Alex Haley's 1976 book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, along with its 1977 television adaptation, fundamentally changed global consciousness regarding slavery, African American history, and genealogy.
And now, the international celebration of "Roots" at 50 in Belize, to mark African Heritage month features several activities that will take place throughout February, including the opening of an art exhibition. Jomarie Lanza stopped by the exhibition today while a special guest stopped in to take an exclusive advance look. Here's that story.
This Sunday marks the beginning of African Heritage month, and The Bliss Centre is also celebrating 50 years of Roots the novel, written by Alex Haley, who also co-wrote the Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Haley's family is in Belize at the invitation of one of Malcom X's daughters, Ambassador Shabazz, and today they took a tour of the art exhibit curated by Gilvano Swasey titled "Behold the Roots that Unite Us"
Anne Haley, Niece of Alex Haley
"This is beautiful this art work is so lovely and its really we are being here to make clear the point that we are all united I mean people of African extraction all over the world are one and we share a common bond so we are so happy to be here and celebrate this beautiful artwork."
"My uncle researched the origin of his ancestor and it was born of oral history as a child he would be visiting his grandmother in Tennessee sitting on the front porch and listening to these older women his grandmother and her sisters talk about the African they would call him the African and that his name was Kinteh they remembered these stories that their father had told him, and his father had told him so through literally the telling of stories, uncle Alex grew up remembering them."
"And because of the research uncle Alex had done in the states, the library of congress and through the church of Latter Day Saints he knew Kunta Kinteh would have landed and it turned out he was on the Lord Ligonier or one of many slave ships that came so in knowing that he discovered for all African Americans that our origin was not in America that we came from somewhere else and it was a place of pride where we were kings and queens."
The exhibition revolves around the concept of Africa in Belize featuring the works of dozens of Belizean artists, who similarly found inspiration in their African Roots much like Alex Haley
Gilvano Swasey, Art Exhibit Curator
"Interestingly I went into an art career and all through the years that I have been setting up art exhibits I have seen the roots in me and in the artists themselves that I work with, Creole, Garifuna, Mestizo and Mennonite any culture that I have helped to document the art I have seen roots and I have seen Africa in Belize."
"When Ambassador Shabbaz asked me to assist with this the thing is I was at home and I just looked on the walls and I saw that we already had these whole collections, at the gallery I had stuff and I had connections with Pen Cayetano, all the way down to artist Jenira all the way down in Placencia."
"But what I am saying is that these art, sorry I am emotional, these art, these images, these feelings we have always had and I wanted to showcase that it was there the whole while sometimes when you see things every day you take it for granted and you don't recognize it and say oh its just my uncle but when you look more and listen to the stories like my aunt had said earlier the stories are powerful and that is what I grew up with. I grew up with Anansi story that is totally African and you learn about the empowerment you can have of Anansi being so small but being so tricky and so wise by using your mind and one of the pieces you will see and it struck me is there was a poster that was done for independence in 1981 and an image was used for Belize independence."
That image was the silhouette of a creole woman of African descent, a touching representation of how Africa can be found in all of us including in Belize.
Gilvano Swasey, Art Exhibit Curator
"So we keep forgetting who we are too and we were part of this big movement of the transatlantic slave trade and so forth but we keep separating ourselves from what is reality and what is the truth and what our identity is and I think this exhibit will show it and like I said we have artists who are Mestizo and they create these things they are attracted to it. It is part of them, all of us eat rice and beans and tamales where they think is Spanish is actually African, so there is so many things we have our plate, on our table and in our houses that we have lost where the origin is from and I hope this exhibit and I hope this whole event with the roots documentary and whatever else is happening for February for Black history month and for everyday in our lives I hope it opens your eyes."
The exhibition Opens on Sunday along with screenings of the miniseries, "Roots" that will be showing as a matinee every Sunday through the month of February.
This event was made possible through the collaboration of The Bliss Centre For Performing Arts Pilgrim Foundation And The Inherited Roots Project. The first showing of Roots the mini series begins at 3:00pm this Sunday.
