FILM DISCUSSION: THROUGH THE DOOR OF NO RETURN

[00:00:05][music] Welcome next [music] Apparently, [music] the womba >> [screaming] >> Jamaica [music] everybody just learn >> thank you so much for going through and anybody who's trying to go to bathroom men's room is closed the men's room is closed. Do not go there, please. Um, you know what I'm going to do is just make sure everybody gets a microphone at least quickly so you can uh Shikana is unable to join us. she's not feeling well and we can hopefully discuss uh some of the questions you have because I you know I uh uh although it's a film that Shriana made it's her philosophy it's a it's also something I personally myself believe so anybody who wants to ask can start and that would help us go forward test test.

[00:02:25]>> First, >> um so first again thank you for this experience.

[00:02:32]Um I feel really emot I feel really emotional watching the the the film. Um just reflecting on my experience born in Africa and coming here for my studies. Um, I felt the same way as the filmmaker as I was feeling empty me living there too and not really knowing about my culture, about the story and the example of those um kids living in Ghana but but not really be aware about all this history.

[00:03:10]I was feeling the same thing. So me coming here in the US was kind of the same travel maybe backward but kind of the same way like see people that look like me. Um, I feel like me right now, I'm not feeling the same how I was feeling back in Africa.

[00:03:30]Maybe maybe empty, but right now I feel more I feel more complete because I can see I can understand my brothers that was away for a long time. So, thank you for that.

[00:03:44]Then my question will be um during uh during the process of making this movie um sometimes during the writing or maybe during the process of making this movie it is always easy to go to go deep inside to face those trauma.

[00:04:06]>> Well you know I can only speak you know only to a point. I know her father is the impetus to the story. This the the that's the core departing point for her to go into this journey. Um because I think uh she was looking for more answers. Uh I know the FBI killed him. Personally, I do believe that. But the you know she uh was given information they accidentally punctured his liver. But but the FBI document that she also received from the freedom of uh >> information >> information act. She uh I read it the there was three four FBIs and CIA people following him all the time because he was connected to uh a revolutionary group in Detroit that that were called RN RNA 11 or RNA. This is a group that was trying to get African-Americans to seed in this in the what they call the negro belt in the south. They felt they should separate from white people and they used to meet at his place. So they [clears throat] and he identified with their ideas also I think I don't know if he was a member or not I don't know but I know he had you know he had entertained their idea and that's what took him to Africa and he had gone to the Soviet Union also with the camera documenting his journey and so um for her when he he had an appointment with her but didn't show up. Apparently, he was in the hospital and the malaria is the you know the the initial situation but I think after that they they were in the hospital. The document speaks these are like agents coming to his sister's uh impersonating u salesman and investigate. So they were very intense on him. So for me I I just know how they work and I have a different view on that. But that to me is what is the impetus of the story.

[00:06:33]That's where she is going from emotionally trying to find her father's you know because she was standing at a roadside waiting for to see him >> after he returned from Africa and he she never saw him. So that I think is a very serious emotional uh situation for her and you know this I'm just you know she didn't share this with me. I'm just telling you what I'm reading and I think the film is a journey to overcome that part and that's why she does at the end the libation at his grave site.

[00:07:13]So the other one in terms of what you were saying I think all of us who come from Africa we really have no idea about this history and Africans in the Americas uh you know you know whether um we associate with them or not uh the information is a very difficult information to crack at and I would say I myself learned over time and people can learn over time. Uh a lot of Africans we do not know. Many people died for us to walk free. Even here in DC, uh we don't I I'm always frustrated about my own brothers and sisters from Africa who walk freely who didn't know this streets, you know, they used to burn black people with chlorine and many crazy things. When you study the history, you're walking through neighborhoods that white people terrorized black people in. They fought all that, liberated it, made it a chocolate city. And uh those of us who enjoy to work here, to live here, etc. rarely pay tribute to that. But it's it's it's a process in my view. But it's a common in Africa also the elite does not teach us our own history because to me I think the origin of the conflict is in our nose under our nose in Africa.

[00:08:48]>> Thank you.

[00:08:52]>> Good evening. Uh my name is Sam and there was a beautiful moment towards the end of the movie where she was talking about know when the elder she asked the elder um if she kind of accepted the two African-Americans who were living there.

[00:09:10]Um, I wasn't really clear exactly what she was asking her, but when there was a connection and when there was a connection, it just was beautiful cuz I couldn't articulate it, but I felt it.

[00:09:24]You know, it was like, I do accept you.

[00:09:26]I understand what you're trying to say.

[00:09:28]I accept you and I accept her. When she pointed behind the count, the camera. Um what what I don't even know what my question is but it's kind of it just >> no let me let me get this one you said you know what she asked the the old lady who is also a spiritual leader and an elder what she asked her is there anybody in this room from those people that the woman remembers and passed through through her lineage people crying screaming going at night being taken So she speaks about that and then she asked her, "Are there anybody? Do you remember any? Is there anybody from those people you think in this room?"

[00:10:12]And she looked around. She looked around and then she huged her saying, "What do you think of Amuku, the one sitting next to you?" She says, "Now I know. Yeah, this is one of them." She would say, and then she points out at her identifying saying, "I remember you." So for her it was very important moment. I remember her telling me about it.

[00:10:36]>> Yeah, I felt it.

[00:10:39]>> Less opinion, more knowledge.

[00:10:44]>> Okay, I get you, brother.

[00:10:46]Anybody else?

[00:10:50]>> I just like that moment was very important. Um because I feel like I would love to have a conversation about the form of this film because there's so many there's like a lot of Mama Sharik's like narrations and they're poetic but they're also just you know questions and secrets and um that she has carried with her across this water and we see water so much over her questions over the caves like there the form of this I I would love to to talk about is very interesting. Um but for that moment that felt like another um that moment where she asks the priestess it's during a festival where she says you know are there are there any of us in this room that you recognize and the priestess is is uh is saying like one is alerting her towards her knowledge about enslavement because she's like our our grandfather told us about this and you know we cried for them we mourned for them every year we would go to this site and and and mourn And you know, and before she says that, like Shereek in her in her uh voice over saying all um African descendants, you know, who are in the diaspora like always harbor this secret desire or like this innocent inner feeling, this need to be claimed.

