Themes Of Dignity, Patience, And Strength In The Documentary Prince Among Slaves

The documentary, Prince Among Slaves, reveals several themes that intertwine and connect with the readings completed in class thus far. Some of the themes in the documentary include dignity, patience, and strength that have been portrayed through the character of the prince, Abdul Rahman who was sold into slavery. The documentary shows Abdul Rahman before he was sold into slavery and his time as a prince when many had the utmost respect for him. Throughout the documentary, you are able to see how Abdul Rahman’s character transforms as he was sold into slavery, and after when he was finally a free man.

To start, Abdul Rahman was given a massive responsibility. His father was a King, and gave Abdul Rahman command over two thousand men at the young age of twenty-six. During his time in command, Abdul Rahman and his men were ambushed and that was when he was captured and sold into slavery. After being captured, he had walked one-hundred miles on his bare feet which is unbearable for any person. He was in shackles connected to several other people who were being transported to be sold. He had the time to contemplate the ways he could’ve done things differently to have a different outcome, but instead, he was going through physical torture and torment as he was being sold into slavery and being transported overseas. Being able to endure that level of torture and to be capture instantly takes a toll on an individual. But Abdul Rahman was able to pull through all that while still keeping his dignity intact which is one of the main themes portrayed in this documentary.

Furthermore, after Abdul Rahman was sold into slavery, the Foster family had stripped him of his identity by forcefully cutting off his long hair. Many African cultures value hair as a sign of beauty and uniqueness. So, stripping him of his long hair was stripping part of his identity away with it. Not only did they remove the physical identity Abdul Rahman carried with him, but they had entirely removed the spiritual aspect as well, along with the customs. They stripped him of his now past identity of an African Prince and transformed him into a slave and dressed him like all the other slaves in very plain white clothing. Abdul Rahman displayed great strength in his character by the way he respectfully complied through all the things they did to him. “Frugal, serious, and dedicated to hard work in order to get their freedom or reach the upper echelons of the slave structure, the African Muslims may have appeared, at first glance, to be “model slaves.” From walking one-hundred miles on foot in shackles, to stripping him of his identity, to the actual enslavement, he maintained the physical and mental strength and kept his dignity intact while they gave their best attempt to strip him of all those things.

In most countries historically, this was similar custom that many colonizers had adopted to strip the natives of their identity as a starting point to take over the land that was NOT theirs. In African countries many of these colonizers did not intend to adopt the African identity, but instead they wanted to utilize the resources and people there as a commodity to benefit themselves. There wasn’t as much genocide taking place as in other countries where colonizers wanted to adopt the identity because they had to culturally assimilate into it. Though in many African countries, there was still genocide. But these colonizers wanted to utilize the services, crops, and land to ultimately benefit themselves to increase their wealth. However, they didn’t want to put the work in so they had many slaves to do the work for them. “Indeed, divide and conquer has been the best and most effective instrument utilized by colonial powers to first achieve control over societies and then further the domination in successive periods up to the present post-colonial period.” This was the exact agenda of many of the colonizers that took over countries and used human beings to balance their economy and be of service to them. Abdul Rahman’s owner, Thomas Foster, was a semi-decent individual who allowed Abdul Rahman to get married to another slave woman on the plantation. However, there needs to be a generally understanding that though these owners may show acts of kindness, enslaving people because of the color of their skin is morally evil. So even though the Foster did display acts of kindness, at the end of the day Abdul Rahman was being enslaved for many years along with his wife and kids that came along over the years. Thomas Foster had even refused the purchase of Abdul Rahman by a white man who was a good friend of his when he was a well-respected Prince. Inquiries like that bring a man’s hopes up and he had stayed strong throughout the entire process until he was a free man. Post-enslavement, Abdul Rahman was unfortunately not able to raise enough money to get his kids back, and ended up living out the rest of his life without ever reuniting with them.

To conclude, some of the major themes in the documentary Prince Among Slaves, included dignity, patience, and strength. These themes were all conveyed through the strong character that Prince Abdul Rahman displayed through the hardships and enslavement he endured in his life. He maintained his dignity and was an extremely hardworking individual as a Prince and as a slave even though he never got his happy ending. There is a quote by Muhammed Ali: “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.” Though Abdul Rahman was forced into slavery, he didn’t have hate for the white man which says a lot about his character.