Another Roy T. Anderson film makes American TV debut
Published:Monday | June 19, 2023 | 12:35 AMPaul H. Williams/Gleaner Writer
On Saturday, June 3, Queen Nanny Legendary Maroon Chieftainess, Roy T. Anderson’s second full-length documentary, premièred on American television via The African Channel. Last Saturday, Akwantu: The Journey debuted on the said channel at 1 p.m. EDT.
“Very gratifying to see my work on TV,” Anderson told The Gleaner the day after.
It is Anderson’s first full-length documentary, which made its world première in June 2012 in the Maroon village of Charles Town, Portland, in celebration of the anniversary of Jamaica’s 50th Independence. Since then, it has been screened at the United Nations and many other notable venues, and has picked up some awards along the way.
Anderson, a Hollywood stuntman, is a descendant of the Accompong Maroons and was born in St Elizabeth. “This film is a result of the search for my roots. What started out as an innate sense of curiosity grew into a new-found sense of pride, as I began to learn more and more about my ancestors, brave men and women that history refers to as Maroons. There were many days during my research when I was simply not able to contain myself. As I uncovered new and fascinating information, I was driven to find out more. From there, things just really took on a life of its own. It has given birth to Akwantu: the Journey,” he writes in the film’s discussion guide.
And, in speaking with The Gleaner about this latest achievement, Anderson said, “I often refer to the Jamaican Maroons as the ‘Spartacus’ of their time, with one exception, the Spartacus Revolt that happened more than 2,000 years ago was crushed by the Roman Empire. The Maroons, on the other hand, engaged the mighty British Army from 1655-1739 and were victorious.
“Poorly armed and outgunned, what the Maroons were able to achieve is nothing short of amazing. As a proud descendant of these Africans, their unheralded achievement is something that I celebrate, unlike Spartacus, who is glorified by Hollywood. And so, for me, I’m truly grateful to The Africa Channel for providing a much-needed platform for these under-represented stories to be heard.”
The story of the Maroons is the story of the evolution of the Jamaican people. Those courageous men and women left the plantations of the brutal institution of British slavery. They retreated to the hills and valleys to create their own space and add meaning to their lives in a land to which they were forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa. Some were born here.
The British were not content with the fact that these defiant people were out of their clutches, and so they unrelentingly pursued them. War was unofficially declared, and the Maroons used guerilla warfare strategies to wear down the resolve of the British, who eventually called a truce, which culminated in the signing of two peace treaties, one in 1738 and the other in 1739, making the Maroons of Jamaica the first set of formerly enslaved people in the Western Hemisphere to officially gain their freedom.
The self-redemptive story of the Jamaican Maroons says much about who we are as a people – determined, resilient, and triumphant. “That fighting spirit makes me extremely proud, and it lives on in me. And that is why I felt the story of Jamaica’s most famous but least-known people had to be told. It was my aim to make Akwantu: The Journey not only a stunning visual piece, but also a study in man’s desire to remain free and to use all the tools at his disposal in pursuit of that necessary human need for freedom,” Anderson writes.
The shooting of the film took Anderson to Ghana, where many of our ancestors originated, to put the story in context, because the story of the Maroons did not start on the slavery-days plantations. Footage was also captured in Jamaica, Canada and the United States.
“As I toured the Cape Coast Castle dungeons and took that symbolic walk through the ‘Door of no return’ to the beach where the boats awaited, I could only imagine the anguish felt by my ancestors. For perspective, I boarded a motorboat that sailed the Gulf of Guinea. The castle disappeared from view as the boat sailed farther away. For my ancestors, this would have been their last snapshot of their beloved Africa as they started out on the dreaded Middle Passage to an uncertain future,” Anderson said.