From Oroonoko to Cinque
Upon reading Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko it is hard to not think about the abolition of slavery in
the United States after the American Civil War (with the Thirteenth Amendment
to the Constitution in 1865) and the end of the shameful South African Apartheid
after the multi-racial democratic elections in 1994. Somewhere in the middle of
this “Black” road to Calvary which goes from the buying and exploitation of
African slaves in America on behalf of the Europeans –so realistically
portrayed by Aphra Behn— to their emancipation, is the story depicted and
narrated by Spielberg’s film Amistad. The dream Oroonoko had when he rebelled
against his owners, becoming one of the first martyrs, became a reality in
Cinque when he managed to convince the jury that Blacks have the same dignity
as Whites, as it is contemplated in the revolutionary text of the Declaration
of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness”
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