NC Film Screening
Saturday, November 3, 2007, 2:00 PM
St. Joseph’s Performance Hall at Hayti Heritage Center
Tickets $10 per person (no children under 10)Unity Productions Foundation presents A Prince Among Slaves, the true story of an African American hero - an African prince who was sold into slavery in the American South in 1788. His name was Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori, and he remained enslaved for forty years before ultimately regaining his freedom and returning to Africa.
Directed by Bill Duke (A Raisin in the Sun, A Rage in Harlem) and Andrea Kalin (Partners of the Heart). Supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Black Programming Consortium.
The film will be broadcast on PBS – but not before it premieres in NC!
Join us for this opportunity!
1788. The slave ship Africa set sail from Gambia, West Africa, its berth laden with a profitable but highly perishable cargo-hundreds of men, women and children bound in chains–headed to American shores. Six months later, a handful of survivors would find themselves for sale in Natchez, Mississippi. One of them, a 26-year-old man named Abdul Rahman Ibrahima would make a most remarkable claim to Thomas Foster, the tobacco farmer who purchased him at auction: As an African prince, highly educated and heir to a kingdom, his father would gladly pay gold for his return.
Abdul Rahman would not return to Africa for another 40 years. In that time he would toil on the plantation to make his owner rich. He would marry and father nine children. He would also become the most famous African in America, attracting the support of such powerful men as President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay. Later in life, he would travel widely throughout the northern states, speaking to huge audiences in an attempt to raise enough money to buy his children out of slavery. And finally, at the age of 67, he would return to Africa, only to fall ill and die just as word of his return reached his former kingdom. Through it all, Abdul would maintain his dignity and hope for the freedom of his people.
Sponsored by: Cultural Enrichment Services
African Studies Center UNC-CH
UNC Center for Civil Rights
Hayti Heritage Center
Contact/Tickets
Website: www.PrinceNC.com
Tickets $10. No children under 10.
Contact: Diane Morgan
919-889-9924 or 919-831-2830 or qadirah@excite.com
