Images and Memory of Slavery

Round Table  20 July 2006

ZIFF, RFI and The Black Film Project

 

BACKGROUND

 

By its breadth, its duration, and its barbarity, the African slave trade can be considered as one of the greatest tragedies of humankind of all time. And yet an unbelievable silence has weighed on this catastrophe, which was not even recognized as a crime against humanity until the year 2001, on the occasion of the World Conference against racism in Durban, South Africa. This silence is all the more intolerable because the disastrous consequences of this outrage (prejudice, discrimination and economic marginalisation, all based on race) and the social and cultural interactions that it generated continue to shape the world of today.

 

How has film, which has become the mode of expression most relied upon to construct collective memories, handled this tragedy? How has this relatively young art form, which learned very quickly how to exploit historic tragedies in order to establish its own legitimacy, told this story?

 

The relationship of film to the tragedy of the slave trade and of slavery itself has rarely been questioned directly. The slave trade encompasses all the ingredients of high drama and engages with all the great ethical ideals that are the basis of the most popular movies: spectacular violence, martyrs, heroic resistance and deeds, uncommon figures, forbidden passions and loves. Yet mainstream cinema, notably in Hollywood, has not treated the issue with the same moral commitment, talent, and perceptiveness that it has given to other human tragedies. Rather, it has tended to perpetuate many of the racial prejudices inherited from slavery, notably through the negative images and stereotyped roles reserved for Africans and Afro-Americans in films. Paradoxically, even films by Black filmmakers, notably African films, have given inadequate attention to this sorrowful subject.

 

It is interesting to note that the first major television production on slavery, Roots, was also the first series to attract so many people to the small screen in prime time. The worldwide success of the film Spartacus, which dealt with a slave revolt in antiquity, also illustrates the potential of such stories for cinema.

 

So why has the film industry not placed the tragedy of the slave trade in the position it warrants? Why has Black cinema, albeit with some notable exceptions, generally not brought slavery and the slave trade to the forefront? How have those rare films and innovative filmmakers who have dealt with this issue illustrated this painful memory?

 

These are some of the questions that will be discussed at the Roundtable proposed by the UNESCO “Slave- Route Project,” organized in collaboration with ZIFF, RFI and TheBlackFilm Project. Beyond analyzing the reluctance of the film industry to engage with this tragic history, the meeting seeks to reflect on the role filmmakers can play in remembering such human barbarities.

 

Ali Moussa Iye UNESCO Slave Route Project

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

BLACK FILMMAKERS ON SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE:  SETTING THE CINEMATIC RECORD STRAIGHT DR. HAL WEAVER 

 

 

During most of the 20th century, the tendency of Hollywood and other dominant media around the world was to demean Black men, women, and children through persistently negative stereotyping. Pioneering Black actors like Paul Robeson and Canada Lee tried to change that. However, only after the impact of the freedom movements in the 1950's and 1960's in the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean did Black filmmakers emerge to use their new, decision-making positions as directors and producers to reverse the cinematic images by beginning to set the record straight. Ousmane Sembene, Melvin Van Peebles, and Gordon Parks were among the directors leading the precarious way in demonstrating that the liberation aspirations of Black folks around the world had become a legitimate cinematic concern. 

 

This film-lecture presentation demonstrates the heroic efforts of Black filmmakers to present Black folks with dignity and humanity in the trans-Atlantic slave trade/ New-World enslavement era. Film clips will be selected from some of the following filmmakers from Africa and the African Diaspora: Cuban Sergio Giral (THE OTHER FRANSICO/EL OTRO FRANCISCO); the Ethiopian-born/U.S.-migrated Haile Gerima (SANKOFA); the work of the veteran Hollywood pioneer, "Life" photographer  Gordon Parks (SOLOMON NORTHUP'S ODYSSEY: TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE); the pioneering TV documentarian Orlando Blackwell (AFRICANS IN AMERICA  and ROOTS OF RESISTANCE); the works of independent Charles Burnett (NIGHT JOHN: WORDS ARE FREEDOM and NAT TURNER: A TROUBLESOME PROPERTY); and the penetratingly analytical compilations of Marlon Riggs (ETHNIC NOTIONS).  This innovation in the film industry unleashed the acting talents of such award-winning performers as Denzell Washington, Avery Brooks, Morgan Freeman, Cicely Tyson, and Danny Glover.

 

Presenter/Curator: Dr. Hal Weaver (weaverhal@yahoo.com), Principal Curator, The BlackFilm Project, and Fellow, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research, Harvard University.

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

THE UNESCO SLAVE ROUTE PROJECT

 

The Slave Route Project deals with a tragedy that has involved all continents and that has provoked fundamental transformations, the impact of which continues to be felt in today's societies. This tragedy is the massive deportation of millions of Africans and their enslavement during centuries. Beyond its socio-economic impact, the slave trade has also given rise to significant interactions among the peoples of Africa, Europe, the Americas, the Indian Ocean, the Arab Muslim world and Asia, which have profoundly and lastingly transformed their cultures, knowledge, beliefs and behavior. The concept of “route” was chosen to illustrate this process of interculturality that began with the slave trade and continues to transform humanity.

 

Therefore, far from looking backwards, the Slave Route Project aims to improve understanding of the present and to contribute to the debate on the future of multi-ethnic and multicultural societies. Its main objectives are:

 

• To put an end to the silence surrounding the tragedy of the slave trade and slavery by contributing to a better understanding of its deep-seated causes, its implications and its forms of operation through multidisciplinary research;

 

• To objectively highlight the consequences of the slave trade on modern societies, in particular the global transformations and cultural interactions among peoples generated by the tragedy;

 

• To contribute to the establishment of a culture of tolerance and peaceful coexistence between peoples by encouraging debate on cultural pluralism, the building of new identities, citizenship and intercultural dialogue

 

For more information please consult the Slave Route Project Website (http://www.unesco.org/culture/slaveroute).