[00:12:11]And in that moment, she was claiming her um in telling her like we we have mourned our grandfather instructed us to mourn. and also later when she's guided into what is actually being asked, she says, "Yes, the person right next and also the person behind the camera." Um, so I just wanted to to say that because I I felt that was very clear. Um, yeah, is my immediate point.

[00:12:36]>> Thank you. Who else?

[00:12:41]>> Hi, how are you?

[00:12:43]Uh so uh I would ask Shana but since she'sn't here I'll ask you by a proxy.

[00:12:49]Um, how do you feel when you juxtapose the film which was shot uh many years ago and when you juxtapose it with the current climate of everything and how how would you compare the diaspora that went to Africa to seek out their ancestry to see seek out their people, their grandparents, their lineage and their history and the diaspora that exists or is trying to exist now in trying to seek out their life. Do you think it has gotten better? Do you think it has gotten worse? Do you think there is a certain have we regressed in seeking out uh our past, our connection with our people? Do you think African-Americans in general have done an active effort in trying to reconnect with their past and their history? And when you um when you put the people back then adjacent to the people back now, are they the same or are they different?

[00:14:03]What does that feel like to you?

[00:14:06]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:14:08]Um, I think from watching this film and, um, being a chronically online person, um, I can say that I don't I don't know if regression is the word, but I think there's a more of a consumerous element that comes with a lot of this searching now. you know, these people were going and, you know, it was so emotional to see them express what they were feeling, the anger, the pride, the dignity, the sorrow, all of those things, you know, and we did have the year return, but I think for our generation, from what I'm seeing online, um, there's it's turned into like commercialism, you know, Daddy December and like Afro so f like it's cool but you know it's cool because it's a part of the culture music is a part of the culture those performances are part of the culture but you don't always see maybe it's because it's not online you don't always see the other side of that you know um yeah I feel like I I for my observation we're not really seeing the other side of that that is that serious dignifying look at like where we came from and what the responsibility is to carry forward for that, you know. Um, but at the same time in Shar's generation, like her father was a sharecropper and the priestess's grandfather was alive during that time, so they were closer to it. I think that we've gotten further from it and we've been lifted up so high. We might be in the clouds. We need to find like the ground again, you know. That's my two cents.

[00:15:57]>> Well, I I can't I can't that's a good beginning. I can't answer you as Shereika because she's you know what I like about for example uh she uh she's very respectful of ordinary black people. And I remember when she first was working on the film, there were some, you know, intellectual snobbish people we knew were just how come they didn't know slavery or they they, you know, they were very condescending about I didn't know this history. How come you didn't know kind of judgment which is a very uh class kind of problem. But Shirana stuck her gun with ordinary people and their ordinary arrival to information as legitimate and in the end the very people who who thought initially of a problem were you know I think on board with her in my view. Um to me what Munyang is talking about now I don't think the there's a there's some genuine search for you know the most you know is is you know it's a a sentiment from day one Africans arrived in the Americas we have to assume that longing for their home especially those of us who have come from you know recent Africa The longing for home is a serious matter that has never been respected on the part of the educational system, on the part of historians. Historians um can talk stuff about numbers recklessly because they do not uh really have no stake on the information. And so you know for me um that sentiment of longing for where am I from now there is a spiritual displacement along with the materialism that has invaded uh the African-American community. So their intention what we see on YouTube etc. the kind of commercialization etc of this journey.

[00:18:17]We told uh Shirana and we talked a lot to the ministers in Ghana to be careful not to commercialize the spiritual you know it would be a desecration. We told them to for Ghana or Africa, Benin uh wherever this Nigeria, West Africa G to make it commercial, it would be a second offense on slavery. first selling them, you know, deporting them and then now reselling them would be very very very brutal in my view and it's going to have a consequences for that. Um, but I [clears throat] think I remember one sister because I studied this the slave coast very carefully for my film for Sankova.

[00:19:07]I used to stay there all day all the way to the evening as long as they allowed me and there's the place conjures many things in your mind when you sit still and watch it. It's no joke. There's Ghana alone there's 360 of the size of football American football field where Africans were housed. 360 all over Ghana alone. This is without Guinea, without uh S Dhakar, without uh Benin. This is just Ghana alone because it was the center of the slave trade. And so uh that to me gives you the size of this whole journey, the untold history. You just visit, walk Almina Cape Coast where she filmed, but try to go to the others, which I did.

[00:20:00]most of them uh scary because people don't build that kind of the industry was enormously big and we know also now the the plan she had it in her film the ship plans slave ships how they were planned to stack up Africans etc. So to me is a sacred ground. Even black Americans have no right to desecrate it.

[00:20:25]Uh to me Africans especially, we have no right to commercialize this. But African-Americans do not also speak for this early burned black people in slavery. You know, the way they, you know, if you talk about, you know, reparation, it look like every pimp wants to get reparation to do crazy things to black women and cars and like that. And white people are ready to sell black people crazy material. That kind of world will be a desecration also because to me reparation is very sacred itself. those Africans who disappeared if you desecrate their history you have no right to speak about that or represent that issue in my view this is having studied slavery etc this is my personal view but in the end I think uh as far as I'm concerned um Sherikana and I proposed to African-Americans we had the fund at that time to create we called the conference in in Atlanta and we wanted black people to in America to go to the UN and made the slave forts a judici under the judici jurisdiction of the the diaspora of black people the very people who were deported out of that. So like it will be a holocaust center and no one no government has a right except a very again coherent aware African-American community African Brazilian African Caribbean comprised of that to really have the stewardship of the slave forts there many need to be repaired many in fact in her next film we hope to show soon on panafricanism She films Dr. Lee from South Carolina who lived in one of the slave forts when he went there intentionally lived in the slave fort with his wife and children.

