BBC World Service: Monday Strand
Monday: Gay Film in India, Isabel Allende, Rankin, Peter Porter.Duration: 28 minutes
The Strand
Monday 26 April 2010, still available.
ISABEL ALLENDE:
"Islands Beneath the Sea"
Her first novel, 'The House of the Spirits', began as a letter to her dying grandfather. It became an international bestseller and has been followed by 17 subsequent books, often drawing on her personal experience to examine the challenges faced by her female protagonists. Her latest novel, 'Island Beneath the Sea', is an exploration of slavery, motherhood and sacrifice, set against the backdrop of Haiti's historic slave revolt. She reveals what sparked her interest in Haiti (and which Hollywood actor she used as inspiration for one of her characters).
-a rush transcript -
by Nana Akyea Mensah
HARRIET GILBERT: Now, rejoice O English-speaking fans of Isabel Allende, her latest novel has just been translated!
The Chilean Allende leapt into readers hearts with her very first book, "The House of the Spirits", an exploration of South America's post-colonial traumas through a somewhat fantastical family saga. And her exuberant story-telling skills plus her real concern with politics and history have kept her on the world's bestseller list since.
Her new novel, "Islands Beneath the Sea" opens in 18 century Haiti or San Domang as it is then known, and it drops us into a cauldron of simmering, frequently boiling over violence. The country's massive prosperity, as the richest in the Caribbean, depends entirely on the African slaves who worked on the sugar plantations under particularly brutal owners and overseers. So it is scarcely surprising that at last the slaves rebel, putting the slave heroine of Allende's novel, Zarite, in a painful position of having to rescue her master, not to save him, but to save the child she has had by him. Isabele Allende reads:
ISABEL ALLENDE: I found him limp with liquor lying on his back. His mouth gaping open with a thread of saliva down his chin. Suddenly, all the revulsion that I had for him seized me and I thought I was going to vomit. My presence and the light took an instant to penetrate the fog of the cognac. He waked with a cry, and with one quick move pulled out the pistol he kept beneat the pillow. When he recognised me, he lowered the gun but he didn't put it down.
"I have come to propose something to you Maître", I told him.
He sat on the edge of the bed with the pistol on his knees, as I explained that within hours rebels would attack Salazar, there would be a slaughter and fire, and that was why we had to flee immediately with the children, or tommorw we would all be dead.
HARRIET GILBERT: Isabel Allende reading from "Islands Beneath the Sea", in which a complex, often interelated cast of characters, African, European, mixed race, is driven from San Domang to New Orleans, where the tentacles of slavery still reach them. When I spoke to Isabele Allende from San Francisco where she lives now I asked why she would be interested in slavery as a subject?
ISABEL ALLENDE: I wasn't at the beginning that was not my intention. I wanted to write really a novel about New Orleans. And my idea was something about Pirates of the Caribbean. And then I ended up studying the history of New Orleans and found out that in the 1800s, 10,000 refugees that had fled from Haiti went to New Orleans and changed the flavour of the city. They were French colonisers, white, with their white families and also their families of colour, their African concubines and their children of colour. When I started doing the research I realised I needed to find out why these people had come and then I started studying about Haiti and I got totally involved in slavery and the plantations and the history of the only slave revolt in the world that succeeded.
HARRIET GILBERT: One of the things your novel shows is that when they did rebel, they themselves, the Africans, were almost as vicious and cruel to the white slave owners and to their overseers and so on, and also to they could, also be pretty cruel to their own people, they would resell them into slavery, for instance?
Yes, not in the time of Toussaint L'Ouverture but afterwards.
HARRIET GILBERT: He was the big slave rebel, the rebel leader.
ISABEL ALLENDE: Yeah, but after he was arrested by Napoleon, De Saline was in charge and he was very cruel and after sometime he started selling his own people to the pirates of the Caribbean who would then sell them in the United States where trade was forbidden so you couldn't bring new slaves from Africa - so they became very expensive, and so, De Saline was selling them to buy weapons.
HARRIET GILBERT: Were you at all uneasy about showing in the novel, the unattractive side of the slave rebellion?
ISABEL ALLENDE: No, because I totally understand it. The brutality that they had endured made them brutal because that's what happens. So, I wasn't at all uneasy because I don't think that any race is more virtuous than another one.
