Colonial Lies. Miseducation. Haile Gerima on Black Lions, Roman Wolves #TheBlackTable
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Quick Read
Summary
Takeaways
- ❖Haile Gerima's film "Sankofa" was a personal letter to African-Americans, reflecting his own growth and understanding of Black history in the U.S.
- ❖His teaching philosophy at Howard University fostered a partnership with students, viewing them as co-partners in intellectual and cinematic research.
- ❖The "LA Rebellion" era at UCLA was a movement to create a distinct cinematic language for African people, rejecting Hollywood imitation.
- ❖Sankofa Video Books & Cafe was founded to integrate film and books, encouraging the Black community to 'read films like books' and critically analyze media.
- ❖Gerima's 30-year documentary "Black Lions, Roman Wolves" aims to expose and correct the miseducation and colonial distortion of Ethiopian history, particularly the Italian invasion.
- ❖The "Maroon Project" focuses on the often-ignored history of African-American resistance southward to Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico, highlighting armed guerrilla warfare.
- ❖The Sankofa Film Institute seeks to empower individual narrative logic and alternative storytelling, breaking away from Eurocentric cinematic formulas.
Insights
1Sankofa: A Letter of Awakening and Evolution
Gerima describes his film "Sankofa" as a personal letter to African-Americans, made during his own evolution and growth. His arrival in America, initially unaware of the historical implications of 'Negro America' and its detachment from Africa, prompted an awakening. This encounter with African-American history and politics realigned his trajectory, making him aware of his own Ethiopian heritage and the broader Black struggle.
Gerima states, "Sankofa is really a kind of I always call it a letter to African-Americans... my growth being incubated by the African-American encounter... that in an encounter that awakened me... my trajectory literally is realigned by the politics and history of African-Americans in America." He notes he initially didn't know African-Americans came from Africa due to the 'Negro America' context. [ - ]
2Independent Cinema as a Tool for Liberation, Not Imitation
During the 'LA Rebellion' era at UCLA, Gerima and his peers questioned whether to imitate Hollywood's Eurocentric cinema or forge a new cinematic language rooted in African and global liberation struggles. He advocated for independent cinema that not only produced unique films but also controlled intellectual property, distribution, and exhibition to prevent the work from being co-opted or warped by dominant systems.
Gerima explains, "all of us wanted to know what is the kind of film we want to make. Is it to regurgitate and imitate white America through Hollywood... or is there another story we can offer?" He emphasized controlling "intellectual property... distribution and exhibition of your film" to prevent it from morphing into "everything you hated." [ - ]
3Sankofa Video Books & Cafe: Challenging Film as Mere Entertainment
The establishment of Sankofa Video Books & Cafe was a deliberate institutional effort to provoke the African-American community to engage with films as critically as they read books. Gerima argues that oppressed people are conditioned to view film as entertainment, which disarms their critical minds and allows for indoctrination by white supremacy. The cafe aimed to integrate video, film, and books to foster a critical, disarmed approach to visual media.
Gerima states, "We oppressed people think film is entertainment. They made us believe it's entertainment... While you are being entertained, indoctrinated by white supremacy." He explains they "integrated and housed video and film together. Video, film and books together to say no... read it like a book." [ - ]
4Black Lions, Roman Wolves: A 30-Year Repentance of Miseducation
Gerima's 10-hour documentary is a 30-year project born from his realization that he was miseducated about Ethiopia's history, particularly the 1935 Italian fascist invasion. He discovered that Ethiopian monuments were taken to Rome and replaced with Roman symbols, and that British narratives falsely claimed credit for Ethiopia's liberation. The film is a therapeutic journey to uncover and present the true, often traumatic, history from an Ethiopian perspective, using colonial images against themselves.
Gerima describes the film as a "30 years to make this film because it's one that the story uh is I'm myself discovering... to erase Ethiopian's history." He found monuments were "cut apart and taken to Roman and planted in Rome." He calls the film "a revenge on my miseducation... I'm repenting where I was completely completely miseducated by the European teachers." [ - ]
5The Maroon Project: Unearthing Southern Black Resistance
Gerima's ongoing "Maroon Project" focuses on the under-documented history of African-Americans who ran southward to Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico, engaging in armed guerrilla warfare. He views this history of innovative resistance as deeply inspirational and intentionally blocked from public knowledge, contrasting it with the more widely known, and often tokenistically tolerated, northward underground railroad narratives.
Gerima states the Maroon project is about "Africans running to... the one going south the one going to Florida, the one going to Oklahoma, Texas, and to Mexico. This history I felt intentionally, institutionally was blocked from it being accessible to knowledge." He emphasizes "their innovative resistance movement... history makers with guns literally fighting their way in guerilla warfare." [ - ]
Bottom Line
The colonial gaze not only distorts history through narrative but also physically displaces cultural artifacts and symbols, replacing them with the colonizer's iconography to erase indigenous identity.
