Slavery Remembrance Day takes us through a very sad and dark period of history; a journey we have to make, in order not to let such deep wounds from the past disappear from our memory.  

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is commemorated on 23rd August each year to be keep alive, in our busy world, the scale of this tragedy suffered by – and “between” – fellow human beings.

This nuance “between” is striking, making the atrocities all the more harsh, exposing the violence human beings are capable of towards one another; the opposite of love, that fundamental principle to love one’s neighbour as oneself, the Golden Rule which belongs to every human being but which every day needs to be conquered anew.

In line with UNESCO’S intercultural project “Routes of Enslaved Peoples”, this international day serves to remind us of a past, yet always lurking evil, that is capable of reappearing unexpectedly in more hidden but equally inhuman ways.

The word ‘commemoration’ sets a solemn tone: a tone that denotes seriousness and authenticity: in this case, remembering the evil of slavery, in order to fight it everywhere it may hide itself.

Such a cause is particularly helped by Cinema, with its capacity to be powerfully moving, immersing us in reality, and stirring our conscience.

Which films dealing with the subject of slavery, give us the best insights?

Epic works like Ben-Hur and Spartacus set in Roman times are a stark reminder how far back this wound existed, never reined-in, and which therefore needs all the more to be radically stamped out at the earliest possible sign of it.

In the first film, by William Wyler in 1959, set in Palestine during the time of Christ, a young Jewish nobleman is betrayed and enslaved, condemned to the Imperial galley ships.  The second film, directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1960, set during the first century after Christ, tells the story of the slave Spartacus, who leads the Third Servile War against slavery during the Roman era.

But it is the events linked to the deportation of Africans to America and their enslavement in the New World, cruelly perpetrated for centuries, that cinema portrays the most frequently and successfully.

Stephen Spileberg’s Amistad , 1997, recounts the dramatic journey of a slave ship carrying Africans to America , based on the true account of a shipwreck in 1839; and 12 years a Slave by Steve McQueen (awarded an Oscar for best film in 2013): set in 1841, it is based on the compelling story of Solomon Northup, a black violinist, captured by two con men and sold into slavery in the South, who endures a nightmare lasting for 12 years, exposing the extreme cruelty that human beings are capable of, and the tragedy of innocent men and women who have fallen into this horrendous trap simply because they are poor and vulnerable.

Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino, in 2012, also deals with the cruelty of slavery, through the heart-rending story of the main character Django, in 1858, two years before the American Civil War in the Southern States and just a few years before the backdrop to Emancipation, set in 1863 in 1863: a harsh, tense and compelling film based on the true story of a slave named Gordon, who became famous on account of the atrocious scars on his back caused by whipping, photographed during the medicals he underwent for his enrolment into the Unionist Army, and which rapidly became the symbol of the fight against slavery.

Directed by Antonine Fuqua in 2022, Emancipation, opens with the cotton plantations of Louisiana to trace the story of Peter, (Will Smith), a slave who is fleeing from unrelenting cruelty and forced to endure a tortuous journey before managing to join the Northerners at Baton Rouge.

As he crosses the plantations and swamps of Louisiana, the sufferings and physical harassment he endures, reveal the full barbarity of slavery.

The iconic photo of Gordon also appears in the film Lincoln, 2012, directed once again by Stephen Spielberg, set in 1865, as the war of American secession comes to an end, and we see President Lincoln profoundly committed to enforcing the Law for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the whole of the United States of America.

A historic measure which put an end to this deep wound of humanity, imprinted on our memory by these films and other more recent television series, equally graphic, with disturbing scenes, including The Underground Railway, 2021, by Oscar winning director Barry Jenkins, set in Georgia, North and South Carolina and Tennessee.

Much older, dating back to 1977, but forever imprinted on our memory, is the film Roots, set in the mid-eighteenth century, starting out in Gambia, where the heroine, Kunta is raped, and moving to Virginia, and other American states relating the stories of generations of slavery.

Finally, the 2021 docuseries, Enslaved, with the American actor Samuel L Jackson (originally from Gabon), guiding us through another painful but necessary journey, of staggering numbers: twelve million rapes, two million killed, four hundred thousand deportations by ship, leaving a profound abyss in the history of humankind, whose memory we must take great care to honour, never letting it grow dim, but using everything within our means to learn the lesson from this tragic past, for the sake of humanity both now and in the future.  Today, 23 August and forever.