[00:22:32]And so to me it's a sacred ground and uh especially storytellers have to know it's going to be the commercialization the brutalization of slavery is is building up now. Not because there are racist dudes in the White House, just black people. At this point, uh there is a questionable trend on reparation and what Africa means to African diasporas.

[00:23:07]>> The film was very moving to me. uh being a nativeborn Washingtonian here and knowing the history of the people who came before me, I want to assure you that there are many of us who want to know where we came from.

[00:23:35]just in this Washington DC.

[00:23:38]You may not run across them online.

[00:23:42]You may there are many of us who want to know before the enslavement of our people.

[00:23:54]Unfortunately, coming up through the school systems here, this history that's told to us only begins with the enslavement on afterwards.

[00:24:11]We don't get to hear, our children in these schools don't get to hear prior to.

[00:24:18]It's up to us to teach them prior to and knowing the history of this country and the people who run, they're already trying to erase the enslavement part.

[00:24:39]They don't want their future generations to know what their people were capable of.

[00:24:48]uh when I went to Ghana twice and felt the energy and the goodness from the people who encouraged us to come back, encouraged us to find out where we're from, how to and the resources that are out here right now to kind of guide you to find out how to who are you from where you originated is really a big deal to a lot of us.

[00:25:25]Um, I'm sorry that I I I I I start to witness with all this social media and the AI algorithms and pre-programming the brains uh that a lot of our children don't even know our history.

[00:25:46]They don't even know about the enslavement. [laughter] They don't know about the history.

[00:25:54]they're it's getting removed from [music] them.

[00:25:58]When I talk to the young people out here up and down these streets and you know I ask them questions, they don't have the knowledge because of this cell phone, these algorithms that they don't get to really learn their history.

[00:26:21]But again, my whole thing is uh what I've learned dealing with Africans and Ghanaans and the AAN tradition.

[00:26:33]Each one is supposed to teach one. We're supposed to be a community of people who teach and encourage and and don't be afraid of these little young people out here. They're being young people. You don't be afraid of them. you talk to them and most times you'll get the respect from them when you talk to them.

[00:26:54]Uh but it was very encouraging the film. It just brought me back into my memory of learning about the pan-Africans here in this city in this area and the history of the teachings of the uh traditions and the people who who uh bought the traditions all over that continent.

[00:27:27]And uh there are lots of us who want to learn it. And it's interesting that I guess we don't interact with enough African people to really get to know what their thinking is because we've been brainwashed again in this culture to be against one another.

[00:27:54]You know, we're told Africans don't like African-Americans.

[00:27:59]We're told Africanameans don't want to be African, >> but it's not true. It's just a bunch of junk put out here so that we can stay separated. We have to learn what the whole mechanism is here in this consumerism, capitalism, make money for these people to stay wealthy.

[00:28:25]They take it on to the other countries in Africa, these Europeans who want to stay wealthy.

[00:28:33]And we've got to get past all of that, you know, not let the enslavement become a capitalist thing because it's not going to benefit us because it's written not to benefit us.

[00:28:54]the people who call themselves rulers uh even in you know the European countries they don't mean good for us and once we start really realizing that and I mean if you know the history of the United States here you know people I I was asked this past July 4th you know are are you participating in that July 4th nonsense you And I I I I have to say I participate in it because I'm going to keep the ancestors in my mind in this country who helped build this city. When I look at those big buildings down there who helped put them all together, I'm going to recognize my ancestors who built this stuff because without them, it wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be able to walk up and down these streets. I wouldn't be able to go to the universities. I would unless I recognize the ancestors who made it possible.

[00:30:03]So, yeah, I'm going to recognize July 4th because my ancestors made this.

[00:30:10]They did this.

[00:30:12]Those other ones just uh got lazy and wanted somebody else to do the work. So now let's recognize that that our folks did the work and they always do the work, you know. No, I'm not going to get mad at some that Trump calls a communist. No, the communist people have a purpose.

[00:30:33]I ain't going to get mad at the Hispanic folks. No, they were here before these uh folks came and took over the country.

[00:30:42]So, if we know the history, we won't fall into these little traps they try to put us in.

[00:30:50]Let's look back and let's teach our folks, you know, religion and all that stuff is you don't separate yourself.

[00:31:02]>> Thank you so much. And you want to say something, my brother?

[00:31:04]>> Oh, yeah. Um, yeah, that that was very well said. Um, just like hearing the conversation. Um when I was watching the film, I think for me um 2018 was like right before um the year of return like really kicked off and all that. Like I'm a Ghanaian um generation. But a lot of the time it's like I'll be amongst my friends or I'll meet people and they they think I'm born I was born in Ghana but I'm like no I was born here. So it's a lot of the time when you think about it I feel like one is the identity like recognizing like yes you do come from there for me it's like I don't know it I'm not not going to say like it's very easy it's just because me like making films listen music I'm always very tapped into that I want to listen to like my people's music I want to make films about my people all those things um so even language right being first generation a lot of times Maybe your parents wanted you to assimilate because they just came to this country. They're not speaking Ghan. They're not speaking tree. Like they're speaking English to you. And it's like even to this day sometimes I'm I look at my mom like why didn't you teach me the language? So I'm saying that because sometimes and like to your point is our generation is very much I think the information is very fleeting. You see it online. Oh cool. Oh it's nice. You watch the film. Oh cool it's nice. And then it's like, okay, you have your identity, but then like what do you do about it? For me, a lot of times like God gave you free will. It's like what do you want to do with that free will? For me, a lot of times like this my brother like I listen to French music. I listen to this music. I listen to music from Brazil. They have Euroba culture there. So for me, I'm constantly doing things that subliminally is is reminding me like, oh yeah, like and I'm learning through that. That's how I learn languages through music, through film, things like that. So, it's like my own will to want to go and do it. So, I think it's for our generation to not just like be reminded of it because I've been to the Cape Coast Castle. That was in 2018. So, when you go there, it feels like very heavy. Like you feel it and now it's like fast forward, we're in 2026. Okay. But what do you do about it?

