Gallery: Samuel L. Jackson shoots a new documentary in Ghana

“We only talk about the ships that made it, not the ones that didn’t. There were ships that went down with our ancestors and we want to tell those stories,” says presenter and executive producers of Enslaved, Samuel L. Jackson on his a new docu-series about the transatlantic slave trade.

Enslaved sheds new light on 400 years of human trafficking from Africa, via Europe to the New World. An estimated 12 million people were kidnapped and sold into slavery, and at least 2.5 million perished en route at sea. Now, for the first time, new diving technology has enabled us to locate and examine sunken slave ships on three continents, revealing an entirely new perspective on the history of slavery.

Hollywood icon and human rights activist Samuel L. Jackson, three-time Emmy award-winning investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici and New York Times journalist and celebrated author of Brit(ish) Afua Hirsch, take us on a powerful and personal journey in this landmark programme, travelling the globe to reveal stories of suffering and greed, as well as of resistance, accomplishment and hope.

A visit to Elmina Castle, Ghana

Samuel L. Jackson goes on an odyssey to discover his familial roots. DNA test results show that he descends from the Benga of Gabon and he embarks on a journey bringing him face-to-face with his ancestral past. One of his stops is in Ghana, to Elmina Castle, one of the best-preserved relics of this dark chapter in human history – a slave factory, holding hundreds of enslaved Africans before being sold.

Films on slavery often focus on Africans as victims. But they resisted! But Enslaved also investigates African resistance to slavery in Africa and the diaspora– from Ghana to the UK to America.

Watch Enslaved on Showmax. New episodes weekly.