Africa Is a Country

‘Really you’re African?’

‘Really you’re African?’

By
Sean Jacobs

Filmmaker Shola Ajayi (she’s also a media studies student at The New School in New York City) is one of the people behind this humorous, but sharp, web series on “the African experience in America.” The point behind is to “refute negative portrayals of Africans in the media but it will also work as a window into the lives and traditions of individuals from different parts of the continent of Africa.” Here‘s a link to the trailer and below we’ve embedded the first three episodes. The first features Olajuwon Ajayi (Shola’s sister?) and people messing up her name. The second video includes the question, “Really you’re African?” to a Ivorian who people confuse for someone from the Caribbean.

And here are links to episode 4 and episode 5.

For more information, see the series website, its vimeo channel where you can watch newer episodes and on soundcloud for audio interviews.

Further Reading

Writing while black

Percival Everett’s novel ‘Erasure’ raised questions about Black middle-class complicity in commodifying the traumas of Black working-class lives, but the film adaptation leaves little room to explore these tensions.

The Mogadishu analogy

In Gaza and Haiti, the specter of another Mogadishu is being raised to alert on-lookers and policymakers of unfolding tragedies. But we have to be careful when making comparisons.

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.