[00:33:24]So for me the the filmmaker I feel like um that when I was watching the film I was thinking oh okay so now she showed people you have your identity you have your history. I'm wondering if she's going to make a film that tells you okay this is the action you should do because for us a lot of times that's what's lacking. You'll post something online or social media and you think you've done your part or it's maybe like really and truly you want to go back home to Ghana.

[00:33:51]like I would love to go back to Ghana, but like unfortunately it's only the older generations that actually go take that action to go do it. Um for us it may seem far-fetched because we're stuck in our ways. Um so I guess one my main question was um like how do you actually how does she actually see this being put into action? And then also how when you when it is put into action and you go back to Africa like we know the World Cup is going on things like that right but now a lot of our African leaders they don't really pour into the country how they should so it makes it kind of the divide that you speaking about almost like okay you want to but then now still remaining separate and we're stuck in our ways and it's feeding into that capitalism because they want us to go back but then when we go back we could have been we can be the very much the strongest power in the world but we're not able to because of such divide so in my head I started thinking about okay maybe she's going to like continue forward and making another film that like shows what would happen if because we all know the what if that oh African could be the strongest robot but it's it's been a what if for so long >> I'll tell you she has another film you got to see also but to She this film was also has its own closure.

[00:35:19]>> She departed on a personal note.

[00:35:22]>> She departed on a personal note.

[00:35:24]>> The exorcism is very important. You can you know I know the you know generationally I don't know where you are but the hip-hop generation looking at his trousers. I'm I'm joking. If the hip-hop generation, you know, the the individual exercising, the individual uh issue is is over overlapped into a chorus soundtrack. This is why I think the African-American culture now stuck on a treadmill because in the individual exercising to me if art song film if it doesn't help you is no good for nobody.

[00:36:11]So for me she wanted to in her first film it's a it's about facts but in a very poetic way she addresses the the poetic inner thoughts of her the inner thinking and then she comes with her children and pours libation at her father's cemetery.

[00:36:32]Now her she's entering into she's overcoming her father's pain. That's very important. A lot of young people uh we don't know how to process personal trauma. We walk around like there's no trauma. But to me, a human being in this on this earth given white supremacy and the its capacity to dislocate. There's always this uh stuckness that you have to overcome. Otherwise, you're no good for nobody. Your film will never help nobody. Nobody. Nothing. Your music would not help anybody in my view. Uh your music helps if it helps you first psychologically. In other words, if it makes you accept yourself and heal you from the you know laceration that caused you to want to make a film about that etc. So but her next film Panaffrican is that's logical. So she she made a film first about housing in Washington DC called Brick by Brick. That's her her film. She knew what was this is Chocolate City when it was 70 or 80% black people. She made a film that long ago on Washington. Check out her film.

[00:37:51]Uh I don't think there's a movie on gentrification that could come equal to her film in my view without bias. It's just my judgment and um every time wherever it shows people say where was this film you know and our problem is distribution also we don't monopolize you know facts uh you know our documentary is not hit you in the head saying I have the facts it's a poetic presentation of history that's different poetic presentation of history she's crying through history she's bluing through history. She's jazzifying flu.

[00:38:30]When you hear the sound of Abby Lincoln in that in that place where she uh paid tribute to women being raped by these white people who are that to me is like the coming together of Max Roach, Abby Lincoln, Shereikana and it's the most to me I'm I'm choked when I see that scene and the way it re rectifies it circulate circular narrative. ative etc. So that is very very very important for you to really know. My wife and me we don't like to make films only about facts. We want to know our emotional uh journey in through facts.

[00:39:16]That's very important. I'm not interested in facts. The monopoly there's nothing white folks have not made a movie about. Facts is like not my interest. The poetic interpretation of facts by a musician or by a documentary filmmaker is a different story. Anyway, sister wants to say something here.

[00:39:39]>> She's in a hurry. I'm scared.

[00:39:42]>> Could you close when am I ever not hurrying? Um I wanted to say in regards to your question as a first generation also um the thing that highle always talks about is writing your story and like shooting your grandmother's wrinkles you know I think even though it's like you were saying like what's the next step the next step it's very subjective it's up to you but it's very simple in my opinion all it takes is sitting with your elders you know asking them about their lives you know I think like even if you can't get across the continent, you have your people here with you today. And I think that's the thing that our generation misses um because of dead December and all those things, you know.

[00:40:28]Um I think if you separate your identity from like he was saying the personal traumas or the struggles of your people, it is one that um I don't know. I think it's one that's like not grounded in anything cuz your your people struggled for something, you know, [clears throat] even if that that should not stop you from living your life, but I think you still have to understand where they're coming from. My friend made this term called like I think it's uh flagkin for like a African that you know in the diaspora that's like first second generation. Our connection is through the music, the food, the parties, but none of the struggles that the people actually go through. I think that's what a lot of us go through right now. You know, it's like Whiz Kid versus Vera Boy and it's like, do you know what's actually happening in Nigeria with the government? You know, so those are things that are important, but it doesn't always have to take so much. you just sit with your people and learn the lives that they actually lived, you know, and then that's where you figure out like what he was saying, what to exercise, you know. I think often times because we have access to so much information, things seem bigger than they are. You know, you you can read the history book, but you could just talk to your people.

[00:41:55]You know, it's very simple. You start very simple and it leads to more.

[00:42:02]And when you're talking to people, it's good for us also to hear what you're thinking about, what you're going through so that we can connect the two.

[00:42:13]You know, >> hey, I don't know what you're dealing with daily and what you're thinking and how you're connecting to this daily daily source of information that you all are are. [clears throat] I know it's drowning you, you know, uh, all the information and, you know, and even the music like you mentioned, share it with those elders. Share the things that you're going through. Make it all cohesive, you know, because it's good for us, too.

[00:42:49]>> Again, to pick it back off of her, you know, I'm >> Say what?

[00:42:54]>> Munyang is her name.

[00:42:56]>> Oh, I'm sorry.

[00:42:57]>> Sorry.

