Does anyone know if there is anything on the internet that details any of the Mende language phrases in the movie? For example, I would like to know what (pardon the phonetics) "Moo ya ma ma boo lay" means when the Africans chant this phrase after they know that they have been set free after the first trialI tried to translate it via online translation but it was ineffective.

I enjoy the Mende language, and from what I've read, the linguist who taught the actors how to speak it, was very thorough. I have tried to post a new topic but I can't seem to do so. Does anyone know if there translations of the Mende that isn't subtitled? For example, all of the Africans chant, "Moo ya ma ma boo lay!", after the first verdict to set them free. I can't seem to find any way to translate this to English via the internet

John Quincy Adam's argument before the Supremes. A great speech by an outstanding actor.

Ensign Covey steps out of a small group of men when he hears Baldwin counting in Mende, looking for a native speaker. I just found it very moving.

There were a lot of great scenes but my favorite one was the dinner scene between John Calhoun and the Spanish representative and Van Buren. John Calhoun is talking with the Spanish representative about how the Northerners are trying to choke the South and how they think they are superior. He is talking to the Spanish representative but he is talking AT Van Buren.
When he mentions at the end of his diatribe how the question is not about how a group of Africans were forced to raise arms against their enemies, but will the South be forced to raise arms against theirs.
Van Buren knows he is talking about him and the people he represents and the look on his face is just priceless.

My favorite scene is the most difficult to watch sequence in the whole movie and perhaps in any Spielberg film, the middle passage, when the Africans are being transported in The Tecora and go through all of those monstrosities. The scene with the black woman throwing herself off the boat with the baby always gets me, also the one where they throw all the slaves off the boat.
I guess every one is quick to overlook the obvious mistake of this scene of having "Portuguese" people speaking in Latin American Spanish when a sequence is this strong and disturbing to watch.

LOL, wow
Not exactly what I had in mind, but sure, whatever floats the viewer's boat..
I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way

I know this was made in 2003 but, the scene with all the black penis lol was my favorite
"Well, I done seen just about everything, but I ain't never seen your boy, no way, no how!"

I really love all of the scenes listed but I will list a couple of different ones. One of my favorite performances was the realitively small role played by Peter Firth as the British Naval Captain. During his testimony Cinque was noticing the small signs of the intense scene which betrayed the stillness of the courtroom such as the prespiration left on the witness chair when the Captain moved his hand. Then when the Holibird remarked to the Captain that he saw in the ships log that the "poundage of cargo was reduced, nothing more" I loved the Captains response: "what would you suggest the reduction was form perhaps in mast and sail". My other scene is when Baldin asks Cinque about the "other lion", the insurrection on the Amistad.

^^
This.
You don't have to be a Christian or believe in the story of Jesus to still be touched how Yamba and Cinque, born completely out of Christian tradition, still understand the story almost perfectly and how it relates to them.
Then, just as Cinque gained understanding of white society through their mythology, John Quincy Adams gains understanding of the Mende when Cinque explains the belief in summoning the ancestors.
Plus, I am a distant relative of JQA (a distant cousin several times removed), so I get an extra kick out of his speech, since some of his ancestors are my ancestors too.

4. You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

My two favorite scenes were the one where Cinque and Yamba are interpreting the Bible and when John Quincy Adams gives his 10 minute monologue in the courtroom at the end.

Among them,

1. The "Bible/judge" scene (my personal favorite)
2. Anthony Hopkin's speech at the end
3. John Calhoun's conversation w/ van Buren at dinner
4. Cinque's "give us, us free" plea
5. Cinque's flashback to the Tecora and Amistad
6. Cinque stripping off his clothes and chanting/singing upon learning their decision had been appealed for the second time
7. Anthony Hopkin's "who they are" speech to Morgan Freeman
   There may be more than just those. But I'll add the "This how far I have come" scene to those. Lots of perspective in that moment; well done.
   I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way

The grand finale - at the end of the film. A British Navy squadron blows away an important slave-trading hellhole in West Africa. The Amistad business may have encouraged more extreme efforts to stop the 'slaving business'. See my post:'The truth about Captain Fitzgerald'.

For me it was easily the "Give us, us free" scene. I was just blown away.

my favorite scenes are

• when Adams first meets Joadson. I find it entertaining on how he first comes off as a senile old man, when we are proved wrong later.
• Adams's speech during the final trial.

Yeah. The scene where Cinque and his friend are reading the Bible is one of my favorite scenes too. Actually, it could be one of my favorite scenes in a movie ever.
Accio Brain!