EMPOWERING MEMORIES
Louis Gossett Jr. brings The Book of Negroes to TV.
For every wrinkle etched in Louis Gossett Jr.’s face, there’s a remembrance of things past. The 78-year-old actor has defined much of his career with tales of the African-American experience, particularly surrounding the years of slavery in the U.S.
Yet, with his Emmy-winning turn in the 1977 miniseries Roots, his title role in Captive Heart: The James Mink Story, and his audiobook narration of 12 Years a Slave, Gossett Jr. has striven to make sombre subject matter enlightening, and painful memories empowering.
And now the actor is retreading familiar ground with the new CBC miniseries, The Book of Negroes. Based on the like-named Lawrence Hill novel, it centres on Aminata Diallo (Aunjanue Ellis) as she returns home to West Africa after being forced into slavery as a child. Gossett Jr. plays Daddy Moses, a grizzled church leader in Nova Scotia and a father figure to her.
Gossett, who won an Oscar for the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, spoke about The Book of Negroes, his own family history and whether Roots should get a reboot for modern audiences.
QDid you know about the story in The Book of Negroes beforehand?
AI read the book when I knew I was possibly going to be in it, and I was amazed. It’s a take on history that I did not know, the migration going to Sierra Leone and going back to Nova Scotia. I knew about the James Mink story — he could have been the first mayor of Toronto. I knew about the Underground Railroad, but this had nothing to do with that. I knew about the New Bedford people (in Massachusetts), but I didn’t know about Nova Scotia being the promised land.
QHow do you prepare your mind to revisit that harsh time in history?
AYou have to make an adjustment. I remember my elders and how we handled the hard times and there’s a lot of feeling that comes out of it, a lot of music that comes out of it. We got from one day to the next with a sense of humanity, joie de vivre — whatever it takes to get from the night to the next day. You have to learn how to withstand it and get through it, break through it like water off a duck’s back.
QCan you speak about your own family history during and after that time?
AI’m the first generation born in the north after the migration from the south to the north, so I grew up in a very diverse neighbourhood, not a black neighbourhood. My parents knew all about lynchings and all that kind of stuff, but I didn’t know anything about it. So they kept an eye on me, they worried about me and slowly and surely I survived and was able to get them to this wonderful mentality of things going very well. So having a history of our success is important.
QYou’re a self-described history buff — why is it such a passion of yours?
AIt gets you to understand why people are the way they are. I’ve had my jaw swabbed with cotton balls, and I’ve found out that I come from outside of Ghana and that area. I have some American Indian in my system too. It took a minute, but they found some African roots.
QWhen you were filming Roots, did you get any sense that it would become such a cultural touchstone?
AWe had no idea. We knew it was something that had to get said on mainstream television, but nobody knew it was going to be a major success. Nobody.
QThere’s been talk of redoing or revisiting Roots in a new project. Do you think the time is right for it?
AThey want to try and do it again, but I think we should get on with other stories. There are some very important stories that people should know about, like the cowboys, the wars, the arts, music. There are a lot of stories to tell, so we can catch up.
QYou’ve been acting since you were a teenager — is there anything else you’d like to explore in your career?
AI’m directing now, but I’ve been doing this for over 60 years, quite successfully, and I want to produce and gather some stuff and direct some stuff and my main thrust is the philosophy of my foundation and racial harmony. Because the globe needs it and my grandchildren are all ears, and the young people seem to be all ears too. That’s what I do on a daily basis — teach what I know selflessly to the young.