- Amistad. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Ed. Michael Kahn.
Videocassette. Dreamworks Pictures, 1998.
- Both Amistad and Sankofa depict the cruelty and injustices of slavery. Both demonstrate the horrific conditions of the Middle passage. Amistad shows how slaves were stripped of all their clothes, squeezed into a small storage area that was damp and dreary, and constantly whipped and beaten for no reason at all. These depictions are important because descriptions of the Middle Passage are usually avoided since the conditions were so inhumane
and humiliating to the slaves; scholar do not like to believe that whites could have been so cruel to slaves. While Amistad only shows the abuses that occur on the ship, Sankofa goes further to also demonstrate the abuses that occur on the plantation as well. Also Sankofa’s theme centers around the importance of going back to the past in order to understand the present. Amistad does not focus on this concept but at the end, when John Quincy Adams is giving a speech to the Supreme Court, he says, “Who we are is who we were.†He then alludes to the fact that the Mande look to their ancestors to solve the problems they are dealing with in their present situation; he urges the supreme court to do the same. One point that Amistad and Sankofa differ on is their depiction of the role of Christianity in slavery. While Sankofa portrays Christianity as an instrument of white oppression used to manipulate and control slaves, Amistad shows a slave being inspired by Christianity.
- Beloved. (1998)
- Beloved and Sankofa both discuss slavery and the attempts of slaves to escape slavery at any costs. They also both address the fact that mothers feel especially determined to escape when they are about to have a child because they cannot stand to see their child born into slavery. In Sankofa, one of the characters,
Kuta, runs away because she wants her child to be born in a free land. In Beloved, Sethe attempts to run away immediately after she has had her third child in order to prevent her from becoming a slave. When she is caught, she goes even further-- she kills her third child and attempts to kill her other two children in order to prevent them from being slaves. Sankofa and Beloved are also similar in that both involve the past history of slavery haunting the characters in the present. However, Beloved and Sankofa differ in the impact of the past. In Sankofa, going back to her past allows Mona to become free and makes her more confident of who she is. In Beloved, the connection to the past, in the form of Beloved’s (murdered child’s) ghost drives Sethe insane and results in her sons’ and lover’s departure.
For more information about Toni Morrison and her novel Beloved, try the following link:
Anniina Jokimen. "Beloved." http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/tonimorrison/beloved.htm. 2000.
- Butler, Octavia. Kindred. Boston: Beacon Press, 1979.
- This novel is similar to Haile Gerima's Sankofa because it also tells the story of a black woman who travels back in time and becomes a slave. The book's main character Dana, is a writer who is pulled back in time to save a drowning boy. Unlike Mona from Sankofa though, Dana remains aware of her twentieth century identity. She keeps not only her twentieth century name but her corresponding memories as well. Another difference between Dana and Mona is that Mona goes back to the past, stays there for a prolonged period of time and then returns to the present at approximately the same time as she left. Dana, however, travels back and forth through time and space several times during the story and time continues to pass in whichever time period she is not in. While in the past, Dana strives to improve the living conditions of the slaves on the Weylin plantation. This contrasts Mona who basically tries to just stay out of harms way until closer to the end of the film. Both of these women come out of their experiences more in touch with their ancestry and what these people were forced to live through. Also, in the end, both kill their tormenters, although Dana's torments were much more subtle than those of Mona.
See Also
Otter, Nancy. “Sankofa vs. Beloved.â€
