Context.

When you look at this photograph you have strong feelings - anger, horror, sadness. It’s a historical photograph taken in central Southern Africa during the late 19th century in a British colony of Northern Rhodesia, ( now Zambia),possibly Southern Rhodesia, (now Zimbabwe), or possibly Nyasaland Now Malawi).It captures an image of slavery, and all the misery, agony, hardship and drama of that period. It brings out emotions in the viewer of anger and hostility Towards the perpetrators. and it should. After all, slavery is a crime against humanity.

But wait. If you know the context of this photograph would you feel the same emotions? This photograph was taken by an unknown person attached to the British colonial office in the Rhodesia’s and Nyasaland sometime in the late 1890s after a successful raid on an Arab slave encampment. Arab slave raiders had been traveling up the Zambezi River from Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) for centuries, originating in their headquarters in Zanzibar. The British authorities in the African colonies had been tasked with stopping the slave trade, and in particular stopping the Arab slave trade in this region.

‘These eight men were shackled at the ankles and marched away from their homeland towards Mozambique and ultimately Zanzibar before they were rescued by the British colonial military unit formed to combat Arab slave raiders. And after this photo was taken the shackles were removed and they were released. And returned to their families, wives and children. Imagine how the men felt. Relief, joy, happiness. Eager to go home and rejoin their family. Imagine the initial reunion when they walked into their villages and huts, the screams of joy from their wives, mothers, their children, who had thought they had lost them forever. The whole village would come alive with celebration, if not the entire district. What a joyous occasion that would have been.

so yes, the photograph sends shivers down your spine because of the underlying horror of slavery. But knowing the context of that same photograph changes everything about this story, from sadness, anger and horror to joy, excitement, pleasure. The same picture, but a totally different story.

So what you should get out of this story is look beyond the first impressions of what you see, and investigate into the backstory. Maybe you will find a silver lining.

It’s all about context.