“There is a sidestep that Europe does where it takes itself out of the triangle … I am never quite sure how that sleight of hand is achieve...
“There is a sidestep that Europe does where it takes itself out of the triangle … I am never quite sure how that sleight of hand is achieved, but it is like, slavery, it is that American thing, we do not have to worry about it,” said playwright Selina Thompson when talking about Britain’s role in the transatlantic trade of humans from Africa. She is not wrong. The narrative of slavery in the United Kingdom has long been shaped by the celebration of white abolitionists, while the violent part is often obscured.
Most plays, television shows and films about slavery are set in the United States. They tend to repeat the same traumatic images of violence against Black people as if there is no other way of getting the horror across than in such visceral and gruesome scenes, particularly those involving Black women.
Speaking about Black British director Steve McQueen’s film 12 Years a Slave, and many films like it, Black feminist cultural critic bell hooks said: “If I do not see another Black woman naked, raped and beaten as long as I live, I will be just fine.”
hooks challenges storytellers to think about how enslavement is represented and to think about how these histories can be explored without...
