The Zong Massacre in Popular Culture
- M. NourbeSe Philip's 2008 poetry book, Zong!, is based on the events surrounding the massacre. Dramatized readings of this poem cycle were presented at Harbourfront in Toronto as part of rock.paper.sistahz in 2006.
- A replica of the Zong was sailed to Tower Bridge in London in March 2007 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act; the British Empire abolished the practice of slavery on 31 July 1833.
- The first episode of Series 2 of the television programme Garrow's Law is loosely based on the legal events arising from the Zong Massacre. The historical William Garrow did not actually take part in the case, though he would certainly have been aware of it; Garrow was only called to the bar in 1783. Because the captain died shortly after the incident, his appearance in court for fraud is likewise fictional.
- Fred D'Aguiar's novel Feeding the Ghosts (1997) was inspired by the story of an enslaved African who survived being thrown overboard from the Zong.
- The play An African Cargo by Margaret Busby, based on the Zong Massacre, was staged by Nitro theatre company at Greenwich Theatre in October 2007, in commemoration of the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. Drawing on transcripts from the 1783 court case, it featured among its characters Captain Luke Collingwood, Equiano, Granville Sharp, Lord Mansfied and Dido Belle.
Read more about this topic: Zong Massacre
Famous quotes containing the words massacre, popular and/or culture:
“It is hard, I submit, to loathe bloodshed, including war, more than I do, but it is still harder to exceed my loathing of the very nature of totalitarian states in which massacre is only an administrative detail.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“An aesthetic movement with a revolutionary dynamism and no popular appeal should proceed quite otherwise than by public scandal, publicity stunt, noisy expulsion and excommunication.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)