Amistad Film Analysis

Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg, displays the fierce determination of 53 African abductees and their compelling desire to return home. Led by Cinqué (or Sengbe), a man longing to see his wife and son in Sierra Leone again, the men aboard the ship La Amistad rebelled against the Spanish slave traders who guarded them from escape. Using sugar cane knives stolen from cargo aboard the ship, the Africans defeated the gun-wielding Spaniards. With ambitions of returning to West Africa, they eventually ended up off the coast of Long Island instead of the initial destination, a Cuban port. Even as the native Africans adjusted to an entirely different life in America, their African identity still remained apparent throughout the film.
The Africans repeatedly reinforced their ethnic identity through their beliefs, lack of integration into industrial society, and desperate longing to return to West Africa. Realizing communication would be necessary to build a case, Roger Baldwin and Theodore Joadson searched for a Mende speaker. Shortly after finding James Covey (or Kai Nyagua), a current sailor of the Royal
However, African identity was not only limited to the ones who had recently been kidnapped from West Africa. In addition to the 43 remaining Africans, James Covey returned to Sierra Leone with the other Africans. While the Africans involved in the trial had not been gone for long, Covey had been taken from his home at the young age of twelve (IMAGES). After decades away from his village, he still had the desire to return. Life in a foreign environment did nothing to change any of their hopes of returning to West Africa. Amistad effectively depicted the desire of the Africans to be free, the course of action they were willing to take to get there, and how their ethnic identity was preserved throughout the whole