Cowrie shell sculpture chosen as slavery memorial for London

The artist behind a slavery memorial in London’s Docklands says they hope the project will serve as a place of reflection and remembrance of the millions of Africans who were enslaved, while also acting as a reminder that racism is still a part of British life.
The design by Khaleb Brooks, an American whose own ancestors were enslaved in Mississippi, was chosen by a judging panel from a shortlist of six. The memorial will sit on a site in West India Quay, one of the key entry points to the UK for commodities, such as sugar, that were produced by enslaved people.
The Wake, a seven-metre tall sculpture in the shape of a bronze cowrie shell that includes the names of enslaved people inside and a wind-chime soundscape, is expected to be installed in 2026.
Brooks said they hoped it would serve as a place of “rest and refuge”, and that all Londoners would feel free to interact with the artwork, which was announced by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, on Unesco International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
“When we talk about the transatlantic slave trade we’re speaking to people’s history and not just black people’s histories,” said Brooks, who was also an artist-in-residence at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. “It’s everyone’s history on this land, no matter what our involvement was.”
“We’re still very much impacted by the history of the trade. So I hope The Wake exists and serves as an acknowledgement that there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Brooks chose the cowrie shell as the basis for The Wake after learning about the object’s use as currency during trading of enslaved people, such as the abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, who described being sold for 172 cowrie shells in his memoir.
Sadiq Khan, whose City Hall provided £500,000 toward the project, called the work a “stark reminder of the pain and suffering caused by transatlantic slavery and the role the UK and London played” in it.
The memorial will sit close to the former site of a statue of Robert Milligan, an 18th-century enslaver, taken down in 2020 after protests.
“It’s essential that London’s streets, statues and memorials reflect our shared history, and this memorial will help to remind and educate Londoners of the capital’s role in this terrible treatment of human beings,” Khan added.
The timing of the unveiling, coming a few weeks after the recent race riots in the UK, gives the announcement added poignancy, according to Debbie Weekes-Bernard, the deputy mayor for communities and social justice.
“Given that we’re making this announcement in the wake of what happened over the past couple of weeks, there just needs to be a broader conversation about race and racism in this country generally,” she said. “We need to discuss the longevity and the impact of slavery on the experiences that black communities have now.”
The memorial will be the latest addition to the UK’s landscape that addresses its racial history. Artists Veronica Ryan and Thomas J Price created monuments that stand outside Hackney town hall in east London and commemorate the Windrush generation, while there’s a campaign – backed by former Tory cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt – to erect a memorial to the West African Squadron in Portsmouth.
The Wake is supported by the mayor’s commission on diversity in the public realm, set up by Sadiq Khan in 2020 after protests triggered by the Black Lives Matter movement. The commission has already funded statues, artworks and walking tours.
However, establishing a memorial to remember the victims of the transatlantic slave trade in the capital has proved impossible until now.
Memorial 2007, a group of volunteers led by Oku Ekpenyon, has been campaigning and raising money to erect a memorial to the slaves for more than two decades. The Australian artist Les Johnson was commissioned and the group raised nearly £100,000.
In 2008, Boris Johnson endorsed their proposal for a £4m bronze statue depicting the history of slavery, saying Hyde Park was “a fitting site for a permanent memorial to the millions who lost their lives”.
But successive governments failed to provide funding and despite Memorial 2007 having high-profile backers including the then archbishop of York, John Sentamu; Paul Boateng, the first black cabinet minister in British history; and Doreen Lawrence, the project could not secure the funding needed.
The Wake will also feature satellite sites around the capital, where smaller cowrie shells will be installed, and there is a planned educational programme that is yet to be announced.