Nearly five decades after the importation of enslaved people was abolished by US Congress in 1807, the last slaver’s ship came from west Africa to dock in Mobile, Alabama, in defiance of the law. Around 100 of those enslaved people’s descendants still live in Africatown, a neighbourhood north of the city. This compilation sets this community’s songs, stories and memories against industrial sounds that shudder around their 21st-century lives.
In charge are Italian-Rwandan filmmaker Marilena Umuhoza Delli and her husband, Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project, and, intriguingly, the live shows of good friend John Waters). They capture their subjects in live first takes, though sadly the performers aren’t named: this was their decision because they wanted their story to be told collectively. But the music is so powerful – the bluesy Run If You Can (Don’t Go Down That Road) sets a male singer’s husky bass against the sparse notes of Ghanaian lute the kologo – you want to know who made it.