This physical and symbolic displacement contributes to a deep-seated miseducation, where even 'independent' nations unknowingly perpetuate colonial narratives through their education systems and public spaces.
Filmmakers and cultural institutions can actively reverse this by documenting and restoring original narratives, highlighting the physical and symbolic acts of colonial erasure, and creating counter-narratives that re-center indigenous perspectives and symbols.
The act of 'reading films like books' is a radical pedagogical approach for oppressed communities, transforming passive consumption into active critical engagement, thereby disarming the indoctrination inherent in mainstream entertainment.
Without this critical framework, communities remain susceptible to subtle and overt forms of ideological manipulation embedded in visual media, perpetuating cycles of miseducation even when they believe they are merely being entertained.
Educational programs and community centers can implement media literacy initiatives that teach critical analysis of film and visual content, empowering audiences to deconstruct narratives and identify underlying biases, fostering intellectual self-defense.
Opportunities
Independent Black Film Distribution & Exhibition Network
Establish a robust, self-sustaining network for the distribution and exhibition of independent Black films globally. This network would control intellectual property, marketing, and screening venues (physical and digital) to ensure films reach their intended audiences without being filtered or co-opted by mainstream industry, mirroring the model of Sankofa Video Books & Cafe and Gerima's early efforts.
Decolonized Media Literacy & Storytelling Institutes
Create educational institutes focused on teaching alternative cinematic production and storytelling, empowering individuals to develop their unique narrative logic outside of Eurocentric formulas. These institutes would offer workshops, mentorship, and resources for aspiring filmmakers to produce content that reflects their cultural accent and historical truth, similar to the Sankofa Film Institute.
Key Concepts
Decolonizing Cinema
This model involves actively challenging and dismantling Eurocentric narratives, aesthetics, and distribution models within filmmaking. It emphasizes creating and controlling one's own cinematic language, telling stories from an indigenous perspective, and building independent institutions for production, distribution, and exhibition to ensure cultural self-determination.
Horizontal Pedagogy
Instead of a traditional vertical student-professor hierarchy, this model views students as co-partners in research and enlightenment. It fosters an environment of mutual learning, debate, and collaborative intellectual production, particularly relevant in fields like filmmaking where social responsibility and cultural context are paramount.
Lessons
- Actively seek out and support independent Black media platforms and cultural institutions that prioritize self-determination and decolonized narratives, like the Black Star Network and Sankofa Film Institute.
- Engage with films and visual media critically, treating them as texts to be 'read' and analyzed for underlying messages and biases, rather than passively consumed as mere entertainment.
- Research and learn about overlooked or suppressed histories of resistance, such as the Maroon communities, to gain a more complete and empowering understanding of historical struggles and triumphs.
Building Independent Cultural Institutions for Self-Determination
Define a clear mission to challenge dominant narratives and empower marginalized voices, focusing on cultural and historical self-determination.
Develop a unique 'cinematic accent' or narrative logic that is authentic to the community's experience, rejecting imitation of mainstream formulas.
Establish control over the entire value chain: production, intellectual property, distribution, and exhibition, to prevent co-option and ensure direct community engagement.
Integrate different forms of media (e.g., film, video, books) to foster critical engagement and encourage audiences to 'read' visual content with a discerning mind.
Cultivate a horizontal, partnership-based educational environment where students and creators are co-partners in research and intellectual production, fostering continuous growth and collective knowledge-building.
Notable Moments
Gerima's realization that his own education was a form of miseducation, particularly regarding Ethiopia's history and the role of colonial powers.
This personal revelation underscores the pervasive nature of colonial narratives and became the driving force behind his 30-year documentary, highlighting the need for individuals to actively decolonize their own understanding of history.
The anecdote of Black women in Mexico's Wajaka region desperately wanting their history documented, including an old man who insisted he was from Africa.
This illustrates the profound hunger within marginalized communities for their stories to be told and preserved, and serves as a powerful critique of filmmakers who prioritize 'stupid things' over narratives with deep cultural and historical value.
Quotes
"My trajectory literally is realigned by the politics and history of African-Americans in America that made me um you know literally uh be aware of at least you know proceed to continue to research where I come from myself which is Ethiopia."
"Is it to regurgitate and imitate white America through Hollywood that nurtured our very origin or is there another story we can offer?"
"We oppressed people think film is entertainment. They made us believe it's entertainment. Uh while you are being entertained, indoctrinated by white supremacy."
"This film is like that's why it takes 30 years because I myself started out not knowing much except the fact that my people defeated them at AdWa but I didn't know what what else including my father's book at my nose sitting in the shelves..."
"For me, the African people in America, the African-American people in America, their resistance history is the most attractive, the most inspirational aspect of their uh circumstances in my view. Their innovative resistance movement."
"I will die before I finish this film. There's no way I'm coming to It was very funny, but it's an invit. They were desperate to have their history documented."
Q&A
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