The Human Bondage Project: telling the story of slavery

People say that slaves were taken from Africa. This is not true: People were taken from Africa, among them healers and priests, and were made into slaves. - Abdullah Ibrahim, South African jazz musician

In addition to being a platform for screening and discussing the new direction of Public Television in the 21^st Century, Input 2008 is also a platform for pioneering special events that include The Human Bondage Project launch… in collaboration with UNESCO.

This landmark “Slavery” initiative will be announced to the media and delegates at Input 2008 and is expected to grab the imagination of the world in the same way Alex Hailey’s Roots did many decades ago. The project patron is Her Excellency Lindiwe Mabuza, the SA High Commissioner in London and the keynote speakers include the respected and legendary musician and human rights activist Mr. Harry Belafonte; and Mr James Counts Early of the Smithsonian Institute.

The Human Bondage project is a documentary and drama series that is set on making television history. It will be the first time that Africans tell the story of slavery, on such a grand scale and in their own voices.

Key partners include the SABC, UNESCO, the Thomson Foundation of the UK, the Commonwealth Broadcasters’ Association (CBA), and the Maurits Binger Institute in Holland as well as leading international broadcasters, producers and academics.

Largest African Input

Ten programmes from six African countries made the final Input cut – an unprecedented number in the history of the conference and an encouraging sign that Africa is embracing the challenge of using public service television as a vehicle for telling its stories. Five South African programmes are amongst the selected 10, which represents a peak for the host country.

The stories from the continent this year come from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal and South Africa. They explore complex and eclectic themes that speak to the range of contemporary issues with which Africans are engaging. These include stories about democracy and dictatorship, the impact of HIV, the dynamics of religion and tradition in the relationships between men and women, frank explorations of the fear of the ‘Other’ within African communities as well as the impact of discriminatory laws on personal morality and desire.

This year we see how different television formats are used to tell African stories by Africans, that should raise animated debate on the framing of the African storyteller in a global context and lead discussion into ground-breaking directions for the pan-African focus of the conference.

A scene from the Mauritanian submission Awaiting the Men (En attendant les hommes). Set in Oualata, a red city on the far edge of the Sahara desert, three women express themselves candidly about male/female relationships in a society apparently dominated by tradition, religion and men. Scheduled for screening at Input 2008 on 9 May.

Input 2008 confirms Belafonte!

The actor, crooner and humanitarian activist Harry Belafonte has been confirmed as the keynote speaker at the launch of the Human Bondage (Slavery) Project at Input 2008.

Belafonte was born in Harlem, New York and first made his “living” by busking as a New York club singer with the likes of Charlie Parker in the 40’s and 50’s – to pay for his acting classes. He is a prolific producer of music (best known for singing Banana Boat Song aka Day-O), has starred in a number of films and to this day remains a vociferous and fearless civil and human rights activist.

According to Wikipedia, in 2002 he earned the umbrage of the Bush Administration when he quoted Malcolm X to characterise former and current secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, saying:

There is an old saying, in the days of slavery. There were those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those slaves who lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master, do exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. That gave you privilege. Colin Powell is committed to come into the house of the master, as long as he would serve the master, according to the master’s purpose. And when Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture. And you don’t hear much from those who live in the pasture.

In 2006 Belafonte led a delegation of activists that included actor Danny Glover and Cornel West to a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, where he came out in strong support of Chavez and the Venezuelan struggle.

Belafonte has earned the respect of human rights workers and activists the world over for his consistent condemnation of oppression and injustice globally.

Next month he visits South Africa to speak at the Human Bondage (Slavery) Project being launched at Input 2008.