[00:42:57]>> Bunang.

[00:42:58]>> Munyang. Munang. Munang. Okay.

[00:43:00]>> Yeah. So you could know each other.

[00:43:01]>> Yeah. Instead of calling her her, she's right here.

[00:43:03]>> I'm trying to say it's not her.

[00:43:04]>> Right. Right. Right. I feel bad.

[00:43:06]>> She is Munyang. [laughter] >> Munang.

[00:43:08]>> Yeah. Go ahead.

[00:43:09]>> To piggy back off of Muny.

[00:43:10]>> Yeah. That's why I said uh less opinions is like your name. I said more knowledge. I took it like your t-shirt is your identification.

[00:43:20]>> That's exactly right. Thank you, brother.

[00:43:22]>> And turned it on me.

[00:43:23]>> Yeah. [laughter] No, but to piggy back off of >> Munang, >> I'm 56, right?

[00:43:31]Generation X. Our parents lived it.

[00:43:35]Right now, you your generation, it might be your grandparents, maybe even your grandparents, but I was in my 50s before it dawned on me.

[00:43:45]Why don't I ask my mom what was her experience like with the um integration?

[00:43:52]So I asked my mom and she just started pouring out information, you know, because she was in like the she was going into high school. So she was going into the ninth grade and in talking to her, I told her to stop. Let me get my recorder app. And we we talked for days and I have it documented. My little sisters, they don't even know I have this. But I'm saying all that to say the history book is in your people >> and you'll get a better story and a more honest story from them than you will reading it in a in a a book depending on the source.

[00:44:32]>> Talk to your people.

[00:44:32]>> I think, you know, to me that's what's in the in the film the most important part to me is the people she collected together. And I was in Atlanta. I didn't know how she put together you know this many you know folks to come to you know her camera interview on camera interview etc. So one of the thing I know both of us we've done a film called Wilmington 10 USA 10,000 for example in that film we didn't want to do a film about the young people who are the the focus of the story the the young people who uh you know who were accused of um crime and they are being tried. And when the project first came, I said, I'm not interested in the young to prove them wrong or right or they're guilty or not guilty. Was never my interest. I just want to know whose children are they. So I took me to North Carolina with many of my Howard students. Cherikiana was the actually the coordinator of the whole project. And we stayed all my students stayed with family. Everybody was located with family and they stayed in a family, not hotel nor anything. And we did a whole research on the grandparents. And we pointed the camera at the grand the parents than the kids who were the young people like the Panther Party political. I said, "Young people, they're unpredictable. Today they're militant. tomorrow they might be working for the FBI. So I don't rely on generation of mine for example at that time they were my generation but the parents I wanted to focus on because the history of the struggle of black people is what interested me. So we had to go to the parents and the parents we showed it all you know wherever it showed in Europe, America anywhere they think those folks are philosophers yet they're ordinary one is a maid one is a masonary one is a uh you know a nurse etc that society never points camera at them but we did because they are the custodians of stories and I just hope you don't lose that tape because that that could make you know you have to put it together. You have to get a young person who could edited it for you or you edit it yourself, put it together, put it on YouTube because it's not only your siblings, you know, we can adopt generational transaction without being related to this is what we forget. you know, not many black kids have photograph of their, you know, when I lived in DC, like the inner city Washington, a lot of the black kids don't have photograph of their own, forget their their grandmother or the So, what what we think we, you know, my wife and me, we feel that young people should adopt old photographs, black and white photographs, even if it's not their relations. In fact, we have a film we're trying to make now. That's the core story in the film.

[00:47:59]>> Yeah. I just wanted to highlight a few things uh at least from my own personal experiences when it comes to um identifying your own history, your traditions, and your culture. Uh I'm I'm still like fresh off the boat, you know.

[00:48:14]I grew up back in um Ethiopia and I came here around two years ago, I would say.

[00:48:18]>> Not the boat, I mean airplane.

[00:48:20]>> Airplane. Okay. [laughter] This is a two different journey.

[00:48:23]>> Okay.

[00:48:26]analogy analogy. Um, so I'm still fresh off the plane and what I would say is I'd want I'd love to speak a little bit about my personal experiences that has been here with different interactions I've had with people. And I'd also love to highlight that the mis that lack of connection that you'd feel about your past and history is not just from your side. What I want to say is even from our side, there's a certain disconnect that happens with people that live here, African-Americans in general, and even for our own life and our own history. At least I can at least let me speak from the capital uh city where I'm from and a lot of people from my age even we have this at least have lost this ability to speak with our uh our moms, our fathers, our grandfathers.

[00:49:29]We've lost this ability to ask questions about where we come from. What do we have? Why are we here now? Why what's the culture that why do we have this culture? What's the culture that we are going forward with? You know, we also don't ask these questions. And then when I came here and when I spoke with people uh I also saw that that lack of information that exists here. I've spoke with many people and I when I told them where I came from they asked me and let's say there's like some sort of film I reference or some sort of movie I talk about and they say oh how do you know that? And I mean what do you mean? And they say oh you guys have TVs there? Yeah of course we have TVs there.

[00:50:18]Yeah. what do you mean? And they're like, "Oh." And then I I talk about something else. It's like, "Oh, they they I've I've spoken with many people where they genuinely ask me, so how do you guys use bathrooms?

[00:50:30]How do you guys uh shower and everything?" I'm like, "What do you mean? Uh yeah, we have showers and we have toilets and everything." And I found it I was genuinely surprised in this day and age I remember to still be asked these questions you know in this day and age where information is I don't want to say free but easily accessible.

[00:50:55]It was very interesting to have these conversations in which oh hey uh I didn't know about this about your you know Africa in general. I I I've I've asked multiple people here to at least name me um like five African countries. And I don't mean this to admonish people here or say uh you don't know anything about this. I I never I wasn't asking from that point of view just to clarify where they stand and where what's the knowledge that they have and the struggle that I saw from them. I I found that very interesting and but also I I noticed a huge curiosity whenever I spoke about anything about oh this this is how we live this is how things are this is similarities that we have this are the similarities that we face also this is their difficulties that we face because a lot of difficulties happen back home in my country and in African countries in general and when I speak to them of those things I there's been genuine surprise and genuine empathy when it comes to the experiences that we have had. And yeah, I just wanted to say that you and I guess people here in general are not alone in wanting to seek out each other because there is that side.

