wfn.org | Amistad Descendant Plays Role In Movie

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (552
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Note 550 by UMNS on Jan. 16, 1998 at 17:01 Eastern (5076 characters).

CONTACT: Tim Tanton					 23(10-21-31-71BP){550}
    Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5473  Jan. 16, 1998

NOTE: This feature is related to UMNS story #23. A photograph is available.

Descendant of Amistad leader finds 
God's calling in work, film

A UMNS News Feature
by Tim Tanton*

Few people ever have part of their family history documented in a major motion
picture.
Fewer people still get to relive that history by playing a role in the film.
Samuel Pieh is one of the few. His great-great-grandfather seized a place in
history by leading a revolt on a slave ship 159 years ago, a dramatic moment
that is captured in Steven Spielberg's latest film, Amistad.
Pieh, a native of Sierra Leone, ended up in the film through a chain of events
that he attributes to God's guidance.
"Only God would have had a plan for that, and that is how I became involved in
the movie," said Pieh, who lives in Memphis.
Pieh met producer Debbie Allen through Clifton Johnson, founder and former
director of the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University. Allen, who had
been trying for more than 10 years to bring the story to the screen, hired
Pieh as dialect coach. His role expanded when Spielberg cast him as a wise
elder who advises the other Amistad captives to look to Sengbeh Pieh as their
leader.
It was Sengbeh Pieh -– known in the movie as Cinque, the name the Spaniards
gave him -- who led the revolt that caught the nation's attention in 1839.
Helping recreate that period of his ancestor's life was both moving and
inspiring for Pieh.
"Once the emotional aspect goes away -- because it was very emotional for me
-- I am more challenged by this movie to go beyond my own resources to be able
to just mobilize other talents and other resources around me to make life
better," Pieh said.
He is using the movie to help educate people about the Amistad and raise
awareness of the needs that exist in his homeland, Sierra Leone, and other
African countries.
The film recounts how African captives mutinied and took control of the slave
ship Amistad as it transported them around Cuba. Ordered to return to Africa,
the Spanish crew instead navigated the ship north to New England, where it was
seized by the U.S. Navy. A two-year legal battle followed between the jailed
Africans and the slave holders. The fight went to the Supreme Court, where the
Africans, backed by former President John Quincy Adams, won their freedom.
Following the court battle, Sengbeh Pieh eventually returned to what is now
Sierra Leone.
A few generations later, Peter Pieh -– Samuel's father -- became involved in
missionary work, working with the United Brethren in Christ and its
successors, the Evangelical United Brethren and United Methodist churches. By
becoming a missionary, he shared a spiritual bond with the abolitionists who
helped the Africans and sent the first evangelists to Sierra Leone.
With the help of a family friend, Samuel Pieh attended college in the United
States in the 1960s. He went back to Sierra Leone, but returned to America in
1987.
Currently, he is assistant professor of biology at State Technical Institute
in Memphis. He and his wife, Clara, have three teen-age sons -- Hingha, 19,
Semche, 16, and Hindowah, 14 -- and attend St. Paul United Methodist Church.
In 1993, feeling a need to give something back to his homeland, Pieh formed
Mid-South Africa Link. The group is mobilizing support for Africa from
schools, churches, businesses and other sources. Pieh is focusing on Sierra
Leone and Zimbabwe.
"He's marshalling the resources -– medical, missional and otherwise -– from
this region back to helping the people there with the everyday needs of life,"
said the Rev. Joseph A. Geary, St. Paul's pastor and a member of Mid-South
Africa Link's advisory board.
Pieh and Geary are leading a Volunteers in Mission trip to Zimbabwe July
24-Aug. 8. They will take supplies and volunteer staff for the medical mission
and dental clinic in Old Mutare, as well as help build faculty housing at
Africa University.
Amistad has helped Pieh raise awareness of the needs in Africa, and it has put
him in demand as a speaker.
"The requests are coming," Pieh said. He plans to start a foundation to cover
the costs of traveling and speaking.
"I would love to speak to every school, every church group, every community in
the United States and the world . . . so I am trying to establish a Sengbeh
Pieh Foundation that would enable me to do those kinds of things without an
adverse (financial) impact on my family."
For more information on Pieh's organization, write to Mid-South Africa Link,
care of Omega Health Systems, 5100 Poplar Ave., Suite 2100, Memphis, TN 38137.
Volunteers -– especially those with medical skills -- are needed for the
mission trip, cosponsored by the Memphis Conference and Mid-South Africa Link,
Geary said. For more details, contact Geary at St. Paul United Methodist
Church, 2949 Davies Plantation Road, Memphis, TN 38133; or call (901)
387-0007.
# # #
*Tanton is news editor of United Methodist News Service.
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