The documentary film “Prince Among Slaves” will be shown at the Natchez City Auditorium on Jefferson and Canal streets at 2:30 p.m. this Sunday. The doors will open at 2 p.m. Admission is free.

Dr. Terry Alford will introduce the 60-minute documentary, which is based on the book he wrote in 1977 also called “Prince Among Slaves.”

Dr. Alford is from Indianola and presently teaches history at Northern Virginia Community College.

This is his first visit to Natchez in more than 30 years. Immediately following the film, there will be an opportunity for you to discuss the film in small groups. Those discussions will be led by Amad Shakur, founder of The Center for the African Diaspora in Charlotte, N.C.

After the event, there will be a public reception at the NAPAC African American Museum at Main and Wall streets beginning at 5:30 p.m. Most of the film was shot in 2006, including the closing scene at the site of Foster’s Fields, where the story actually took place. That location is near today’s Steamplant on Greenwood Plantation Road.

The film premiered in 2007 and won best picture award at the Black Film Festival in Los Angeles that year. It then appeared on the PBS television series “American Experience” in February 2008.

The film is a “Roots” story for many families in this vicinity who are descendants of the Prince of Futa Jallon. Futa Jallon was an independent nation in West Africa for approximately 150 years.

Today it is a part of the Republic of Guinea.

David S. Dreyer

Adams County resident