From antiquity through to the nineteenth century, Iran and the surrounding region imported enslaved Africans as part of what is now known as the Indian Ocean slave trade. In her new book "Racial Blackness and Indian Ocean Slavery: Iran’s Cinematic Archive" (UMN Press, 2023) Parisa Vaziri, assistant professor of Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Studies, reveals how Iranian cinema from the second half of the twentieth century preserved the legacy of this significant but often overlooked history. In this Chats in the Stacks book talk Vaziri explores the impact of Indian Ocean slavery in Iran, and how this history and its lasting influences are both revealed and preserved though film.
