“Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of the Rebels,” directed by Tony Buba and produced by Marcus Rediker, is based on Rediker’s book, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom (Penguin 2012). The film chronicles a journey to Sierra Leone in 2013 to visit the home villages of the rebels who captured the slave schooner “Amistad” in 1839, to interview elders about local memory of the incident through the oral tradition, and to search for the long-lost ruins of Lomboko, the slave trading factory where the cruel transatlantic voyage began. The filmmakers rely on the knowledge of villagers, fishermen, and truck drivers to recover a lost history from below in the struggle against slavery and to restore the popular memory of the Atlantic slave trade. For more information, including a video archive of out-takes, visit the film’s website: https://www.ghostsofamistad.com/.
Published by Meadow Dibble
Meadow Dibble is Director of Community-Engaged Research at the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations and founding Director of Atlantic Black Box, a nonprofit devoted to researching and reckoning with New England’s role in the slave trade and the economy of enslavement. She is currently in her third year as a Visiting Scholar at Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Meadow received her Doctorate from Brown’s Department of French with a focus on Postcolonial studies and taught Francophone African literature at Colby College from 2005–08. Originally from Cape Cod, she lived for six years on Senegal’s Cape Verde peninsula, where she published a cultural magazine and coordinated foreign study programs. In 2016, Meadow experienced a brutal awakening to the reality of her hometown’s deep investment in the global slave economy. Ever since, she has been researching complicity among Cape Cod’s sea captains while developing The Atlantic Black Box Project. View all posts by Meadow Dibble
I was very intrigued with the Cape Cod history Meadow is uncovering when I heard an interview with her on WOMR. Since we moved to the Cape from Africa 20 yrs ago, I’ve been very surprised by the many connections between the Cape and West Africa. I can’t wait to learn more!
Thanks for your interest, Amy. I just announced an upcoming talk that might interest you: https://atlanticblackbox.com/2020/11/17/event-the-diseased-ship-new-england-sea-captains-and-the-slave-trade-thursday-11-19/ Hope to see you there!