Africa Is a Country

In Search of Freedom

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

In Search of Freedom

By
Nganji Laeh

Belgian-Congolese filmmaker, Nganji Laeh, along with musician and composer Badi and filmmaker Monique Mbeka Phoba, explore present day DRC via film.

Photo: Nganji Laeh.

I’ve been filming a monthly video journal in the Democratic Republic of Congo, offering a glimpse of my quest in the motherland. The series is called “”in SEARCH of FREEDOM.”  I am working with other afro-european artists such as the musician and composer Badi and filmmaker Monique Mbeka Phoba.  (Monique’s output includes the 2007 documentary film, “Entre la coupe et l’élection” (Between the cup and the election), co-directed with Guy Kabeya Muya, on the Zaire national football team, the Leopards, in the 1974 World Cup. Zaire was the first sub-Saharan African team to play in the World Cup. Previously Egypt, in 1934, and Morocco had qualified for the World Cup.–Ed). Here are the  videos.

EDITION 01 : arriving in the capital Kinshasa and stunting on the road.

EDITION 02 : greeting the (he)art of a city to paint a better picture.

EDITION 03 : in the name of the mother, the daughters and holy grandma.

EDITION 04 : shooting a period film challenging colonial myths in Congo is not easy … but Monique did it.

NEXT EDITION: Coming up end of May 2014.

Further Reading

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?

The road to Rafah

The ‘Sumud’ convoy from Tunis to Gaza is reviving the radical promise of pan-African solidarity and reclaiming an anticolonial tactic lost to history.

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler’s latest film is more than a vampire fable—it’s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle.