fiba 2006 - fiba CONTACT - fibaARCHIVES - fiba SPONSORS - fiba 2005

AMAZING GRACE

IN THE NAME OF WHO?

Anger after Amazing Grace Screening

Community unite against 2007 myths
Thu 16 November 2006

Portrait of real Wilberforce (left) - Holly- wood Wilberforce (right) As the months progress, what has become known as the ‘Wilberforce effect’ continues to ensure that the

At a preview screening on Monday, community organ- isation and representatives expressed anger and dis- appointment at the factual inaccuracies promoted in the film and the visual marginalisation of African people and their revolu- tionary role in ending chat- tel enslavement.

The performance of Youssou N'Dour, who played the African British abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano, was limited to handful of lines throughout the entire film which merely served to promote Wilberforce as ‘the world’s greatest reformer’ and Christian savior of forlorn ‘slaves’ in Africa. The Haitian revolution was only given a fleeting mention whilst one character summed up the myth of African passivity by recalling a story in which an enslaved African woman told her child that ‘King Wilberforce’ from England would save African people from enslavement. Emma Pierre, Head of Media Affairs for Ligali said “This film equaled its dull and egotistic approach with its historical inaccuracies and defiantly disingenuous nature. It represents the obsessive need for some quarters to naturalize any sense of responsibility for the current profiteering from the legacies of the past by producing what can only be described as overt cultural propaganda to absolve the British psyche of any latent guilt.” More literature on The Slave Trade (left) and number of Slaves per ship (right). The film also employs artistic license to distort and fabricate parliamentary facts which falsely promote the myth that the 1807 Act abolished the ‘slave trade’ and therefore ended slavery. However, it wasn’t until 1833 that the British government passed the Slavery Abolition Act which sought not only to pay £20 million pounds (the current day equivalent of £1.4 billion) in reparations to British slavers “for compensating the persons hitherto entitled to the services of such [emancipated] slaves” but also to introduce the infamous Apprenticeship scheme “for promoting the industry of the manumitted slaves”. Ligali poster Amazing Grace is just one part of a myriad of Wilberforce promotional vehicles that will be bombarding the public next year. The film will be accompanied by a book entitled ‘Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the heroic campaign to end slavery’, ‘The Amazing Story of Amazing Grace’ DVD and various educational material and sources for use in schools. A television documentary called The Better Hour: William Wilberforce A Man of Character Who Changed the World is currently in produc- tion and will also be broadcast next year. The Wilberforce House in Hull has also been given £1.6 million to prepare it for the commemorative celebrations in 2007. j(above) Malcolm_X - (right) African Anarchism. Whilst Olaudah Equiano has been afforded some atten- tion on the back of the Wilberforce campaign almost none of the great revolutionaries such as Nat Turner, Henry Highland Garnet, Joseph Cinque and Nanny of the Maroons have been given any attention. Ligali’s Emma Pierre went on to conclude that “2007 is primarily for and by britain’s ethnic majority who wish to revel in their achievements whilst undermining the fact that Africans can and have always been self determinate… They [the government] are overdosing the british public on an opiate of lies which will only serve to cement cultural divisions in britain”. __________________________________________ Above published by http://www.ligali.org/index.php Thu 16 November 2006 Ligali.org is a pro-active, non-profit organisation setup to challenge, identify and recommend solutions to any news or current social issue that refuses to recognize the equal rights of all members of the African Diaspora. Ligali was initially founded in 2001 to challenge the media misrepresentation of African people. ___________________________________________ Additional recommended reading UK publications compiled by The Telegraph: 3-3-07

The Trader, the Owner, the Salve by James Walvin 297 pp Jonathan Cape Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slaves by Jasse Sage and Liora Kasten 281 pp Palgrave Macmillan The Trade: Bristol and theTransatlantic Slave Trade by Victoria Coules - 240 pp Birlinn A short History of Slavery by James Walvin| 258 pp Penguin

CONTENTS fiba 2007
________________________________

FILMBANK 2007

Year of the PIG