History on Film: Slavery & the African Diaspora from a Global Perspective - 3rd Series - Day 2

Fri 28 Oct: Filming Memories of Slavery (Brazil, India and Pakistan) | 5.30pm-8pm | Senate House, G22/26 (South wing)

- Film: Other Africas: Unearthing ‘Afro’ Memories in Rio de Janeiro.
Dr André Cicalo. 2016 (22min)

In 2011, a Circuit of African Heritage was established in the harbour area of Rio de Janeiro, after the archaeological discovery of slave trade docks dating back to the early nineteenth century. This initiative officially breaks with the general obscurity of black history in Rio.

Discussion with filmmaker Dr André Cicalo (King’s College London)

- Film: Mor Sahib – The Saint crocodile (Pakistan). Till Passow. 2012 (20min)

In the mystical Islamic belief of Sheedi tribe descending from Africa, the most desired wish could be fulfilled, if the holy crocodile Mor Sahib eats sacrificial offerings. On his hundredth birthday, pilgrims assemble in the shrine of Saint Mangho in South Pakistan to attain collective trance, ecstasy and spiritual healing.

- Film: Voices of the Sidis. Ancestral Links (India). Beheroze Shroff (UC Irvine). 2006 (26min)

In this entertaining portrait of an urban Sidi family in Bombay, India the father traces his ancestry to Zanzibar, Africa. Heena the daughter, Babubhai the father and Fatimaben the mother discuss their lives and work and issues of identity as Sidis.

Panel discussion: Dr David Taylor (ICwS), Alice Albinia, Author of ‘Empires of the Indus’

Mon 31 Oct: African Resistance and Rebellion against Enslavement | 6pm-8pm | KLT, SOAS (main building)

- Film: Ghosts of Amistad – In the Footsteps of the Rebels. Tony Buba. 2014 (56min)

This documentary by Tony Buba is based on Marcus Rediker’s The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom (Viking-Penguin, 2012). It chronicles a trip to Sierra Leone in 2013 to visit the home villages of the people who seized the slave schooner Amistad in 1839, to interview elders about local memory of the case, and to search for the long-lost ruins of Lomboko, the slave trading factory where their cruel transatlantic voyage began. The film uses the knowledge of villagers, fishermen, and truck drivers to recover a lost history from below in the struggle against slavery.

Introduction and discussion by Prof Marcus Rediker (University of Pittburgh)

This event has been possible with the support of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (SOAS), Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies (SOAS), Centre of African Studies (SOAS) and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS)

Organised by Dr Marie Rodet (SOAS), Dr Shihan de Silva (Institute of Commonwealth Studies), Dr Pavarthi Raman (SOAS)

Organiser: Faculty Arts & Humanities(SOAS),Centre for Migration and Diaspora St.,Institute of Commonwealth St.

Contact email: cas@soas.ac.uk