Analysis Of The Film 'Sankofa And The Negro'

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The film”Sankofa” and the Negro by Du Bois reflects on the ideas about the desires of African intellectuals during the 1920s and the identity crisis to the black Americans. The American society refused to offer African Americans equal rights as their white counterparts. The two sources engage the reader to ask a question as to why an individual self-esteem is affected by race. This is a troublesome issue for the blacks considering the fact that Europeans viewed them as people without practical history and have nothing to offer. The film highlights some of the primitive and exotic factors of the American society during slavery era. The Atlantic slave trade is the main feature that depicts the lives of Africans in the hands of the Europeans. …show more content…

This is attributed to the fact that individuals that wanted to exorcise the historical incident were highly discouraged; the dominant culture (the whites) want to take control of the society and maintain a status quo oblivious of the negative consequences on the black community (Du Bois 7). The Africans are told to march in with their job at hand while the non-blacks are given time to meditate and grow in with their experiences. The whole slavery incident has made Africans Americans ignorant of their past. It is important that they learn from their past experiences and embrace the future. One of the recurring symbols of the Sankofa film is the use of birds. It is important to note that the bird had meaning to the slaves. The bird represented two sides, life and death. For the African Americans that escaped slavery, the vulture is viewed as a guide that gave them hope away from their oppressors. Individuals that did not survive the onslaught died along their way to freedom. But again, there is need to recognize the fact that death gave the slaves a sense of freedom. They believed that a vulture would take back their spirits to their ancestral roots (Gerima n.p.). Whether the ideas were myths, the ideas expressed a sense of freedom from the chains of

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