lectures

Long Juju: A feature documentary

Cambridge University

October 23

Jesus College Intellectual Forum

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"Long Juju" is a feature documentary in progress addressing the complex and enduring legacies of slavery. Mixed heritage. Black British. American. Nigerian. Journalist Keme Nzerem grew up proudly navigating several identities, but he was forced to confront all of them following a double whammy of revelations. First - that his white ancestors in South Carolina had been enslavers. Secondly, that his Nigerian clan - the Aro - had been involved in kidnap to supply the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. He embarked on a global quest across time and place to try and find, and connect with descendants of the people his ancestors had enslaved. Keme's journey began with his daughters in contemporary London navigating their own identities as mixed heritage teenagers, and via the lush creeks of the US deep South, ended in the ancient forests of South Eastern Nigeria. And core to this quest, not far from Nigeria’s former slave port of Calabar - the Long Juju of Arochukwu, a mystical site where Keme discovered the secret abductions organised by his clan that took place back in the days of slavery. The Long Juju is Keme’s story of discovery and healing. Please join Mia Bay (Professor of American and African American intellectual, cultural and social history) as she discusses what the Long Juju means for contemporary British identities with Keme, Jamila Smith (lawyer, family historian and one of the descendants Keme eventually connected with), Evelyn Osuagwu (Acting Director of Museums, Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments, and former curator of the Nigerian federal slave history museum in Calabar), and Tolu Stedford (Long Juju producer and co-director).