lewis project
honoring history in alabama: bust of Cudjoe “Kazoola” Lewis
Sculpture of Cudjoe “Kazoola” Lewis. Image: Graveyardwalker (Amy Walker) Wikimedia Commons.
On February 12, 2017 a cast iron portrait bust of Cudjoe “Kazoola” Lewis was unveiled in Plateau, Alabama. At that time, Historians believed that Lewis was the last survivor of America’s last slave ship. (Later it was discovered that two other women from the ship had outlived Mr. Lewis.)
The bust was installed in front of the Union (Missionary) Baptist Church located in Africatown (Plateau), near Mobile, Alabama. It is welded and bolted to its pedestal, with a plaque detailing Lewis’ life and legacy mounted beneath. From its place in front of the church, the bust of Lewis looks out on the Africatown cemetery which is directly across the road. In the 1860s, Lewis and other survivors of the slave ship, the Clotilda, established the Africatown community. Many of their descendants still live in the area.
The commemorative sculpture of Mr. Lewis honors the resilience of the Africatown community and the insistence that this history be remembered. The donors for this work came from all over. Some lived in Africatown, and others lived in other parts of America, Europe, or Africa. This group of diverse donors felt the importance of honoring Lewis, his fellow survivors, and the generations that came afterward. The installation of this bust sent a message that this part of history could not be ignored or erased.
Learn more here:
Keyes, Allison, Smithsonian Magazine: “The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found.” May 22, 2019.
In Remembrance
The bronze plaque accompanying the sculpture bears the following inscription, as determined by the Union Baptist Church.
Cudjoe “Kazoola” Lewis, 1840-1935
Last known survivor of the last slave ship to enter the United States. Circa 1859, Cudjoe Lewis, a native of the Yoruba tribe in what is now the West African country of Benin, was one of over 100 men and women purchased and brought across the Atlantic to Mobile, Alabama, aboard the slave ship Clotilda.
After a period of defacto slavery, Mr. Lewis and other members of the Clotilda group became free and organized a community, la Plateau, part of today’s Africatown Historic District. They formed a self-governing society and established the old Baptist Chruch, which is now known as “The Union Baptist Church of Plateau.”
Mr. Lewis married Celia “Abile” Lewis, another Clotilde survivor, with whom he had several children. He was known for working diligently to keep and share the group’s epic history. Upon his death, he was laid to rest in the nearby old Plateau Cemetery, where a commemorative marker may be found.
This memorial, honoring Mr. Lewis and the survivors of the Clotilde, was made possible through the efforts of The Union Baptist Church and the generosity of donors spanning race and creed. May the example set by Cudjoe Lewis and the group inspire all citizens of humanity to choose to perseverance and hope in the face of tremendous adversity.
Sculpted by April Terra Livingston in 2016.