The Criterion in Time: Blacks Defeat Whites In 100-Year War

Did you know that some Africans brought to the New World as slaves, escaped and fought a 100-year guerilla war against an entire Dutch army — and won?

Another little-known aspect of history is the undying brotherhood between the original Americans of the Western Hemisphere and the Africans brought to this continent by the Atlantic slave trade.

Nowhere is this historical kinship more prominent than among the Bush Afro-Americans and the Bush Indians of the Amazon region. When brought to the New World on slave ships, many Africans mutined and fled into the Amazon jungle. These escaped slaves befriend^ the Indians who fought with them against the Europeans slave traders.

For the first time on national public television, this friendship between the Djukas of Surinam and the Amerindians of the Amazon is brought to life through rare film footage gathered during an expedition led by two Black scientists from Harvard University, Dr. Allen Counter and David Evans.

This exciting two-part edition of TONY BROWN’S JOURNAL, “ Black And Red; The First World” , will be seen on the nation’s public television stations (PBS). Sponsored by Pepsi-Cola Co., for ten consecutive years, the program airs in this area on WNED-TV, Channel 17, on Wednesday, Nov. 12th, at 10:30 p.m.

Dr. Counter and Mr. Evans have dedicated and risked their lives in a ten-year study that traces the history of the Djukas and the South American Indians. It is the thrillingsaga of how these two tribes, fighting side by side, defeated armies of slave slave traders — and until this day, live free in the South American jtmgle.

Published Criterion article on November 7th, 1985