In the 1990s a debate ensued on the veracity of the Gorée slave trade as narrated by the conservator . In an article, published in the French newspaper "Le Monde", Emmanuel de Roux challenged Ndiaye's repeated claims that Gorée, at the so-called “Maison des Esclaves”, was an important slave depot (which was largely based on the false interpretations of French visitors in the 18–19th century and afterwards). De Roux based his critique on the works of the researchers Abdoulaye Camara and Father Joseph-Roger de Benoist. According to historical accounts, no more than 500 slaves per year were traded there, a trickle in comparison to the scale of the slave trade along the coasts of modern-day Benin, Guinee and Angola: in total 4–5% (or around 500 000) of the slaves were shipped from Senegal to the Americas, whereas the remaining 11.5 million enslaved Africans came from the other (West) African shores. Ndiaye's graphic descriptions of the conditions of the slaves allegedly kept at the “Maison des Esclaves” are not supported by any historical documentation and according to De Roux, they may have served to drum up business, especially from African-American tourists. In response to these accusations, several Senegalese and European researchers convened a symposium at the Sorbonne in April 1997, entitled “"Gorée dans la traite atlantique : mythes et réalités"”, whose proceedings were published afterwards.