British writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch helping unearth more on slave trade
British writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch was at the UN headquarters in New York to present and discuss an episode of the documentary series Enslaved, as part of the Decade of African descent. In the episode titled, "Rationalization," she was part of a team tasked with unearthing how the slave trade was being justified at the time. In that process, she visited Ghana with the actor Samuel L. Jackson in search of answers.In this conversation with Africa Renewal's Franck Kuwonu, she spoke about her African heritage and her mission and passion for telling stories about people of African descent around the world. These are excerpts:
My name is Afua Hirsch. I am of Ghanaian heritage. Although I grew up in the United Kingdom, I've always felt a very strong pull towards my African heritage. I like telling the world stories that help people understand why so many people of African heritage have formed the diaspora. I like writing about our fate and our struggles, but also about our culture, our innovations and the genius that we have created.
Before I understood what my mission was, I felt it instinctively. It mainly manifested in my life through storytelling, as a journalist, filmmaker, writer and author. I've worked in different fields. I did an internship here at the United Nations when I was a student and was involved in international development.
I also worked for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa in Dakar, Senegal. Later, I became a barrister then went into journalism full-time. My career has taken many evolutions, but a consistent passion of mine has been social justice and working towards the uplifting of Black people everywhere.
Was there a specific event growing up in Europe that drove you to be actively conscious of the African side of your heritage and to chronicle the story of the African diaspora?
First, I wrote a book called Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, which was my way of documenting and processing those experiences and how I came to the consciousness that I have.
I'd say the first thing that really had a profound impact on me was the disconnect between the sense of my Ghanaian heritage, which was full of joy and pride, and the version of that legacy conveyed by British media--the main source of information at the time. The way Ghana and other African countries were portrayed by the media was unrecognizable from my experience of my culture through my family.
Second, my friends and peers, in an attempt to make me feel that I could assimilate, would say to me: "Don't worry, we don't even see you as Black." Their advice showed me how they, from a young age, had internalized the idea that blackness was bad and to discard blackness in favour of White, Eurocentric culture.
Third was my professional experience. When I was 14, I started working at the Voice Newspaper, which is the oldest Black newspaper in Britain. It was a very radical experience for me because, growing up in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s, you didn't see [many] black people in professions or owning businesses. It was unusual to see a newspaper where Black people were in control of telling their own stories; and where a young black woman like me could be nurtured.
Older, more experienced professionals viewed me as member of this community whom they wanted to support and see thrive. Their support had a transformative effect on me. I came to recognize that we had power over our own stories.
Further, I understood that we had a responsibility to the collective community to nurture and support our talents
I have never seen a documentary that so dynamically blends live action and comprehensive historical research.
There are two points you have mentioned that I would like to revisit: assimilation and defining yourself as a black person, even though you are of mixed heritage.
If you came from a family, as I did, that was educated in European institutions, there was a strong culture of wanting to assimilate. In the 1940s, my grandfather, who came from a village, was given a scholarship to Cambridge and an opportunity to work for the colonial administration.
When they moved to the United Kingdom, my mother and her siblings were educated in institutions that were prestigious and [majority] white. By contrast, there was a penalty for not assimilating. My great grandfather is of the same generation as Ghana's first Prime Minister and President of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah. He was put in jail for resisting the colonial system, while people like my grandfather were rewarded.
Now going back to my second point: Is being a Black woman how you choose to define yourself or do you just embrace how you are defined by society?
A lot of our conversations about blackness come from the necessity of defending ourselves against racism in societies where we're minorities. This is unfortunate, obviously, because it is a form of oppression. It also means that we don't have space in which to really question what our blackness means to us in the absence of racism. We often talk about race through the prism of racism, rather than as an experience of joy, or shared values or shared histories.
You were profiled in the book Daughters of Africa, which you also claim as your identity.
Well, I called my production company Born in Me Productions because my favorite farming dreamer quote is, "I am African not because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me." It means that everyone has the right to self-define in terms of how they see their identity.
In my case, I love and have a wonderful relationship with my father and am deeply curious about my White heritage. As a Jewish-German, my paternal grandfather was a refugee from Hitler's Germany. Yet, I have always felt a stronger connection to my blackness. It's something that I felt as a woman growing up with a Black mother, and it has shaped my ideas about what it means to be a woman. As I said, my relationship with my heritage has been a very joyful one. My curiosity for our history, culture, civilization, literature and customs has been deep my whole life.
We often talk about race through the prism of racism, rather than as an experience of joy, or shared values or shared histories.
I don't believe one's identity is a question of DNA. We know that race, as a construct, is not based on any genetic reality--this is true for me. When I talk about myself as a black woman, I'm talking about my mission. Through my black heritage, I feel connected to the global diaspora of black people and the very real struggle we face, and I feel compelled to apply my full energy and creativity to end this. So when I self-define as black, I'm aligning myself with this struggle.
Let's talk about the episode of Enslaved that you were part of and your interaction with actor Samuel L. Jackson. How was it for you to be working on that project?
It was a humbling experience. I'm somebody who takes self-education very seriously. I learned a lot working on this project. I read many stories about West Africa and Europe, but I knew relatively little about Brazil. We often talk about the history of the transatlantic slave trade in abstract terms because it happened almost entirely before the era of photography. I found the reenactment incredibly moving. It connected me to the history in a much more tangible way than before. It was really an opportunity for me to see, touch and feel that history.
In addition, the project reveals how recent this history is--how real it is, the humanity of it, and its effects on people's lives.
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In the episode you mentioned to Samuel L. Jackson, when the two of you were visiting Elmina Castle, that your great-grandfather (you found out later) was linked to the slave trade. "So, you have a skin in the game," Mr. Jackson told to you. How did you take it?
It's true in the sense that people don't always understand that the story of the slave trade is very complex. Many of us are descended from people who are oppressed by this history, but also people who in some ways benefited from it.
The presence of European slave traders corrupted the entire economic system of West Africa and everywhere affected by the triangular trade. There were people in many of our family lines who suffered as a result.
Also, many others at the periphery of slave trade found a way to profit. This undertaking obscured other forms of economic development, which is one of the legacies with which Africa still struggles.
This is why a lot of my anti-racism work involves talking with people who are not black about the importance of introspection education, honestly holding themselves to account and understanding privilege from a racial perspective. There are definitely ways in which I enjoy privilege as a mixed-race person. It's important that I'm willing to do the uncomfortable work of unpacking my role in this history and communicating how it affects me.
If you were to convince people to watch, not just this episode, but the whole series, how would you pitch it?
I have never seen a documentary that so dynamically blends live action and comprehensive historical research. It's a combination that can reach viewers who might not traditionally engage with history documentaries. We tell the story with integrity and deep research. Samuel L. Jackson's voice is authentic across the whole project, a high-risk diving adventure.
