On Philipides and Schuder's <em>The Village of Peace</em>

Abstract

On Philipides and Schuder's The Village of Peace Kameron J. Copeland (bio) The Village of Peace. Directed by Niko Philipides and Ben Schuder. 2014. USA: Affinity Vision Entertainment, 63 minutes. After the peak of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, which culminated in the assassinations of its major leaders, inner-city black communities began to face a new wave of dilemmas. As they struggled to gain rights and define self-identity, these communities faced nihilistic crises in an environment starved of the definitive leadership of the 1960s. Additionally, the urban inner cities to which droves of black Americans fled in an exodus from the South—to escape racism and gain economic opportunities during the Great Migration—became plagued with problems of police brutality, crime, violence, and drug abuse after years of and neglect and marginalization by political institutions. The hostile environment in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement gave rise to the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, whose journey for redemption and liberation in their own migration from their homes in Chicago—and their identities as African Americans—to an isolated village in Dimona, Israel, is detailed in the documentary The Village of Peace (Niko Philipides and Ben Schuder, USA, 2014). In a contemporary era when black youth movements are seeking to fight police brutality while simultaneously liberating themselves by redefining and reviving their cultural heritage and identity, The Village of Peace presents a sociohistorical narrative that showcases the values and origins of a microcosm of the African American community alongside a journey of cultural redefinition that encompasses unique practices of musical expression, veganism, physical fitness, and polygyny. [End Page 120] These observances are presented as solutions to the social and public-health crises faced by black communities in America. Like the many black new religious movements founded in urban Midwestern and Northern cities, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem sought to heal the ills of their ethnic community by redefining their identity, adopting a new spiritual system to help them to heal and escape a traumatic past. An elderly man of the village, who once migrated from rural Georgia to Chicago as a child during the Great Migration prior to moving to Israel, recalled: growing up being called negroes, but we knew that negroes had no land, had no identity like that. So, now all of a sudden we have a land, language, and a culture . . . that gave us another sense of pride—another sense of joy to know that you are really somebody . . . that really has a place where if you want to leave today and go back, there was a place that you came from. In addition to land, language, and culture, this Hebrew identity also included adhering to the African Hebrew Israelites' interpretation of the laws of the Torah, which among other things prohibits racism, guns, crime, alcoholism, homelessness, and drug use. These regulations govern the self-sufficient village of nearly five thousand African Hebrew Israelites as a means of confronting the public-health and legal crises they once faced in their communities as inhabitants of large American cities. They identify themselves as the biblical Israelites, and their observance of these laws are rooted in self-respect. In coping with past traumatic experiences and expressing their spiritual beliefs and identity, the Hebrew Israelites possess a passion for music expressed through song, dance, and instrumental performance. In a brief clip of black-and-white archive footage featuring some early Hebrew Israelite settlers in Dimona expressing their musical talents, a Hebrew Israelite stated, "Our music is part of our lives; we use music the way doctors use medicine." While music is presented as a healthy revival of traditional African practices, exercise and veganism are also viewed as essential components for maintaining their health. The film explains the dietary practices and the requirement that all individuals exercise at least three times each week, and consume a vegan diet that includes three no-salt days per week and two days in which only raw foods are consumed. The nonvegan lifestyle older members once followed during their early lives as African Americans is described as degenerative and "made for the dead." The [End Page 121] desire to resolve...