“Black N Black” is a documentary that explores the relationship between African Americans and African immigrants in the United States.
I always thought the issue around the division between African immigrants and African Americans needed to be addressed. What I didn’t take into consideration was the reasons for the division, which are not as simple as they seem. When I attended high school back in the early ’90s, I was excited to see the first African students enrolled, but disappointed when I noticed they separated themselves from the black Americans and made friends with all the other races instead. Feeling like we had some sort of unspoken connection to one another, I thought the behavior was strange but clearly, I was missing something important. The reasons these particular students separated themselves seemed justified, as I noticed the black Americans were not very welcoming. I witnessed many of my classmates making fun of their lack of English, the way they dressed and even their physical features, which resembled their own. Shamefully, most of the black Americans didn’t want any affiliation with African culture, and certainly never wanted to admit being of African origin.
Director Zadi Zokou says he was inspired to create this film celebrating the kinship between the two groups. But is there truly kinship between the blacks born in America and those who arrive straight from Africa? In order to fully gain an understanding of why there has always been a separation of the two groups, the film opens with the historical events of the slave trade that shipped over 12 million across the ocean, stripping them of their roots, culture and family ties. The historical events lead to the very question of how does one who has not only been stripped from who they are but indoctrinated to reject everything about themselves in the form of self-hate, now reconnect with the very culture that was taken from them?
Let’s be honest, America has never embraced, uplifted or praised any part of African people, history or culture. Anything from African origin was, and still is considered ugly, primitive, uncivilized and beneath all other races. Something profound in this film was the way in which both cultures have been programmed to disengage themselves from one another through negative media programming. For black Americans who have never traveled to Africa, studied African history or enveloped themselves in the culture, the way in which they are receiving information is mainly through movies, television programs, commercials and other media sources that depict Africa in the most negative circumstances possible. I remember growing up, constantly seeing commercials about starving African children with big bellies and flies around their faces and some white person explaining how we can help by sending a few dollars a month. There are also the movies that always present this image of Africans in the jungle chasing lions and fighting with spears or in some poor village drinking dirty water from some dried up river. While black Americans absorb these images and develop shame towards Africans, the Africans are watching television of black Americans in movies where they are cast as lazy, drug dealers who don’t want to work and always in trouble with the law so when Africans come to America, both groups want nothing to do with each other.
Throughout the film, black Americans are asked about their thoughts regarding African immigrants in the US and why they disassociate themselves from them. Many responses stemmed from black Americans feeling that Africans viewed themselves as “better.” They also felt they were taking away their jobs and were elevated more in society being given more privileges. Whites even admitted to feeling more comfortable dealing with Africans than they do black Americans because there is less tension due to the residuals attitudes of slavery in America. Some Africans revealed to not wanting to be affiliated with the negative stigma of being grouped with black Americans.
What I loved about this film is how solution-oriented it is. The questions raised to both groups was what can we do to better understand and support each other? One of the main issues was the opening dialog about our ancestry, stigmas and understanding our separate struggles, the same struggles the future generations of those immigrants will have. Some Africans admit feeling they should take responsibility for being open in regards to educating black Americans about their culture if they wanted to learn, instead of being closed off. Another important solution is supporting blacks by being more vocal and active in movements involving civil rights in America and not participating in propaganda aimed at separating the groups.
This films so refreshing because it not only presents a problem that I wasn’t aware was so deep, but it also presents solutions that I myself am going to work on building. I want everyone to see this film because it presents so many issues, not just within two cultures but issues we have within ourselves when we have no connection to the most important thing there is: our past.
“Black N Black” recently premiered at the 2019 African Diaspora Int’l Film Festival
