Nearly 500 years since the first traders forced Africans into bondage, slavery’s violent, disorienting consequences continue, not least in the tension between Africa and the West. What was once called “the white man’s burden,” an attempt to civilize backward people, is now considered imperialism, colonialism, racism and cultural misappropriation.

A piece featured in Arts Atlanta details the aims of Africa Atlanta 2014, summed up by Jackeline Royster, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

“The goal is for Africa and for the West to stop looking at each other through unchanged eyes that still see the relationship as being marred by the transatlantic slave trade.”