Diaspora Diaries (directed by Ghanaian-British all round artist Robert ‘Beyonder’ Asare) is an engaging docu-film that captures the broad meaning of the term and experiences of the people who refer to themselves as the African Diaspora by exploring the thoughts and opinions of a wide range of people of African ancestry born in East and Central Africa, Ghana, Madagascar, Egypt, Brazil, the US of A and Barbados, living in London.

Although released in 2007, this apparently timeless film, takes the viewer on a journey that starts in pre-colonial Africa and its present day political boundaries with ensuing consequences and weaves diverse yet interconnected experiences that people of varying degrees of African extraction / connections have and continue to have in Europe.

Albeit the challenges of a self-defined united, collective African Diaspora, given the myriad of routes and timescales taken to gather under this bountiful, diverse umbrella, (i.e. descendants of African slaves in the Americas and Caribbean and African-born immigrants to Europe as well as 2nd/3rd generation European-born West-Indians and Africans), I think this was a brilliant intertwining of voices that Beyonder facilitated (more remarkably so on a shoe-string budget), which could be brilliantly sequeled with the experiences of different stages of the reaspora (i.e. returning of Diasporan Africans to Africa), and the Africans who never left.

Trailer:

In relation, the short film African Booty Scratcher (written and directed by Sierra Leonian-American Nikyatu Jusu), despite the uh, controversial title, looks like a good platform for a topic worthy of discussion, particularly for 2nd generation teens with African-born parents who are conflicted by Euro-American and ‘traditional’ African values / identity that their parents want them to embrace during a life stage that is marred with finding one’s true, authentic voice as well as identifying with friends. Impressively, African Booty Scratcher has been screened in top festivals in USA, won a host of awards and has made it onto HBO for screenings in November 2008.

African Booty Scratcher-Trailer

Pop’Africana’s interview with Nikyatu Jusu.

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“Something so powerful as film should be celebrated and understood” – Anthony Minghella