The Spirit of Amistad in The United Methodist Church

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.

Jan. 16, 1998

*Tanton is news editor of United Methodist News Service. 

Learn More about Amistad

The Spirit of Amistad in The United Methodist Church by Darrell Reeck, New World Outlook Online

Links to Historical Information, including John Wesley's "Thoughts Upon Slavery"; other Church Amistad Links, including a web discussion group; and Amistad, the Film.

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