Twelve Years a Slave.

Influenced by the hype, I watched the movie, “Twelve Years a Slave” yesterday. And I wished I didn’t!

My problem was neither with the cast nor the acting but with the sad, depressing story-line. To make matters worse for my psyche, it was a true story. 

It was based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a “citizen” of New-York who was kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana. The rescue mission took place after he was kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before the American Civil War.

God knows I hate watching “slave-story” movies or those in the drama genre that focus primarily on tyranny, oppression and all other forms of human degradation. They get on my nerves. I detest stories of man inhumanity to man especially where a person is cast into a state of helplessness, passivity or (and) subjugation without the victims being able to muster the courage to fight back.

So far, the only exception to my dislike for movies on slaves applied to “DJango Unchained”. I went for it gleefully because of its carefully-woven plots around the personal determination of one man to reject slavery and work towards the elimination of its perpetrators in his own “little” way. Unlike “DJango Unchained” however, “Twelve Years a Slave” messed up my mood all day. I should have kept my distance.

The only consolation here is the possibility of an Oscar. Usually, it’s a movie that portrays a Black person in degrading and derogatory manners that attracts Oscars. In spite of his great performances in Malcolm X, The Hurricane and others, Denzel Washington never won any Oscar for “Best Actor” until he played the role of a crooked, rogue cop. And Halle Berry got “Best Actress” only when she bared her breasts and “everything” for those who wanted to satisfy their curiosity in Hollywood.  

Anyway, it will definitely not hurt to see some Oscars go to fellow Africans; Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o and Adepero Oduye for their brilliant performances in “Twelve Years a Slave”.