HARRIET GILBERT: From the research you've done in this novel, do you have a sense that this particularly cruel history of Haiti, of San Domang, has in some way coloured the country now, the 20th - 21st Haiti?
ISABEL ALLENDE: Haiti was isolated. Isolated by Europe and then isolated also by the United States. It is a country that has been... the land has been devastated. And the it was betrayed also by its own people
It has a history of corruption and betrayal.
Today in Haiti there are three hundred thousand slave children that are sold or given away by their families because they can't feed them and they work as slaves in households, and these kids could be five, six years old and this is happening today. By the way, not only in Haiti, it happens in many countries.
HARRIET GILBERT: You talk about the fact that the Africans in Haiti could come from all over the continent but one thing that appears to unite in the novel is voodoo, its religion?
ISABEL ALLENDE: Yes, that came from Africa and was blended into other beliefs because some of the African slaves were Muslims and others were animists and so they had different beliefs but this voodoo thing really was extraordinary religion. When these people would go to battle, they would feel invincible because the spirits of the dead, that came from the Island Beneath the Sea, from Guinea, from paradise, they would come up to fight with them. For each man that was fighting against the troops of Napoleon, there were ten thousand spirits. So they felt they couldn't lose.
HARRIET GILBERT: What came across to me, finally the most powerfully, was the way that slavery affected the whole institution of motherhood. You have throughout this novel, women trying to, or actually succeeding in killing their babies rather than allow them to become slaves. Was that really so common?
Apparently in Haiti it was. It was very exceptional because there the conditions were so brutal that the mothers would rather have their babies dead and they truly believed that they would go to the island beneath the sea and live their happy lives, and that would be better than having them serving the master in the plantation.
HARRIET GILBERT: I mean, there is an enormous complex of offspring some of whom as the result of rape by a slave owner, some of whom have been bought up by slaves even though they are not their children, and I just thought the whole way in which parenthood and relations between parents and children resolve themselves was so very interesting in this book?
ISABEL ALLENDE: Well the thing with slavery and this is something that is not often spoken of, is that incest was very prevalent because at that time rape was a crime only if the woman involved was white. If she was a woman of colour there was no crime. And you could have fathers having sex with their daughters, I mean, you wouldn't talk about it, but it was very common. And that created very complicated family structures. And sometimes what happened is that the master would be able to emancipate the mother of the children after she was thirty years of age, but he could not emancipate the children. So the children would become that woman's slaves until they were of age to be emancipated.
Join the campaign, Justice for Kofi Adu-Brempong on Facebook!
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Events: Another demonstration coming soon!
For More Information:
Dave Schneider- (407)-267-1419;
Justin Wooten - (352)-213-6519
BACKGROUND TO THE CASE:
A compilation of comments and newspaper reports edited by Nana Akyea Mensah, the Odikro
Kofi Adu-Brempong, a 35-year-old Ghanaian post-graduate student pursuing a Ph.D degree in Urban Geography, and working as a teaching assistant at the University of Florida, USA, who could barely walk without the aid of a walking cane, was shot with a bean bag gun three times, and shot in the face at close range with an M-4 Bushmaster, a military assault rifle, by the University Police Department (UPD) in his own apartment at Cory Village, on the campus of the University of Florida (U-F) for "resisting arrest" in an ordinary noise ordinance violation. All these occurred within 40 seconds of entry into the premises of a mentally and physically disabled, 5 foot 4 inch person by five able-bodied and supposedly "well-trained" police officers.Adu-Brempong's research areas include urban geography, urban and regional analysis and planning and spatial analysis and modeling with a research topic in urban spatial change in Ghana and implications for environmental sustainability, according to UF's Web site. On the professional network LinkedIn, Adu-Brempong lists his education at UF from 2005 through 2009. Another site where students rate professors is complimentary of Adu-Brempong. One entry from November 2009 said he likes to be called "The True Son of Africa" and is "an amazing guy." "He's a really great guy to just talk to after class and he really enjoys teaching," the entry stated.
