Amistad1997

[While in prison awaiting Judge Coglin's ruling, one of the Amistad captives, Yamba, reads an illustrated Bible. Cinque looks over to him, conversing in Mende.]

Cinque:
You don't have to pretend to be interested in that. Nobody's watching but me.

Yamba:
I'm not pretending. I'm beginning to understand it. Their people have suffered more than ours... Their lives were full of suffering. [turns the page, showing an image of the newborn Jesus] Then he was born and everything changed.

Cinque:
Who is he?

Yamba:
I don't know, but everywhere he goes he is followed by the sun. [turns the page, showing Jesus healing the sick] Here he is healing people with his hands. [another page, Jesus protecting Mary Magdelene] Protecting them... [another page, Jesus with children] Being given children...

Cinque:
[sees a picture of Jesus walking on water] What's this?

Yamba:
He could also walk across the sea. [as he speaks, Judge Coglin kneels before a communion rail, praying] But then something happened... He was captured, accused of some sort of crime. [turns the page, showing Jesus before Pilate] Here he is with his hands tied.

Cinque:
He must have done something.

Yamba:
Why? What did we do? Whatever it was, it was serious enough to kill him for it. Do you want to see how they killed him? [Cinque nods, and Yamba turns the page, showing the Crucifixion]

Cinque:
This is just a story, Yamba.

Yamba:
But look. That's not the end of it. [shows the disciples taking Jesus' body down from the cross] His people took his body down from this... thing... this... [draws a cross in the air] They took him into a cave. They wrapped him in a cloth, like we do. They thought he was dead, but he appeared before his people again... and spoke to them. [shows the Resurrection] Then, finally, he rose into the sky. [turns to an image of Jesus ascending to Heaven, then to another to Heaven's light breaking through the clouds] This is where the soul goes when you die here. This is where we're going when they kill us. It doesn't look so bad.