Adanggaman Reviews

This beautifully filmed, but extremely painful examination of the African slave trade takes a difficult position: Rather than focusing on the white European superstructure, Ivory Coast director Roger Gnoan M'bala focuses on African complicity in the capture and selling of African people. Tragically, the circumstances of this brave film are rooted in well-documented fact; the story, however, set in 17th-century West Africa, is fictional. Hardheaded Ossei (Ziable Honore Goore Bi) refuses to bow to the wishes of his noble father, N'Go, and marry the bride who's been chosen for him; he'd rather marry his girlfriend, a "slave" of "low" birth. Beaten for his disobedience, Ossei packs his things and leaves, but he doesn't get far before he sees the nighttime sky above his village lit up by fire. Ossei races home, but he's too late: A marauding band of fearsome Amazon warriors have raided the village, rounding up most of the villagers and slaughtering the rest, including N'Go and Ossei's girlfriend. Among the captured is Ossei's mother (Albertine N'Guessan), whom he vows to rescue. Ossei follows the slave caravan to the distant village run by King Adanggaman (Rasmane Ouedraogo), a ruthless emperor who's made his fortune collaborating with European slave traders. There, the prisoners are held until their fates are decided: The young and strong will be traded to Dutch slavers for gold, guns and rum, while older prisoners will be sold to local farmers for livestock. (In one particularly heartbreaking scene, a chained man on the auction block is forced to dance for the approval of his prospective buyers — fellow Africans.) Children under six and the very sick will simply be killed. Ossei bravely approaches the devious Adanggaman and offers a trade: His own freedom for his mother's. Gnoan M'bala's tale reveals a harsh, ugly truth that's rarely discussed for fear that ultimate blame for the slave trade might be deflected from where it rightfully belongs, squarely on the shoulders of Europe and the developing United States. What the director does show is how slave traders exploited the all-too-human greed of African leaders. The Europeans' white faces are never actually seen, but their presence is felt in the Liverpool rum Adanggaman guzzles and the flintlocks the Amazons use to slay their brothers and sisters. And in the end, even the mightiest African emperor is devoured by the monster that once fed him.