Secrets of the Dead: Slave ship mutiny
A PBS documentary about Cape Town's history as a slave colony and the famous revolt on one of the ships from Madagascar offers much to think through in terms of the relationship between South Africa and the Caribbean, North America and South America.
Here’s the introductory part of the documentary’s transcript:
Narrator: Hidden in these tattered books is a story about one man’s fight for freedom.
His battle took place nearly 250 years ago, on a slave ship bound for Cape Town, South Africa.
A free man named Massavana… enslaved through deception… and determined to return to his home any way he can, seizes a notorious Dutch slave ship.
Onboard, a life and death struggle between slaves and sailors takes place.
There can only be one victor.
Today, the ship lies buried under these waves at Cape Agulhas, the southern-most tip of Africa.
This slave ship mutiny has been largely forgotten.
But now, three people are uncovering these remarkable events and learning the story of Massavana, the man now being hailed as one of South Africa’s first freedom fighters.
Professor Nigel Worden studies the history of Cape Town under Dutch rule and is researching how and why the rebellion happened.
Slave descendent Lucy Campbell wants to know: who Cape Town’s slave ancestors were… and how they struggled for their freedom.
And marine archaeologist Jaco Boshoff is hunting for the remains of the slave ship at the heart of this story.
It was called: The Meermin
It sailed from Madagascar in January 1766 with more than one hundred and forty enslaved people aboard.
This would be its final voyage.
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