AfricaIs aCountry

New Films

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

New Films

By
Sean Jacobs

This list is partly self-indulgent. It is also a way–hopefully weekly–for me to keep an online record of films I still would like to see. Here’s a few.

First up, Lotte Stoofs’s documentary film about the life of a landmark hotel in Beira, Mozambique:

“Swahili Fighting Words,” a feature documentary about a Tanzanian filmmaker’s search for his family roots:

“The Encounter,” a short about “a young white woman on a search for inner peace, [who] gets stuck in an elevator with an older African man”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCkWB5Vc7_k

Then there’s “Umkhungo,” a short film by a Johannesburg director that weds Hollywood and popular South African beliefs about the supernatural:

There seems to be a few films with themes on gay beauty competitions in Cape Town. We’ve blogged here about “Glitterboys and Ganglands.” Now there’s “Sisterhood,” a film about 3 farmworkers who dream of acceptance and winning a local drag competition.

The documentary “Blood in the Mobile”:

Director Franck Piasecki Poulsen embarks on a personal mission to uncover the origin of the minerals in his Nokia cell phone. Navigating the bureaucracy, corruption, and dangers of eastern Congo, he arrives at Bisie, one of the largest and most notorious illegal mines in the region, where armed groups maintain tight control and inhumane conditions, and child labor runs rampant. Determined to know if his cell phone is funding conflict in Congo, Poulsen works his way into Nokia’s corporate offices, where he confronts executives about their mineral supply chain.

Here’s the trailer:

Tom hasn’t yet seen the film “Blue Bird,” by Belgian director Gust van den Berghe, about “two African children” who leave “their village” to find their lost blue bird. Yes the bird is literally black. I think it is supposed to be a fable or a fairy tale:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK7qRw_qe6g&w=560&h=315]

Finally, some short films in their entirety. (These I have watched):

I like the 3 shorts on cultural producers from the DRC made by Cultural Resistance. First up, “Thembo Kash: Cartooning for Justice,” a 5 minute film about a political cartoonist. Sample opinion: “I’ve drawn Congo as a cake. People are helping themselves, but the Congolese don’t benefit from it”:

Then there’s a film about rapper Lexxus Legal, “a long-time veteran of the hip-hop scene in the DRC”:

Finally, there’s a film about the legendary Papa Wemba (he’s been singing since 1969) talking about his music and politics in the DRC:

Further Reading

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.

Empire’s middlemen

From Portuguese Goa to colonial Kampala, Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book shows how India became an instrument of empire, and a scapegoat in its aftermath.

À qui s’adresse la CAN ?

Entre le coût du transport aérien, les régimes de visas, la culture télévisuelle et l’exclusion de classe, le problème de l’affluence à la CAN est structurel — et non le signe d’un manque de passion des supporters.

Lions in the rain

The 2025 AFCON final between Senegal and Morocco was a dramatic spectacle that tested the limits of the match and the crowd, until a defining moment held everything together.