A community group is preparing for a trip to St. Croix to see the Middle Passage monument which will hopefully be brought to Bermuda next month.

The visit comes as Cultural Affairs Minister Wayne Perinchief gives his backing to the statue, which will commemorate the millions of slaves who died crossing the ocean during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

It will serve as a reminder of how the world, past and present, has been blighted by slavery.

The 15-foot stainless steel structure is a replica of one which was lowered to the bottom of the Atlantic eight years ago, in a ceremony which attracted international attention.

For years, it has been stored in St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands, while organisers have waited for the appropriate moment to bring it to the Island.

They feel the time has finally arrived after Bermuda took part in this year's celebrations of the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, and slave emancipator William Wilberforce's descendant Charlotte Wilberforce announced plans for the Island's first Run For Freedom next March.

At least four people are expected to visit St. Croix later this month, when they will speak to children at the school which has taken care of the monument later. During the trip, they will also finalise arrangements to ship it across the ocean, ideally so it can be here in time for next month's Grand Slam of Golf.

Corin Smith, of the Emperial Group of Companies, which has been leading the project from Bermuda, said: "The St. Croix community has built an attachment to the monument; they have had it for five or six years. This is a chance for them to absorb what Bermuda is doing and see what we are tying to portray with the monument."

Fellow group member Glenn Doers explained why Bermuda was the perfect location. "We are in the middle of the Atlantic," he said, "irrespective of the fact that our involvement in the Middle Passage is minimal as far as the slave trade went, with a minute percentage coming straight from the west coast of Africa to Bermuda.

"You can't see the other monument unless you go scuba diving. The next best thing, we feel, is Bermuda in the middle of the Atlantic."

Its exact location on the Island is undecided. Suggestions have been made to move it from spot to spot, beginning with the Mid Ocean Club, which hosts the Grand Slam of Golf, an event expected to attract millions of television viewers across the globe.

Mr. Perinchief set up a meeting with group members yesterday after overseas contacts expressed an interest in the Middle Passage monument.

The Minister was impressed with what he found out, and said the initiative would help educate people so they could accept or reject the horrors of history.

"It's very important, a monument of this sort," he told The Royal Gazette. "It's a tangible monument, an example or reminder of that Middle Passage and the impact of slavery on the western world, not just blacks." On the way Bermuda has historically confronted its slavery past, Mr. Perinchief said: "It's been a process of denial — abject, outright denial. Sometimes the worst form of slavery is mental baggage, when we don't accept that something happened."

He said he was happy for Government to take a back seat, allowing community members to push it forward at grass roots level, adding: "It should be that individuals are concerned about this and are prepared to take the initiative and do it themselves."

This newspaper has been marking the Slave Trade Act bicentenary by running its Break The Chains campaign, which calls for an end to modern day slavery.

Yesterday, Mr. Perinchief said he backs the campaign and joined more than 37,000 names on Anti-Slavery International's on-line petition demanding governments take action to free more than 12 million slaves across the world. To add your name to the list, go to www.antislavery.org/2007/actionsign and fill in your details. To comment on Break The Chains or help sponsor the shipping of the Middle Passage monument, which will cost $20,000, call 278-8358 or e-mail tsmith@ royalgazette.bm