In 'No Chains, No Masters,' A Beninese Filmmaker Centers Rebellion In Colonial Mauritius

When he turned seven, Simon Moutaïrou began spending many summer breaks in Benin, his father's home country. As a teenager, Moutaïrou would experience his first philosophical awakening on one of these trips. He was in Ouida, where the door of no return was built in 1995 to represent the last point enslaved people had with their homelands before being shipped out. "I was 15, and l remember the rage. I remember the anger of discovering the concept of inequality between people," the French Beninese filmmaker and writer tells OkayAfrica.

That sense of historical injustice and its strong impact on the present has persevered and formed the foundation of Moutaïrou's artistry. "This rage was healed when I was 20 by my readings of Creole-Caribbean literature and authors who talked about marooning. And I came to understand that every time you had slavery, you also had rebellion," Moutaïrou says. "I remember the feeling of pride that reading these texts gave me."

"The maroons can teach us that even when facing the worst of oppression, it's always possible to emancipate yourself. My movie is a tale of resistance, and the maroons are heroes of their own emancipation," he says.

No Chains, No Masters, released today in the U.S., is a timely work that uses an often overlooked subject to speak to the political turmoil of the present when inequality is gaining ground, and extreme ideological beliefs are becoming increasingly prevalent. The film will have a special screening with its director at New York's Quad Cinema tomorrow, February 8.

Finding the past

No Chains, No Masters is set in 1759 on the island of Mauritius, where enslaved Africans (in this case, the Wolof people of present-day Senegal) have been imported to work on sugar plantations under French colonial rule. It's an ambitious work that manages not to sensationalize a traumatic period in African history but instead focuses on the full and layered humanity of the people at its center.

"Spirituality is the most important act to the Wolof. There are gods everywhere for them," Moutaïrou says. "I needed to have a mystical pace. We wanted the movie to have the texture of a ceremony, and there is an effect on your body as a spectator."

Moutaïrou does an excellent job of highlighting the traditions and beliefs that shape the Wolof. It wrestles their stories away from the single and damaging gaze of enslavement. It insists on their personhood, their existence as fathers, mothers, lovers, friends, students and people with strong religious practices and convictions before their conditional state as enslaved people. We are shown their dedication to honoring their gods and enter moments where the commitment to community is stronger than the threat of death.

"My cinematographic goal was to show the beauty of these faces," he says. "The beauty of the Wolof language. The beauty of their spirituality. Often, there is a stereotypical way for Hollywood to portray the African religions, and I wanted to show its beauty and power."

Moutaïrou, who spent five years writing this story and another year making it, says he relied on griots and historical texts for the immense research that went into creating the film and keeping it true to the times. "Much of the spiritual history shown in the movie is not written. Only the griots in Senegal know that history. Historians, griots and anthropologists from France, Senegal and Mauritius also helped me, and I had a great team to recreate this world and be as precise and real as possible."

For this first-time filmmaker, the most crucial part of creating this story was adding to the slim collection of films that addressed France's role in the slave trade. Moutaïrou says that in France, many people try to dismiss this conversation as irrelevant to the present.

If you have the courage to confront your past without looking away, that is strength. That is how you can allow citizens of your country to build a virtuous relationship with their history. But I don't understand why this courage and this strength is rare," he says.

No Chains, No Masters has received rave reviews, with much of the feedback focusing on two main emotions: pride and catharsis. Moutaïrou hopes the film continues to be eye-opening, presenting a different view and reminding people that resistance is always an option.