10 VIEWS ON MIGRATION & HOME AWAY FROM HOME

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The exhibition 10 VIEWS ON MIGRATION is the culmination of a project spanning several years that was initiated by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLS) offices in Tunis, Dakar, Dar-es-Salaam and Johannesburg in order to raise awareness of uncharted migration routes and experiences of escape within Africa. Background information can be found on roller banners providing details of the directors and the content of the nine short films from Egypt, Algeria, Djibouti, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal and Tunisia, which can be viewed individually on tablets with headphones. (A tenth film from Sudan could not be made due to the political situation. )
The films provide unusual insight into the causes and manifestations of flight and migration on the African continent.
Filmmaker Muhammed Lamin Jadama from Gambia and Hildegard Kiel, curator of the RLS project, are invited to the opening. Gina Hitsch from the Cologne-based initiative “Blacks in Cologne/Be Your Future” will report on African refugees from Ukraine and the discrimination they face.
Artist Jerry Helle, who comes from Cameroon, will also attend and his paintings will complement the exhibition. In his paintings, he explores his family history, postcolonial ideas and the concept of home and belonging.
One of the traditional trade routes on the African continent is the connection from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula across the Horn of Africa – ACROSS THE HORN. Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of migrants from Ethiopia and Djibouti have been following the same route. The film shows the infrastructure refugees use and the hurdles they encounter along this little-known migration route.
In AHLOU AL-KAHF, rappers Jojo M and Galâa recall, in the form of an open letter, the history of people from the Tunisian mining region of Redeyef who emigrated to French cities like Nantes. Black-and-white images recorded with a Super 8 camera provide a suitable, historical-looking backdrop.
LUNTANGO means ‘stranger’, and Muhammed, who comes from the Senegambia region and has been living in Germany for 10 years, feels like one no matter where he is: His family and friends in West Africa see him as European, in Germany he is constantly being asked when he will return home. The activist uses photography to try and express what it means to be Black and on the run.
The women who set out from sub-Saharan countries for Libya and Europe and become stranded in the desert city of Agadez in Niger feel like exiles (EXILÉES) and outcasts. The film is dedicated to Priska, a refugee who made it to the North African coast but drowned on the boat trip across the Mediterranean.
MA NOUVELLE VIE EUROPÉENNE – When Abou from Mali finally made it to Europe, it felt like a new life had started for him – a life with a future. But while his film about his voyage to Europe is shown all over the world, he lives isolated in a German refugee home. An essayistic reflection about Europe’s invisible borders and filmmaking as an act of self-empowerment.
The documentary PERDUS EN TRANSIT give glimpses into the everyday life of two different asylum seekers in Senegal, a country that has historically welcomed refugees from across the continent. The camera accompanies Mahamat, a 60 year old politican from Chad, and Jamal, a 26 year old student from Mauritania, and lets the audience decide whether Senegal is indeed the country of the ‘teranga’, or hospitality. – 93 –
SEARCHING FOR GHAZALA – Director Bassam Mortada decides to have an open casting among the community of refugees in Egypt. He is searching for the lead character in his first fiction film: “Ghazala” is about a Sudanese refugee who dreams of being a professional football player. With the backdrop of an audition and an acting workshop, the story of Rico and a group of refugees is revealed.
SYNCOPATION – A refugee from the Ivory Coast makes a living in the leather industry in South Africa – the film captures his daily routine, hopes, dreams and fears. In the wake of a scary anti-immigrant march, he defies the seven-year confinement his leather workshop had become, embarking on a proverbial walk across the city of Pretoria in pursuit of human integration.
Economic migrants have a hard time in Douala, the capital of Cameroon. The hard conditions of their work are often made more precarious by the risk of abuse and discrimination. The film BEN BA BATO’ presents an exception to the rule: The close friendship between two shopkeepers – Ali from Guinea and resident Bosis from Cameroon – give an example of openminded cooperation and the resilience of the human spirit.
Ahmad Mahmoud was never able to shoot the 10th film LIFELONG TRANSIT due to the political tensions in South Sudan. The exhibition features information about the director and his film idea.

 

The films of the exhibition
10 VIEWS ON MIGRATION

  • ACROSS THE HORN
    R: Oualid Khelifi, Algerien/Djibouti/Äthiopien, 2019, frz. /arab. OmU, digital, 20 min.
  • AHLOU AL-KAHF (COMPANIONS OF THE CAVE)
    R: Fakhri al-GhezalTunesien, 2019, arab. OmU, digital, 18 min.
  • LUNTANGO (STRANGER)
    R: Muhammed Jadama/ Vanessa Macedo, Gambia/D 2019, engl. /mandinka OmU, digital, 17 min.
  • EXILÉES (EXILED)
    R: Ager Oueslati, Algerien 2019, engl. /frz. OmU, digital, 14 min.
  • MA NOUVELLE VIE EUROPÉENNE (MY NEW EUROPEAN LIFE)
    R: Abu Bakr Sidibé, Mali/D 2019, frz. OmU, digital, 22 min.
  • PERDUS EN TRANSIT (LOST IN TRANSIT)
    R: Mamadou Dia, Senegal 2019, frz. OmU, digital, 18 min.
  • SEARCHING FOR GHAZALA
    R: Bassam Murtada, Ägypten 2019, arab. OmU, digital, 20 min.
  • SYNCOPATION
    R: Charles Tshuma, Südafrika/Ghana 2019, engl. OmU, digital, 20 min.
  • BEN BA BATO (FOREIGNERS)
    R: Christoph Nyemeck, Kamerun 2019, frz. OmU, digital, 10 min.

 

 

In cooperation with: Blacks In Cologne/Be your future, DOMID e. V., Friedensbildungswerk Köln, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Eine Ausstellung mit Filmen, Fotos und Texten zu Flucht und Migration aus zehn afrikanischen Ländern. 14.9. - 24.9., täglich: 15:00–19:00 h.

Guests

Muhammed Lamin Jadama

Muhammed Lamin Jadama is a filmmaker and photographer, born and raised in the region of Senegambia, which is now in Gambia.He has lived in Europe since 2008, where he first encountered the frustrations of the asylum process in Italy.In October 2011, he was drawn to Berlin in search of new adventures, and he has lived there ever since.His short film LUNTANGO (STRANGER) was made for the project ‘10 VIEWS ON MIGRATION’.

Hildegard Kiel

Hildegard Kiel has worked in the international sector for many years, at the interface between culture and development policy. She has been living in Tanzania for 20 years, where she founded and runs the Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zanzibar. She is particularly interested in cultural forms of expression and their impact on societal developments. Since 2019, she has been the project manager for North and East Africa at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Berlin.

 

Gina Hitsch

Gina Hitsch was born in Accra in 1995. She studied a dual programme of social work and management in Cologne. She founded the association Be Your Future and has been mentoring Black refugees in Cologne since war broke out in Ukraine via the initiative “Blacks in Cologne”. Most of them are from African countries and were studying in Ukraine, but unlike refugees with Ukrainian nationality, they have not been given residence, work or study permits.

 

Jerry Helle

22-year-old artist Jerry Helle comes from Cameroon, has worked in Lisbon and Douala, has been living in Houston (USA) since November 2021, and will be studying in Rotterdam from September. His artistic works are influenced by the conflicting value systems he has seen in the Western world. His paintings conceptualise his family history, post-colonial ideas, spiritual questions and the concept of home and belonging.