12 Years A Slave

JAMAICA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

A RESEARCH PAPER DONE ON HOW THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE CAN BE USED AS A TOOL IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL WORK

A RESEARCH PAPER DONE ON HOW THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE CAN BE USED AS A TOOL IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL WORK SUBMITTED TO

MR. GARNETT ROPER, PHD

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE

READING THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE

BY

SASHA LEE WILMOT

KINGSTON, JAMAICA

NOVEMBER 23, 2012
The film 12 Years A Slave, though disturbing as it was, is a film of the harsh reality many of our forefathers had to go through many years ago. The film focuses on particular Black American character whose name in the movie is Solomon Northup. He was tricked and lured away from his family and home in Saratoga Springs, New York to Washington DC by
two American men who claimed they were Artists. He was then drugged and enslaved. He was stripped of his identity and sold to plantation owners. After being detained in Washington for some time, Solomon was then ‘shipped’ to New Orleans to be sold as a slave. He eventually ended up in Louisiana after his first slaver sent him away to another plantation owner.
There are various themes I see coming out of this film.
Injustice, Slavery as a weapon of murder, both literally and figuratively and many more. However, the main theme I see coming out is the struggle for survival. All throughout the film for almost every character, especially those enslaved, there is a constant struggle for survival. This was first highlighted when one of the slaves that was ‘shipped’ with Solomon told him that if he wanted to stay alive he should keep his mouth shut and let no one know that he can read and write. Other instances that depict this theme also is seen in the way that Solomon accepts his position as a slave outwardly and works diligently to please his masters while constantly trying to find ways and means of escape. It is seen where even the slave patsy, a young Black American girl works hard to please her master both out in the fields picking cotton and also on the ground beneath her master, availing herself to him for his sexual pleasure. Even the American Overseer who eventually helped John gain his freedom was struggling to survive. He worked for the slaver not because he supported the practice of slavery but because he needed to work to
survive.
This theme is relevant in our society today because still many persons especially in the Jamaican society and the Caribbean society at large struggle with being slaves, slaves of their own minds. Our own legend of reggae music, Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley), said in one of his songs, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.” This song entitled Redemption Song is a reflection that tells a story of our Jamaican history. In this song even, the theme ‘The Struggle for Survival’ stands out. Bob starts the song by telling who captured them and sold them as well as where they took them from. In the fourth line he says, “But my hands were made strong by the hands of the Almighty. We forward in this generation triumphantly”. Many Caribbean Nationals are the victims of mental slavery. Our ancestors were slaves and so it has been passed down from generation to generation to think of ourselves as beneath the man or woman that has a lighter skin complexion. Some of us were made to believe that we were born to do menial jobs because that’s what our parents and grandparents did. In the early nineties only light skinned persons would be allowed to work in banks in Jamaica and even now that is still evident among us.
We have created a system of Social Stratification in our society where we think that only persons of certain ‘calibre’ can live in certain areas of our land or drive cars or own houses. We treat the ‘white man’ better than how we treat our own. Caribbean people feel more comfortable to go to America and work as housekeepers or babysitters there rather than to do the same thing in their own country. I once heard an interview on television with a female who was bleaching her skin to look brown. When asked why she bleached her skin, she told the reporter that to reach somewhere in life ‘yuh haffi brown and look good’. She then continued to say that black is ugly. She actually believed what she was saying. Until we get rid of the mentality that we are ‘less than’ or that our skin colour defines who we are and until we stop limiting our abilities and stop ‘classing ourselves as upper class, middle class or lower class then the cycle of mental slavery will never be broken.