Roger Gnoan M'Bala's Andanggaman examines the role Africans played in the slave trade.

The Slavery That Stayed
in Africa

by Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

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"Andanggaman" centers on the African slave trade without ever leaving Africa and without ever showing a White person. Director Roger Gnoan M'Bala's focus is squarely on the foul treatment and enslavement of Africans by other Africans. Europe's initiation and domination of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is only referred to in small ways. The focus of this story is on the dangers at home.

On the one hand, I thought of settling into my seat and dismissing "Andanggaman," which like many African films was funded in Europe, as part of a revisionist history. On the other hand, I was willing to see if the film told the other side of the story that we is also know is true: that many Africans were complicit in cooperating with Whites to capture and sell other Africans—usually members of rival ethnic groups and nations. What I got, though, was neither naked revisionism or a narrative about African collaboration. Instead, M'Bala tells a simply produced story that is fascinating, gripping but still troubling. The emotional intensity is high. The social upheaval is palpable.

Set in the 17th century, the story centers on Ossei, a young man who, over the fierce objections of his father of noble blood, loves and wants to marry a slave girl in their village. The father and other village elders have another bride in mind and they try to force the young man to have and marry the chosen woman. But rather than give into their demands, Ossei runs away from the village. As it happens, on the very night that he leaves, the village is set upon by a group of fierce slavers from the tyrant Andanggaman. The slavers are highly trained, fierce and merciless warriors who are all women. The women wear bright orange clothing (I guess they weren't worrying about camouflage!) and mask-like painting on their faces. Wielding spears and machetes with confidence and skill, they aren't afraid to take on men one-on-one.

In the raid, many are killed and the rest are marched off in shackles and chains. As he leaves the village, Ossei hears the commotion in the far distance and hurries back. But when he arrives, the captives have been taken. He determines to find the group but when he does, he winds up a captive himself.

From here, "Andanggaman" echoes a theme film familiar in many African films—life under a crazed tyrant. Andanggaman demands tribute and slaves from various provinces and sells slaves to other Africans. One man sells for something like a few sheep and bottles of rum. And, it is at this point that the story takes a twist to show us more possibilities of life under slavery for those who never made the voyage through the Middle Passage.

"Andanggaman" feels more like a fable than realism. It presents moments of courage and even romance. Though it does not deal directly with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, it points Africa in that eventual direction. At the same time, it focuses on the destruction of Africa more from within than from without.

Screened at Filmfest D.C. 2001.

-- May 17, 2001

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