We have now watched the first two episodes of the CBC television series called Enslaved. As the title implies, it is about the centuries-long slave trade which forcibly removed 12 million human beings from their homelands in Africa to become the property of slave-owners in the Americas. An estimated two million of these people didn't survive the perilous journey across the Atlantic because of disease or starvation or shipwreck.
The host of the episodes is actor Samuel Jackson (yes, the Pulp Fiction star) who is an American of Gabonian descent. He travels back to Gabon, the country of his ancestors, where he is made a member of the Benga clan.
Samuel L. Jackson and Benga Elders
The second episode is called Rationalization and portions of it explore the way European Christians justified trafficking in human lives, keeping their prisoners in deplorable conditions and engaging in depraved cruelty.
Jackson and a host visited what is now known as Elmina Castle in Ghana, a 15th century fortress where slaves were gathered before boarding ships. There is a church at the focal point of the central courtyard where slavers would worship a God they presumed would endorse their trade. The documentary also mentions the first pope to officially allow slavery.
It got me thinking of the things I've rationalized and justified through the years, sometimes with the notion that God approved. Repentance of our sins of omission and commission is important. Having the prayerful humility to have a change of heart and mind is essential, otherwise we are worshiping false gods rather than the God of compassion and redemption.
Enslaved is streaming on CBC Gem.
Elmina Castle and the Church in the Courtyard
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