Hamilton College will present We Were Here, the untold history of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, on Thursday, Oct. 30, at 4:10 p.m. in the Kirner-Johnson Building’s Bradford Auditorium (KJ 125). Director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, an Italian-Ghanian scholar, will discuss the film following the screening.
Kudjo Kuwornu’s groundbreaking documentary reveals the overlooked presence of African figures in Renaissance Europe, challenging perceptions of art, history, and identity, and uncovering the hidden presence of African and Black individuals, revealing their representation in masterpieces by iconic artists of the time. The film investigates how they came to Europe and why they were portrayed in paintings. It questions who they were. Were they all servants and slaves? We Were Here challenges the conventional narrative that has long overlooked their significance in the works of celebrated Renaissance masters, telling the unknown exceptional stories of African-Europeans who were princes, ambassadors, saints, artists, professors, and knights.
The film’s multilingual journey spans the U.K., Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and France, offering a fresh perspective on European art history and cultural heritage. The documentary features interviews with prominent worldwide scholars of art history, history, and Black studies, as well as Black activists and art curators, providing a comprehensive and nuanced view of this under-explored aspect of European history.
Among those highlighted in We Were Here are:
- Juan Latino, born a slave in Granada, Spain. He became a renowned scholar and poet, eventually becoming a professor of Latin at the University of Granada in the 16th century.
- Juan de Pareja, a Spanish painter of African descent who was initially a slave and assistant to Diego Velázquez, who gained his freedom and became a notable artist in his own right.
- Alexander de Medici, The Duke of Florence, was the first Black head of state in modern Western history. He was the illegitimate son of Lorenzo II de’ Medici and an African slave. He ruled Florence from 1531 to 1537.
Kuwornu worked with the production crew of Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna in Italy and then decided to research the unknown story of the 92nd Infantry Buffalo Soldiers Division, which led him to produce and direct the Award-winning documentary Inside Buffalo (2010). In 2012 he released 18 IUS SOLI, which examines multiculturalism in Italy and the question of citizenship for the one million children of immigrants born and raised in Italy who have not been granted Italian citizenship. In 2019, Kuwornu released his evocative film, Blaxploitalian: 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema. He is the founder of the Association Diversity Italia, promoting the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in Italy and Europe through film and other art forms as tools for building a more inclusive society.
