Manager
Natasha Bynoe is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of the West Indies - Cave Hill Campus and is the CEO of the African Diaspora Institute of Cultural Exchange and Historical Research. Currently, she is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of The Gambia. She teaches undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Diaspora Studies, American History and Slavery in the Americas, and Indigenous Slavery in West and Central Africa.

Project Advisor 

Mr. Brathwaite is an Analytical Chemist, Environmental Professional and Certified Project Manager with over 25 years of experience. He has successfully completed a variety of complex and challenging assignments and has provided corporate advisory services to government, private sector and international donor clients. 

He has completed projects that include petrochemical and industrial process operations, hotel and resort development, infrastructure planning (water, sewerage, roads, airports and ports), solid waste management, agriculture and tourism sector studies, quarrying and land development.

 Technical Special Advisor

Roland K. Sodeyi is an independent software development manager.

He was born in London to Nigerian and Barbadian parents. With two sons from his Guyanese wife, he is interested in heritage information he can pass on to them. 

He was especially drawn to this project particularly because it dealt with a part of the transatlantic slave trade of which very little seems to be in the public domain.

He was happy to lend his technical expertise to this work and is pleased that a resource such as this will be available especially for future generations to learn and benefit from.

Art Director

A pioneer in realism art and is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Art Ambassador for West Africa. As the founder of PITO Painting in the Open, the C.E.O. of Art Tricks in Ghana, his mission is to educate and inspire through art. He attended the University of Education in Winneba with honors Bachelors in Art Education. 

Mr. Dodoo has worked for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Ministry of Creative Art and Culture in Ghana, The National Theater of Ghana, and as an actor for the hit series Puzzled; other titles include Content Developer, Crypto NFTs, and Set Designer. Mr. Dodoo is extremely passionate about Africa and her diaspora.

Researcher
 

Ensa Touray is a prominent Gambian historian and scholar. He obtained his bachelor of arts degree in history and English in 2004 and he obtained his master’s degree in 2007 from the University of the Gambia. He received his doctorate from the University of Ife, Nigeria. He majored in African History and wrote a thesis titled: “Foday Kaba: Nation Building and the Colonial Encounter 1875-1901.”

Currently, Touray is a lecturer in African History at the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of the Gambia. His areas of expertise include Africa in Global History; Problem of Nation Building in Africa since Independence, and West Africa States and Empires. Dr. Touray also delivered several academic papers at both local and international fora. In 2015 he delivered a paper on “Anglo-French Boundary Commission And The British Military Expedition Against Foday Kaba And His Allied 1891-1898,” during the early bird round of the third international conference on advances in economics, social science, and human behavior study in Bangkok Thailand. In 2014, he also delivered a paper on “Africa in the Historical Context of Globalization: From Medieval to Modern Era.” During a conference organized by global hand United Kingdom. His many academic reaches include “Kombo Before the Colonial Era, Early Establishments and Socio-political Transformation.”

Dr. Touray is also a member of several professional organizations including the Council for the Development Of Social Science Research In Africa(CODESRI), as well as the Athens Institute For Education And Research And Institute Of Research Engineers And Doctors, USA. His insightful and in-depth knowledge about African history has led him to carry our periodic academic research works in neighboring West African countries. 

Researcher

Dr. Afonso Vita,  is the General Manager of Institute of Promotion of Tourism of Angola. He graduated from the Internacional Institute of Tourism of Tangier - Morocco. He received his masters degree From the Florida Metropolitan University of Orlando, now Everest in Florida - United State of América. 

Mr. Vita is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Coimbra  - Portugal. His defense is in a few months and look forward to addressing Mr. Vita, Dr. Vita very shortly. 

Researcher
Akindele Decker is a community historian, poet and writer born in Sierra Leone, West Africa.  His writings cover topics dealing with the middle-passage, identity, and African history.  He has served as a panelist and presenter for several platforms including the American Association of State and Local History on the topic of intercultural identity; and Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center on Maroon culture and the global African Diaspora. He previously worked with Fambul Tik, a heritage company that organized a historic study tour for 70 African Americans, mainly Gullah, to Sierra Leone in 2019.  This resulted in the South Carolina Educational TV notable Documentary, "Gullah Roots".  He is the co-founder of African Curator, an educational company that publishes children's books on historical icons, installs historical markers, and hosts virtual symposiums for global dialogues about historical experiences of Africans and people of African descent in the Diaspora.  He serves as his family genealogist and historian, with over 16 years worth of independent research into 19th Century Liberated Africans of Sierra Leone, 1792 Nova Scotia Settlers of Freetown, 19th Century West India Emigration and other areas related to his family history .  He resides in Maryland, USA with his family.