It Matters How We Choose to Remember: A Story of Bones

Documentary Film Poster -2022 Tribeca Film Festival NYC Source: PTFilms

By Peggy King-Jorde ‘96

A Story of Bones is a 90-minute documentary and a call to action for change. In addition to the screenings scheduled in June for members of the British Parliament and Africa's most prominent film festival (Z.I.F.F.) Zanzibar International Film Festival, 

Contributing to a feature-length documentary is new for me, and I've discovered the incredible opportunities for building impact around the issues important to my work in preservation. I am the consulting producer, impact producer, and protagonist in the British documentary A Story of Bones, and since the world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, the reception to the film has been overwhelming. To highlight a few, we've presented at venues in London Barbican & Conduit, Human Rights Film Festivals in Berlin, the Hague, and the U.S. 

The story unfolds on the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, a tiny remote island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, home to just under 5000 people. Most famous as Napoleon's place of exile after being defeated at Waterloo, the island still hosts Bonaparte's empty grave – a symbol of Britain's former Empire and colonial past. When the rapid construction of an airport access road resulted in the desecration of a massive burial ground for 10,000 enslaved Africans, it caught the attention of two young British documentary filmmakers, Joseph Curran, and Dominic de Vere. They had come to the island to document a different story. Still, as they learned more about the hidden history around the so-called "Liberated African Burial Ground," their film project took a new direction.

Annina van Neel, left and Peggy King Jorde filming on location in St. Helena, UK. Source: PTFilms

In 2008 the U.K. Government ordered the excavation of 325 articulated human remains to make way for an airport access road. The unmarked graves were host to thousands of enslaved Africans retrieved from the hulls of slave ships en route to the Americas between 1840 and 1860s. The remains were exhumed, placed in boxes, and moved into a storage room in the wing of the island's prison facility. Records reveal that many victims of slavery were from the Congo. Artifacts were exported to Liverpool for approximately ten years before returning to St. Helena. Unfortunately, extracting cultural resources from a community to conduct research, interpret and produce publications with little or no meaningful engagement or consent by the descendant community is a practice that continues to marginalize descendant voices from the dominant historical narratives. The treatment of St. Helena's African Burial Ground is not unique. 

Peggy King Jorde with Annina van Neel- On location in St. Helena, UK reviewing maps. Source: PTFilms

The story's arc centers around Namibian ex-pat Annina van Neel, who arrives four years later in Saint Helena as the airport project's Chief Environmental Officer. Annina is tasked with handling any additional human remains unearthed during construction, but over time she faces increasing resistance and cultural indifference to respecting the burial ground. She eventually found an ally in me as a mentor. For more than a year, we communicated by email and Skype collaborating on strategies to preserve and memorialize a burial ground recognized as the most significant trace of the Transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage.   

My work on the New York African Burial Ground was born of a similar struggle 30 years earlier. The burial site gained significant international attention, and I served at the helm to implement plans for honoring the memory of thousands of enslaved and free Africans buried in Lower Manhattan. It ignited a grassroots movement to reclaim African burial grounds in the U.S. and abroad. The lessons learned were transformative and have informed my practice. 

Annina van Neel, left and Peggy King Jorde in a cotton field in Peggy's hometown, Albany, Georgia. Source: PTFilms

When I made the journey to Saint Helena in 2018, I was astounded by the size and significance of the burial ground and how it unambiguously placed the island at the center of the Middle Passage, tying the British Empire to the institution of slavery in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Throughout my week-long visit, I spoke with community and government stakeholders who sometimes seemed hard-pressed to reconcile their sense of "Britishness" while acknowledging their collective history linked to the transatlantic slave trade. 

After returning from St. Helena, I organized a U.S. tour for Annina to visit the New York African Burial Ground and meet critical stakeholders pivotal to the site's preservation. The tour culminated in a road trip through the American South, including stops in Atlanta, Montgomery, Alabama, my native Albany, Georgia, Savannah, St. Helena, SC, and Charleston. We visited the tangible reminders of the slave economy directly tied to the American South and Britain. The journey would help contextualize global narratives around slavery beyond the insular and geographical boundaries of St. Helena. 

ASOB Film Team: (L-R) Bankey Ojo-Composer, Dominic de Vere-Director, Joseph Curran-Director, Peggy King Jorde- Consulting Producer & Protagonist, Annina van Neel-Impact Producer & Protagonist. Source: Getty Images

Annina returned to the island with a renewed vision, inspired by our plan to join forces in a global campaign building awareness around the burial site. Stateside, I was well-positioned to conduct outreach & impact in several ways. In 2019 MP David Lammy and MP Diane Abbott accepted my request to meet in their London offices to solicit support. I used my platform as a keynote speaker at a United Nations Slavery Remembrance event and advanced media outreach. The documentary, once completed, would be a vital tool for our impact campaign. Still, we had not anticipated that the New York premiere of A Story of Bones would prompt Island leadership to expedite the reburial after 14 years in storage, however without significant participation by the African diaspora and without observing ceremonial rites or rituals. The ceremony was inconsistent with the approved master plan that Annina and I helped develop. The coffins were placed in a mass grave adjacent to a fuel yard; the burial ground remains unprotected and without a world-class memorial honoring thousands of victims of the Transatlantic slave trade. Meanwhile, Napoleon Bonaparte's empty tomb, the man who reinstated slavery, is celebrated and funded as the island's main attraction.

A Story of Bones will have its U.S. television premiere on PBS/POV on July 3rd at 10 PM.