How African philosophies inspired a new approach to staging film festivals in Manchester

Daniel Oyegade on the shoot for Homage, a See My World production. Photograph: Omar BalaaView image in fullscreenDaniel Oyegade on the shoot for Homage, a See My World production.

Photograph: Omar BalaaCotton Capital: ongoing seriesManchester How African philosophies inspired a new approach to staging film festivals in ManchesterSee My World, an event highlighting the pan-African thought via film, poetry and dance, builds on momentum sparked by local activists and creatives.

Filosofias africanas, ao explorar como as lições do passado podem moldar o presente e o futuro próximo, inspiraram um festival de cinema que chegará a Manchester.

See My World, a day dedicated to independent creators from across the African diaspora in the north of England, will take place at the Contact theatre on 21 November.

The festival is part of See My World’s year-round programme showcasing pan-African arts, culture and events.

It reflects the determination among creatives and activists in Manchester to build on the legacy of the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester – which connected luminaries of postwar independence movements with a shared vision of liberation – after last year’s 80th anniversary commemorations.

See My World’s CEO and artistic director, Tunde Adekoya, said this month’s film festival was taking inspiration from across the spectrum of pan-African thought, including the works of Kenyan writers John Mbiti, an Anglican theologian who died in 2019, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the author of the groundbreaking 1986 book Decolonising the Mind who died last year.

Both writers rejected the colonial conceit that African thought was inferior, stressed the importance of community and saw reclaiming African ways of knowing as essential to a people’s self-understanding.

While Mbiti sought common ground between African religions and Christianity, Ngũgĩ was a Marxist. He argued colonialism was motivated by cultural and economic conquest, and that European powers used language as their sharpest instrument.

Ngũgĩ abandonou famosamente o inglês para escrever em Gikuyu, uma língua Bantu principalmente falada no Quênia, e criticou o papel do cristianismo missionário na dominação colonial.

Adekoya said: “It’s a day dedicated to pan-African and global majority films from the north of England with exclusive premieres of documentaries we’ve been working on, which weave together expressions of liberation through art forms like poetry and dance.

Começando com a própria história do Guardian, jornalistas do Guardian exploram os legados da escravidão e da justiça reparadora ao redor do mundo.

View image in fullscreenThe author, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who abandoned English to write in Gikuyu – a Bantu language mainly spoken in Kenya. Photograph: Mark Boster/LA Times/Getty Images‘A sense of freedom’: 80 years on from the Pan-African Congress in ManchesterRead more“The whole idea is that it’s like a playground in search of strategies of liberation, using the festival as a way to explore different philosophies.

Film-makers have been invited to submit films lasting up to 30 minutes from across genres, with no screening fees charged.

Além das inscrições, o festival exibirá documentários produzidos pela See My World. Entre eles, Homage, uma “carta de amor cinematográfica à dança” que traça uma cultura por meio de retratos contemporâneos que ilustram artistas de dança e material de arquivo de Manchester, contando uma história de alegria, perda, migração, ritmo e resistência.

Meanwhile, Poetic Justice explores how pan-African thought and Manchester’s poetry scene speak across decades.

Adekoya added: “The idea is that we would go against the norm of how film festivals are, because when we think about decolonisation, we think about how structures have been created to alienate and exclude communities.

See My World film festival runs from 2pm to 11pm on Saturday 21 November at Contact theatre, Oxford Road, Manchester.