[00:52:24]We we we feel that lack as well because we're all dealing with the same problem which is as interconnected as we are with the social media and internet and everything. We are not as connected in person. You know that we are not as connected individually, socially, communitywise. We don't have third spaces anymore. We don't have um exchange of culture as there used to be.

[00:52:50]At least I believe. And um I forgot what your name was.

[00:52:54]>> Munyang. And as she was saying as well, as Munyang was saying as well, um people only interact with the surface level culture as it were with, you know, the music, the movies, the um certain looks that look cool, whatever. And but we never actually sit down and discuss um about each other, about like the struggles that we've had. um what does your food taste like? Let's go have food together. Let's speak about our like differing experiences. And uh I just wanted to highlight that even from our side, we want to do that too, you know, and even from our side, we are failing because at the end of the day, this is a two-way street. is it isn't just that African-Americans in general should be looking towards Africa to interact and find out about their history. It's also the responsibility of us to reach out to you guys and say, "Hey, this is where you came from. This is your culture. This is your history.

[00:53:59]This is who we are as people." So, I just wanted to say that, you know, um if you ever find yourself admonishing yourself and saying, "I'm not doing enough or um what I there isn't what I do isn't where I want it to be." Is just like a relationship, we also are not providing you the necessary platform to express your curiosity, if that makes sense. So I I don't know if that makes sense, but like that's just what I wanted to say.

[00:54:39]>> Um yeah, just to add up on what my brother just said. Um um for my experience too um just to go more deep into this world of what you just said about like trying to find also trying to put that platform and trying to create this connection between our brothers and us to have this conversation.

[00:55:02]I I think also as Africans also born in the continent, we still facing this thing about who we really are because we can see that we still have this impact of um slavery noism in those in our countries. For example, in my uh from my experience, I'm from the um I'm from a a French-speaking country and I can see the difference um of how the French came to my country also colonized. Um and me growing up also in a French school, not really finding myself into the stuff that they're saying. Um I feel like we me coming here I realize is really what to be black a black person because what they trying over there for example the way of trying to oppress us again or trying to keep this system into saying that they are color blind. They don't believe that there is white, black, we all same color and trying but they're trying to do it in the way of of you should not really think about who who you are and trying to forget about what happening. So me coming here and see all that um for me it was like a mission to speak to the people that don't really understand. Um I can I have experience with some people they're asking me oh um how you do you watch TV over there you you live do you live in trees I never get offended about that because for me is okay I trying to help and trying to be a bridge because I had the chance to come here there is some people that don't have the chance to come here why letting all the smartphones all those media that are controlled by other people to again to trend to tell our stories so this is I feel like film making and media are a weapon.

[00:56:59]>> Well, I want to get in here a little bit, you know, because to me, I think this thing that do you guys live in a tree and stuff, it's not real. It's not real.

[00:57:10]It might be the dozens on you, which means you have to understand and study the culture you came into. I don't think you should expect black people to study you. That's very arrogant in my view.

[00:57:25]You came to a country, you better study white, black American history. You You owe yourself, not anybody. I don't care about what black people would would, you know, would say to me.

[00:57:38]>> Uh, you know, when I lived, I'm teaching at Howard, they used to call me Kinte.

[00:57:43]Little kids who are on the on the block who are angry at me used to call me Kinta, etc. whatever it but to me I was not going that they abused me they didn't know Africa what I do is >> study why this thing is like this and how come I you know what do I know about their reality see a lot of Africans especially Ethiopians they come entitled to begin with okay when I came to America I didn't come entitled. I came to work and go to school. But I know Ethiopians who came entitled by scholarship, by government scholarship, by state department scholarship, their mind and my mind are too different. The way we remember our encounter of America is different for me. I want to know who this black people are. The more I have a confrontation in whatever the white with white people or black people, I want to know more about them. Who are these people? Why do I take them for granted? Why do I think I know black people? Why do I expect them to be what I want them to be?

[00:58:59]That itself has its own colonial origin.

[00:59:02]So for me, your job as an African is to study the country you came to, including black people, including understanding where either alienated is at the time I came or enraged.

[00:59:25]Okay. I was more uncle Tom from Ethiopia with Ethiopian. I was uncle Tom. Black people were militant at every corner.

[00:59:35]And many Ethiopians would say, why are they so angry? But for me, I say, who are these people?

[00:59:43]What's my affinity with them? Why am I attracted towards them? And so it ends up into films I made from Bush Mama to as I the other day I spoke about you know there's no uh there's no one can explain to you that I would be born in a small town in Guer and make sofa in America to this day white black critics are puzzled in festivals they have presented papers say what is this guy is he lying he's not from Is he born here when they see ashes and embers?

[01:00:20]But I'll tell you why. Because I respectfully want to know black people.

[01:00:25]Because they created the conditions for me to even desire to want to be a filmmaker. I didn't come from Ethiopia.

[01:00:34]I'll be a filmmaker. No. Black people said, "Oh, they saw a little film I made. Oh, our brother, you film." I said, "Damn, they accept me. [laughter] Am I a filmmaker?" So the sanction comes from that. So to me, I want young people, I don't like us to come to America and say, "They said this to me, they said this to me, they said this to me." I don't think that's right.

[01:01:00]>> They should say anything to you. In fact, in Europe, they will throw banana on you to say you're a monkey. In Europe now, soccer players still play soccer, banana thrown at them. me, I will never play for nobody. You throw a banana at me, I'm finished with the sport. But we have black people who go on playing. So to me, we have to figure out our own mindset uh and not be surprised about what black people in America don't know about Africa. That's not our job. Our job is to know where we are.

[01:01:41]What is white supremacy?

