The Belle of the Ball? Not!

Belle, a new dvd in the library, is inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle beside her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray, at Kenwood House, which was commissioned by their great-uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England. Very little is known about the life of Dido Belle, who was born in the West Indies and was the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of Mansfield's nephew. She is found living in poverty by her father and entrusted to the care of Mansfield and his wife. The fictional film explores her life as a young woman, a life of luxury, as her father left her money, but no social standing because of her race. Lushly photographed, and stellar acting make this film not only beautiful but intelligent and affecting. ML

"What if . . .

. . . the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was reversed?" This provocative idea is the core of the alternate history presented in Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo. Kidnapped as a child from her impoverished cabbage farm in Europa, Doris is bought, sold, and enslaved in prosperous Africa before eventually being banished to the plantations of the New World. Stripped of her family and identity, Doris is given a slave name, Omorenomwara, and forced to conform to the Aphrikan culture. Told as a personal narrative alternating between Doris and her owner, Captain Katamba, readers get an insight into the mores and attitudes fueling the slave trade, as well as the inner-conflict felt by those involved. By flipping the roles, Evaristo manages to describe a very dark and bleak chapter in human history in a brand new light. HM