Police Chief Linda Stump said officers had also been in contact with Adu-Brempong on Monday, but details on that contact were not immediately available. Stump said the incident began at 8:17 p.m. and marked the first time in at least a quarter century that a campus office had fired on someone on campus. "I do know that our officers had an on-again, off-again dialogue with him until about 10 p.m.," Stump said. "When we lost contact with him, our officers made the decision to enter his apartment." Once inside, officers said they found Adu-Brempong wielding a pipe and a large knife. The "pipe" in question was his walking cane!
Adu-Brempong had difficulty walking and used a cane, according to his neighbors and students. One neighbor said Adu-Brempong parked his car in the grass next to his apartment because he had problems carrying groceries from the nearby parking lot. One student who took his geography class last semester, Daniel Lynch, said Adu-Brempong suffered from ailments related to a childhood bout of polio. He said Adu-Brempong was hunched over when he walked and relied on the cane to get around. "He called himself the three-legged son of Africa," Lynch said.
After about two hours of oral negotiations (in which UF's understaffed mental health counselors were not involved), during which they confirmed that Adu-Brempong was alone and threatening no one, the police kicked down his door. Five officers entered the apartment. In less than half a minute (21 seconds!), they shocked Adu-Brempong three times with a taser, shot him twice with a beanbag shotgun, and blasted him in the face with an M4 military assault rifle. An ambulance took him to UF-affiliated Shands Hospital, where he remains with a bullet lodged dangerously near his spinal cord and unable to speak due to mouth injuries.
Dispatcher calls show that officials requested an ambulance at Corry Village just before 10 p.m. and that the incident initially reported stated the patient had shot himself and had facial wounds, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office reported. The call then stated that a knife and a gun were involved. Another call came in two minutes after 10 p.m. and was listed as an assist another agency with university police requesting that Sheriff's Office forensics investigators respond to the scene. This call reported that the patent had a gunshot and stab wounds and that this was believed to be a suicide attempt, said Sheriff's Office spokesman Art Forgey. However, the call taker later amended the report saying that this was an officer-involved shooting.
Adu-Brempong has been charged with aggravated assault on an officer and resisting an officer with violence. For over three weeks, he was under continuous guard by two county deputies before his family posted a $10,000 bond to prevent him from being transferred to the overcrowded local jail. Reported medical costs already approach $300,000.
As UF Student Fernando Figueroa stated during a recent demonstration on Democracy Now!: “We’re demanding that all charges be dropped against Kofi, because they’re trying to do, you know, kind of something what’s called extortion. Like they’re saying, ‘Oh, we’ll drop the charges if you don’t file a lawsuit.’ And so, we’re demanding that all the charges be dropped and that more severe action be taken against the offending officer, Keith Smith.”
Media reports include: "The officer who shot Kofi Adu-Brempong has been identified as Keith Smith. He has previously been reprimanded for an incident in which he allegedly harassed and threw eggs at African Americans while off-duty." Three Gainesville police officers received written warnings for their actions in these incidents, according to the city police department. Smith, hired in November 2005, received a verbal warning for his involvement and was removed from his recently assigned position to the narcotics task force, university police reported at the time.
Meanwhile instead of compensating Kofi for his totally undeserved and avoidable injuries, they have proceeded to charge Kofi! Keith Smith had one month of leave of absence and is back to the police force since 2nd April! Adu-Brempong is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and five counts of resisting an officer with violence, according to Alachua County court records. Police, in their arrest report, alleged Adu-Brempong threatened officers, both verbally and by his actions. Officers who were involved were Keith Smith, William Sasser, James Mabry, Stacy Ettel, and William Ledger, the report stated.
According to Brandon Kutner, the President of PBA, says the police did nothing wrong even though they knew about Kofi's mental condition the previous night!
Jamel Lanee: "David, the Police Benevolent Association is representing the five officers who were involved in the shooting on March 2nd. The investigation was in the hands of the F-D-L-E but was completed on Friday and turned over to the State Attorney. PBA members say they believe the results in the investigation in a comment Adu-Brempong made to a local newspaper will show the officers acted accordingly and by the book!"
