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Part two of our Black History Month series.
On the 26th of this month “Godfather of Black British film,” Menelik Shabazz will be making a landmark presentation of his three films: 1977’s Step Forward Youth, Breaking Point, (1978) and Blood Ah Go Run (1982). The purpose of the screenings will be to “explore the historical context of the films, whilst matching them to society’s present challenges concerning youth” and will take place at Brixton’s Ritzy Picturehouse. (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/menelik-shabazz-presents-young-rebel-and-black-tickets-37675004954)
It is a welcome retrospective and there are certainly some striking parallels between that time and this. We are still getting to grips with the recent deaths in custody of Edson Da Costa and Rashan Charles, as the persistent inability for juries to convict the police of anything – even lying (as the recent verdict in the Kingley Burrell-Brown case indicates). (1)
Back in the early 1980s there were cases like Leroy Gordon, who died of asphyxiation due to compression of the neck in Pershore police station after a crowd suspecting him of robbery-sat on him and also Winston Rose, who died in police van after being restrained by police officers (which actually lead to an ”Unlawful killing” inquest verdict but typically no convictions). (2)
Radical film makers like Menelik Shabazz, ensconced in the grassroots community, were able distil the prevailing narratives of the day into a coherent transmission. This is not only the case for the three title in Shabazz’s upcoming presentation but also in other works like Time and Judgement (1988) and the feature film Burning An Illusion (1981). It should also have been the case for the Channel 4 commissioned documentary The People’s Account (1985), had the “Independent Broadcasting Authority” not prevented its broadcast in a censorship row. (3)
More recently other (mainly documentary) grassroots film makers have emerged chronicling different aspects of Afrikan life in the UK such as Ishmahil Blagrove (BANG! BANG! In Da Manor – 2004); Ms. Serwa & Kwaku (Brent Black Music History Project – 2007) Dr Lez Henry (Resisting The System – 2009 – can also be seen as a corollary to his social/autobiographical writings like What The Deejay Said); Stephen Graham (I’m A Gun – 2014) and Bro. Dalian Adofo and Sis. Verona Spence-Adofo (Ancestral Voices 1 & 2– 2011 & 2017). Probably the most prolific in this vein has been Toyin Agbetu of Ligali with six documentaries from 2007’s Maafa Truth 2007, a rebuttal of the government’s “Wilberfarce” slavery abolition bicentenary agenda, inspired by the Operation Truth 2007 campaign launched in Bristol) (4) to Beauty Is, released in 2014 (“a… cross between Chris Rock’s Good Hair and Bill Duke/D. Channsin Berry’s Dark Girls documentaries with some sensitive Oprah styled interviews mixed in”).. Of course Menelik Shabazz is also still an active film maker up and including his 2015 offering Looking For Love. Non-Afrikans that have documented key community accounts include Migrant Media (Justice Denied, Injustice, Who Polices The Police, Burn)
The advent of a plethora of social media platforms means that now community narratives can be documented with an immediacy with the potential to challenge the dominant media accounts. Again, Toyin Agbetu has been active here with coverage on issues like the Grenfell Tower inferno (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRP6HGu1-Wk) and the Rashan Charles campaign (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5zReksYLhU). Theoretically these submissions can be linked with historical repositories such as the Black Cultural Archives and The Huntley Collection at the London Metropolitan Archives to provide depth and context to contemporary reportage.
One concern is that with the dominance of social media, written documentation may be under threat (aside from the personalised narratives that provide incidental commentary on community affairs). Arguably, too few activists/elders have contributed works like Professor Gus John’s 2006 collection of essays Taking A Stand as a contribution to the overall grassroots community narrative. One the other hand, given that the event on the 26th seems to imply some strong parallels between Afrikan youth today and thirty or so years ago, the extent to which our cultural production can inspire social change may also need to examined.
(1) Sky News (04/10/17) Policemen cleared of lying to inquest about Kingsley Burrell’s death. http://news.sky.com/story/policemen-cleared-of-lying-to-inquest-about-kingsley-burrells-death-11066921
(2) Harmit Athwal (11/11/02) Black Deaths in Custody. http://www.irr.org.uk/news/black-deaths-in-custody/
(3) Jacob Ross (1988) Ceddo: The People’s Account and IBA Censorship in Storms Of The Heart, Kwesi Owusu (Ed). Camden Press. p. 92-3.
(4) Olatunji Heru (2007) Sis. Jendayi Serwah: Operating Truth. The Whirlwind, Edition 5. p. 9.
So we ask the question:
Black History Month@30: Can the history we document inspire social change?
1) Are you familiar with Menelik Shabazz’s work?
2) What parallels are there between young people today and 30 or so years ago?
3) Do social media postings negate the need for documentaries?
4) Do we need to get more of our documentaries on TV?
5) Do we make use of Black Cultural Archives/Huntley Collection?
6) Do more Elders/Activists need to document their lives?
Our very special guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Guide To Excellence.
Bro. Menelik Shabazz: counts The Story of Lovers Rock (2011), Looking For Love (2015) and the milestone film, which is Burning an Illusion (1981) as part of his cannon. He is the founder of the bfm International Film Festival in 1999 as well as the BFM magazine.
Born in Barbados in 1954 and an alumni of the London International Film School, Shabazz has won awards to include the Grand Prix and Amien International Film Festival in 1982 for the film Burning an Illusion.
The director has become innovative in the development of his latest films and the ways in which the life of films are extended. With the film Looking for Love, he’s used this production to form the basis of a movement to support the transformation and healing of relationships within the Black community through the ‘Love-A-Lution’ series of events. Some of his latest works includes a Bajan soap opera called ‘Heat’
Tendai Mwari, my brothers and sisters
It is only African people that can produce our own documentaries, because if we allow the agents of Satan to do it, then am sure you know all the rest.
More documentaries should be shown on ABN, BEN etc. Am afraid we haven’t seen the documentaries from our own prospective about the racial murders of Rashan Charles and Ed Da Costa both in London which should really been shown from our own medias of BEN and ABN.
It isn’t any use that we are allowing these Western medias to use their racist and propaganda warfare such as the policeman who racially murdered Kingsley Burrell in Birmingham and he was acquitted which is so sickening in the stomach as it is and the Western medias hype themselves up that they are about truths which I know it is utter bull, utter bull.
Am aware of our Black Cultural Archives in London, but am certain there are other ways we can make documentaries about ourselves as a people, a race and a culture from our stands.
Big up to Menelik Shabazz too.
Tendai Mwari