Codifying Memories through Film. Of Dance, Slaves, and Forced Migrants of the Past in the Western Indian Ocean

Before the exponential diffusion of modern video broadcasting media, the history of forced migrations within Africa was mainly transmitted through the spread of individual and collective memories. Filming, instead, agglomerates memories and images by producing new overarching and often convincing interpretations of the past. This article describes how and why a documentary video on slavery in the Indian Ocean was produced and the reasons behind its narrative form. Stemming from the urge of people regarded as descendants of slaves to have their ancestral dances documented as proof of their origins, this documentary is the result of a long-range ethnographic encounter spanning time and space from the Juba River in Somalia to Malawi and the Niasa region of Mozambique. It was only audiovisual equipment like video cameras and computers that made such an amazing encounter possible.