[01:01:44]the history black people wrote my study study Walter Rodney, Professor Clark, Dr. Ben, and then you say, "Shit."

[01:01:57]Okay, so to me, let me tell you, I was one time in Ethiopia at the at the river Nile at where it jumps out of the Lake Tana and I heard about this this voice. I'm in the hotel I'm staying. I hear this voice and I said, "I know this voice." And I followed the voice. It was Dr. Ben.

[01:02:20]There was 150 Africanameans studying my history with him.

[01:02:28]And I said, "Hi, you better study your history. Know who the hell you are because they're saying you your country is important. They're studying your country."

[01:02:40]So to me, the African-American community is a complex community. It's a dangerous community.

[01:02:48]You know, we sometimes, for example, you know, if I check your pants or your shoes or I will see black American influence in how >> you walk or something. It's a powerful culture that has gone all the way to Africa. It could be in a positive way if we know how to intercept the discourse, but not from a crown prince saying, "Oh, how come you don't know? You don't know I have an apartment. We have skyscrapers like you. The hell with that?" Let me tell you, when I showed my film first, Harvest 30,000 years shot in Ethiopia at Howard University, 1,000 something folks, black folks into the theater. The film showed an Ethiopian woman got up and said, "We're just very unhappy that you kept showing them poor Ethiopians.

[01:03:46]You know, we have rich Ethiopians in Ethiopia, too. In Addis we have skyscrapers and I told her I am not proud of your skyscraper in Addis because it's monkey does monkey do imitate white folks high-rise has nothing to do with our culture. So to me she's ashamed I show peasant who are my uncles my goddamn uncles she's ashamed of them.

[01:04:12]So there's a different kind of mass fish manifestation. You guys have to be careful. I think we come to af from Africa. The first thing is study where we have come to. So we can locate ourselves and navigate this society.

[01:04:30]But there's nothing we want to teach black America. In my view, we can learn from black America because they're in the forefront of studying Africa to begin with.

[01:04:42]Show me a an African, not Fannon. Show me an African elite that has dealt with the implication of neoc colonialism in the mind of Africans.

[01:04:59]The Seneagali's um >> huh.

[01:05:03]>> Huh?

[01:05:05]>> No, no, no. The brother who the anthropologist >> she antadope the sheh antadop in his own continent is not known but in black America more books have come out with his contribution and I'm saying on racism Africans don't even have a single book except maybe the novelist like in googiwieno some benus man film and books but Africans have not yet tackled what's wrong with are ahead.

[01:05:37]How come in Ethiopia in the city capital city in Addis we have mentally demented Ethiopians who imitate Europe obscenely and in Dhakar and in in uh Ara we have to worry about that our own people there have not confronted neoc colonialism black people have gone to the mind the discourse in black America in sociology psychology Black people have been writing about the mental displacement of black people in Africa yet to write a book where he comes from in Ethiopia there's not a single Amharic book anti-colonial Amharic book and the psychological repercussion not a single book Ethiopians have written they write about love story they did this the queen of Shiva legend etc but when it comes to our mental colonization the the elite now, the leader, they're the best examples of European Pentecostal colonialism.

[01:06:44]Not a single book writes about them.

[01:06:48]And so I would say those of us, you know, Munyang is her folks are from Africa from I understand you guys >> Cameroon. So I'm saying I think uh the homework is really we come here we can learn from black America to deal with our obscene class that is in power has no vision in our own country people go to to the ocean to die to escape our own country.

[01:07:21]Okay. In our own country, our own resources don't go to our people. We are the center of disease.

[01:07:32]Africa is the industry of disease.

[01:07:34]Africa is the industry of war. Africa is the industry of poverty. What do we do about that?

[01:07:43]Okay. To me, especially even my brother is in film. I think you're in film. No, you are at least two of you in film. To me, filmmakers like our sisters here who want to be filmmakers. It's very important that we deal with this issue and we can learn a lot from black America in my view.

[01:08:06]>> Can I just join in >> just a quick thing? Yeah, you you can you can respect.

[01:08:16]>> Yeah. [laughter] >> No, I I encourage I encourage because I know there are many African-Americans who don't know know a dag on thing about any country in in in Africa. [laughter] You know, I've had to teach them. I've had to teach my own family members who think, you know, people still live, you know, on the on the ground and etc., etc. >> Yeah. But but the Africans in Africa know anything about other Africans?

[01:08:44]>> I know it.

[01:08:45]>> I know it.

[01:08:45]>> We are in the same boat when you >> But my whole thing is just it's it's too many resources out here now. You can learn it.

[01:08:54]>> Yeah.

[01:08:54]>> You can learn it. And >> you know when when Yes. And share it.

[01:09:00]When I talk to Cameroonians and Ethiopians and uh other people who I interact with and they tell me their names, I say, "Excuse me, that's not your name. Your name is not Charlie.

[01:09:14]Your name is not Susie.

[01:09:18][laughter] >> Tell me your name." Mhm.

[01:09:21]>> You know, and you know, again, that's that whole colonial uh thinking. You know, you come here and change your name because you think white folks can't pronounce it or they tell you, "I can't pronounce your name." I mean, Asians go through it, too. You know, I've been employed with people, Asians, come in and they change their names to European names. And I I can pronounce your name.

[01:09:45]Say it to me.

[01:09:46]>> Good business.

[01:09:48]>> Yeah.

[01:09:49]>> Yeah. cuz white folks will say, "I can't pronounce it. Change your name." You know, and the thing is is that we want you to teach us. We do. We want you to teach us. Show us. I've had I I talked to a Cameroonian brother one time and he told me he came here for the resources to go to school to get the resources. He says, "America is showing to us that it's the greatest place to live on this on this earth." You know, he said, "But I get here," and he says, "Y'all get treated bad. They treat me bad, too."

