Throughout the study of world history, the ideology of “divide and conquer” is studied and glorified as the most effective strategy for colonialism. The institution of slavery and the transporting of Africans across the ocean to serve as slaves in the “New World” depict the most blatant use of coerced division in the Europeans efforts to completely enfeeble African slaves.
The middle passage portrays the Europeans efforts to divide African cultures by separating the slaves so that they were amongst those that spoke different languages and therefore could not communicate with them. The results of this “middle passage” experience left the African confused, alone, and virtually powerless in an environment foreign to him in every way. Amistad illustrates the result of not separating the Africans and attempting to “conquer” them without stripping them of the ability to communicate with one another. Without instituting the process of “cultural division” (and eventual extinction) resulting from the “middle passage”, efforts to conquer the African people were worthless.
Films like Amistad, and the few presentations and rhetoric that portray realistic viewpoints of Africa in the past and present, illustrate the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength of African people. They enable African Americans to be proud of their heritage, and eliminate the false pretenses set by many that African Americans have no connection to the “motherland”. Learning about Africa from coast to coast, and seeing the array of environments from the most primitive tribes, to the big cities and metropolitan areas annul many whites efforts to continue to enfeeble African Americans by portraying the entire continent as “uncivilized”. By attempting to continue to divide African Americans from their people in Africa, whites continue to conquer them, by controlling their minds.