To mark this important UN Day and as part of its broader campaign to raise awareness for this year’s International Year of African Descent, the United Nations Information Centre held a screening of “Slave Routes: A Global Vision” at its office in Barton, Canberra.
The film is part of UNESCO’s Slave Route Project and its compilation of images, historical narration, and interviews with experts from all continents, shows how African slaves and their descendants, in contrast to incorrect “racial theories, helped shape the modern world.
In his introductory remarks, the UNIC Director, Christopher Woodthorpe said, that the film was also a strong portrayal of a gross injustice that was perpetrated for over 400 years, which had unfathomable consequences then, and enormous repercussions today.
He quoted the film’s makers when he said that ‘The film’s main objectives are to give a global vision of the different dimensions of this tragedy and raise crucial questions regarding its consequences in modern societies in order to come to terms with this collective memory’.
He said that it was time to break the silence and in the words of Martin Luther King stated, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’
Those attending the screening included members of the Diplomatic Corps, civil society, academia, government and university students. It was obvious at the end of the screening that the power of the film had left the viewers beset by thought.
Photo: UNIC Director introducing the film “Slave Routes: A Global Vision”.