[01:10:31]You know, I said, "Yeah, because of the color your skin, you know, and it's important to learn what the African-Americans have gone through here, what we go through daily, you know, when you're trying to get jobs and they're not giving them to you when you have the PhD degree and the person they give it to has bachelor's degree, you know, that kind of thing. We go through a lot to get things and we are we are special. We are special. Uh every now and then, you know, our people did work hard for us to be able to own a car or own, you know, we worked hard, but it's just good to share the knowledge, you know, hey, tell these young folks, no, this is how we live. Let that this show them on the map where you are, you know, because you when when I came up in school, nobody taught me they only taught me American geography, you know. They ain't teach me nothing about any other uh countries or any other continents. And >> you know, everybody thinks uh Africa is one country, you know, come on, you got 54 countries on that continent, [laughter] you know, and so a lot of a lot of the knowledge isn't taught to our our children ended up, you know, >> this one, let me say something. You know, my son one time came from school because in in in in school is where the hurting comes. He came from school, the oldest son, he was a kid, maybe about ninth grade or eighth grade or seventh grade. He came and says, "Uh, we were going shopping and he says, "Hi, isn't Somalians more poor than Ethiopians?"

[01:12:25]And I said, "Uh, why do you want to know?" I said, "No, no, tell me, Johannes, why do you want to know that Somalians are more poor than Ethiopians?"

[01:12:39]And he says, "No, just let me know. At least I want, you know." And then I said, "No, I will only answer you if you tell me, are you do you feel are you attacked [snorts] that you want as an Ethiopian being, you know, from a poor country? Are you being attacked? And are are you looking for a poorer country to have beneath you?" I said, "No, I raised you not to to be allowing these things to come into fruition. You you do not look for poor.

[01:13:14]Ethiopia is there's poor there's poverty there that's a fact. Somalia there's poverty in Africa poverty everywhere. So there is no competition as to who's more poorer than. So don't go for it because the harassment. So for me I think it's very important that we don't go into we too are civilized discussion because that's dangerous. I think what we have to do is amplify our culture.

[01:13:44]Amplify as Munyang said our ancestors elders. Listen to our elders.

[01:13:51]Give them more avenue to speak. It has a therapeutic effect. These are things we have to do. And let those who walk in like people who walk to see my film is all I care. Give me a a chance. look at my film, see what you can get out of it. And so it's very important not to go into we we too are civilized with Europeans and Americans. I think that is, you know, to me the wrong journey, [clears throat] >> you know.

[01:14:33]went up to American University is a private white university and I'm going tell you they still hang bananas.

[01:16:35]No, no, no. You You have to >> I want to have the knowledge that they think.

[01:16:40]>> No, you should have a knowledge.

[01:16:41]>> That's what I'm talking about.

[01:16:42]>> No, no, but you should have a knowledge of yourself.

[01:16:46]>> You should have a knowledge of your origin.

[01:16:49]>> That is foundational evolution.

[01:16:52]>> But them people, them people, them people is not my job. My job is this young people that when I taught at Howard, that's why I didn't go to no white school. I didn't want to teach white kids. I want to teach black kids.

[01:17:06]It's a reliable investment to say that my kids at Howard say this is how the situation is. This is what you have to work etc. So to me, my sister, we >> helped me with sir, what it helped me with was getting more confident dealing with them.

[01:17:25]>> Yeah.

[01:17:26]confident saying the same knowing that I could become more knowledgeable.

[01:17:34]I it helped me dealing with them and having the knowledge about the way they think so that I can teach my children the way they think so that they don't get consumed in all of the feelings of why these I used to go home to my father and say what is wrong with those people what's wrong with them and my father had to say to me you don't listen to >> rhetoric.

[01:18:06]>> You don't listen. But you have to get taught that. That's why social media is so crazy with young people.

[01:18:14]>> No, my sister, the teaching should be by your own admission, we should know who we are.

[01:18:20]>> Yes, >> we should know our history >> and no rain would wipe it out. No flood would wipe it out of us. Well, that's what causes the trauma amongst Africanameans is not that we don't have that all together yet.

[01:18:37]>> Okay, let's hear this because we passed our past our time. Go ahead, my brother.

[01:18:42]>> So, so >> so sorry. Maybe it was my English when I was explaining myself, but I was coming to to exact that the same point that you just mentioned. me coming here is it was necessary for me as a man to understand because I I feel the same just like one one one anecdote that was happening one one time on set my um my one of my best friends the they're all African-Americans I was on set and we were working for one of my African brothers like we said that was born in the continent and growing up here and there is one moment like just speeding up the story and I was also trying to set up like a light and I was not able to to understand anything and my my friend from the continent also born there just said something like oh like talk louder he cannot understand English.

[01:19:42]It was my is my someone that claimed to be born in the continent saying something like this to me. And in this room, the first person that stand for me or my African-American friends and since that day and before that I knew that I can say that my friends that I made here are African-Americans.

[01:20:05]So this is why I decided to make movies and for me is obligation to build up that bridge and trying to understand them first so I can understand myself.

[01:20:20][laughter] Oh my god. Oh my god. Country.

[01:20:54]Thank you everybody.

[01:20:55]>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[01:20:57]>> So see you again. We will show her.

[01:21:02]>> I will be there.

[01:21:14]People [laughter] just want to belong. I think >> everyone wants to belong.

[01:21:31]>> Oh, I can do this, too. Oh, YouTube.

[01:21:33]>> Oh, I have a skyscraper. You have skyscrapers. It's like everyone wants to belong.

[01:21:40]>> You know what? Just know that. Thank you so much.

[01:21:44]>> They have to make themselves look look good. They they got to step on other notice and make themselves feel good about themselves.

[01:21:51]>> Literally last month like a white guy just told I thought he was on drugs.

[01:21:59]>> Oh, you got your shirt from your sold >> and he just I didn't turn around. He was already running away. So it's like me and my friends were We're all like just like and he's like this. I was just thinking like the audacity to do that.

[01:22:16]I've never seen >> that. And that's the thing. They feel like they can do that and say that stuff to you. That's why I think it's important you know where their brains are.

[01:22:26]>> Yeah. I mean, I know it >> and you know how to do their brains. And if you guys have ever God.