This is the story of a world whose territories and own frontiers were built by the slave trade. A world where violence, subjugation and profit imposed their routes. The history of slavery did not begin in the cotton fields. It is a much older tragedy, that has been going on since the dawn of humanity. From the VIIth century on, and for over 1,200 years, Africa was the epicenter of a gigantic traffic of human beings traversing the entire globe. Nubian, Fulani, Mandinka, Songhai, Susu, Akan, Yoruba, Igbo, Kongo, Yao, Somali… Over 20 million Africans were deported, sold and enslaved. This criminal system thrived, laying the foundations of empires around the world. Its scale was such that for a long time, it has been impossible to relate it comprehensively. And yet, it raises a fundamental question: how did Africa end up at the heart of the slavery routes?

FILM 1 | 476-1375: Beyond the Desert

In 476 AD, Rome fell under the pressure of barbarian invasions. On the ruins of the Roman Empire, the Arabs founded an immense empire that stretched from the banks of the Indus to the South of the Sahara. Between Africa and the Middle East, a huge slave trade network was forged, that would last for centuries. At the heart of this continental network, two major merchant cities stood out. In the North, at the crossroads of the Arabian Peninsula and Africa, Cairo, the most important Muslim city and the main commercial hub of Africa. In the South, Timbuktu, the stronghold of the great West African empires, and point of departure of the trans-Saharan caravans. In this epic and documented story, the first episode of Slavery Routes tells 700 years of history and reveals how the sub-Saharan populations have become, over centuries, the main “raw material” of the greatest deportation in history.

FILM 2 | 1375-1620: For All the Gold in the World

At the end of the Middle Ages, Europe opened up to the world and discovered that it was at the margins of the main area wealth generation on the planet: Africa. The Portuguese Conquistadores were the first to set out to conquer Africa. They went to get gold, and came back with hundreds of thousands of captives to sell in Europe. Between the African coasts, Brazil and their trading posts, the Portuguese set up the first colonies entirely populated by slaves. Off the coast of Gabon, the island of São Tomé became the testing ground for the most profitable exploitation system ever to exist: the sugar plantation…

FILM 3 | 1620 -1789: From sugar to rebellion

XVIIth century. The Atlantic has become the battlefield of the sugar war. French, English, Dutch and Spaniards fought for the Caribbean to cultivate sugar cane. To satisfy their dreams of fortune, the European Kingdoms opened new slavery routes between Africa and the islands of the New World. With the complicity of banks and insurance companies, they industrialized their methods and brought the number of deportations to unprecedented levels. Trapped, nearly 7 million African were caught up in a gigantic hurricane of violence.

FILM 4 | 1789-1888: Slavery’s new frontiers 

In London, Paris and Washington, the abolitionist movement was gathering momentum. After the slave rebellion in Santo Domingo, and facing the public opinion’s growing outrage, the major European powers abolished the trans-Atlantic trade in 1807. Yet Europe, in the midst of the industrial revolution, could not do without the slave workforce. To satisfy its needs in raw materials, it pushed further the frontiers of slavery and turned a blind eye on the new forms of human exploitation in Brazil, the United States and Africa. At a time when legal trade was finally prohibited, the deportation of African captives would explode, and become more important than ever. Within 50 years, nearly 2.5 million were deported.

 

A documentary series by Daniel Cattier, Juan Gélas, Fanny Glissant
Editing: Audrey Maurion
Original music : Jérôme Rebotier
Historical advisors: Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Eric Mesnard
Directors of photography: Antoine Monod (AFC), Thomas Letellier
Voice-over narration: Gaël Kamilindi
Production manager: Nathalie de Mareuil
Documenter: Mathilde Bracci
Design: Nadia Micault
Development: Aurélia Michel Aurélia Michel

Coproducers:
CPB Films (Cie des Phares & Balises), Arte France, Kwassa Films, LX Filmes.

Animations studios:
Autour de Minuit: Autour de Minuit is a film production company based in Paris created in 2001 by Nicolas Schmerkin. The company aims at supporting aesthetically innovative projects, and develops original graphic worlds with a solid content. Hybridization -at the heart of the artistic approach of most of the works born in the company- gives the opportunity to explore new ideas and sensations in plastic art and intent to provide with visuals never to be seen before. Since 2004, Autour de Minuit also deals with world distribution of animations and digital works, with a catalogue of nearly 300 films.
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Mikros Image is a post-production company. Its activities include digital postproduction and digital visual effects for feature films and commercials. The company operates in the fields of visual effects, CGI, animation and digital cinema. Its services include postproduction, movies/feature films, studio fx,… see more supervision, animation, online services, lab, and research and development. Founded in 1985, Mikros image is based in France, Belgium and Canada.
Mikros image is also acquired by lead industry innovator Technicolor, allowing for broader resources and superior cutting-edge technologies.
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