Brandon Kutner: "Reference was made to the metal rod being a cane he used, errh, to walk possibly, urh, because of his, errh, childhood disease with polio, errh, by his own admission and by his own statement given to the Sun, he was lucid that night, urrhm, he knowingly pulled off that, errh, rod off his computer desk and swung it on the officers." Click here to: Watch Video
As Fernando Figueroa, of Gainesville SDS noted: “We will not let up until we gain justice for Kofi. We are taking a stand against police brutality and racism on our campus and throughout the country... It is astounding to see so few reporters covering the point blank shooting of an African man in the face here. This is the same campus where you could not walk ten feet without bumping into a reporter or TV crew following a white student’s famous ‘Don’t tase me bro!’ incident.”
TAKE ACTION!
Please, join the Coalition Against Police Brutality, Justice for Kofi Adu-Brempong to demand:
- UPD drops all charges against Kofi
- An Independent Grand Jury investigations into the shooting.
- Implementation of an independent review board for the UPD
- Indefinate unpaid suspension for the shooter, Keith Smith, pending investigation.
- Improvement of mental health and crisis services on campus to prevent future incidents.
- Elimination of UPD's Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT).
Coalition members include Students for a Democratic Society, African Student Liason, Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), NAACP, Graduate Assistants United (GAU), International Socialist Organisation (ISO), Amnesty International. There have been three on-campus protests and marches. The first one was on Tuesday April 6th, the second 16th March, the last one was on Tuesday 20th March, 2010. The students of the University of Florida just returned from spring break (when the shooting occurred).Updates on further organizing, Adu-Brempong's condition, and more are regularly posted at the "Justice for Kofi Adu-Brempong" Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=336549896343 (Facebook membership not required to view).
For More Information:
Dave Schneider- (407)-267-1419;
Justin Wooten - (352)-213-6519
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Fellow Ghanaians, Africans and citizens of a free and democratic world! Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere! As UF Student Fernando Figueroa stated during a recent demonstration on Democracy Now!:
“We’re demanding that all charges be dropped against Kofi, because they’re trying to do, you know, kind of something what’s called extortion. Like they’re saying, ‘Oh, we’ll drop the charges if you don’t file a lawsuit.’ And so, we’re demanding that all the charges be dropped and that more severe action be taken against the offending officer, Keith Smith.”
It has been said that the best way to pray is to speak to yourself, and the best way to speak to the authorities is to speak to your neighbours, family and friends about your problem and ask them to do the same thing! Whenever justice is not only fair, but also not seen by all to be fair, it is no longer a legal case, it becomes a political problem. This is the time for all of us to come out with original and creative ways of raising public awareness to this case if our own media is failing us. We should cry our own cry and shout our own SHOUT!
My attention to this case was on the 17th of March during my routine watch of Democracy Now! A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 800 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S. Slowly but surely, we will be heard! I did not just want to be a spectator of this struggle but a participant in it, even though I reside far away on the other side of the Atlantic. I followed it up with a google search and it was easy to find the group on facebook.
I simply realised that not many Ghanaians are yet aware of what is going on, that, it was going to take a lot of time each time someone decided to know what is going on enough to make informed responses. I decided to do a fact sheet and a regular news updates as my contribution for not being able to attend the Rally at the Plaza! This is therefore not an official site of Justice4Kofi, it is a blog of an active member. So far as one is being sensitive to the good work being done by the coalition, we can all play a part in getting the message across!
Over to you!
JUSTICE4KOFI NOW!!!"
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pe
Blog: http://nanaakyeamensah.blo
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheOdik
Latest News:
UF shooting exposes mental health issues
From Haiti to Kofi, a busy spring semester at UF
Public video of UFPD shooting of Adu-Brempong
Judging by the background of this guy, the given circumstances, the obvious overpower the cops' had over the suspect, the lack of rage of the suspect, the lack of a truly dangerous weapon, and the fact that he was disabled to the point of needing a cane to walk...
I seriously doubt the cops needed to shoot two AR-15 rounds at this guy and blow his fucking jaw out of his skull.
I want to see a cop go to jail over this.
Link to Gainesville Sun story
Replies: 8 — Last Post April 20 2:51pm by Dedalus
Post edited at 1:58 pm on April 20, 2010 by redhotchilis64
News from AM850.com
Shooting Video Released and Rally Held
Posted: Wednesday April 21, 2010
ON YOUTUBE:
Video Alert for: Kofi Adu-Brempong