ROOTS 2024: Film Cycle “Sankofa” by Haile Gerima
Date: November 28 at 9 p.m.
Venue: Lagos Cultural Center
Free entry
SANKOFA follows Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), a black American model on a photo shoot in Cape Coast, Ghana. Through Mr. Gerima’s imaginative narrative, Mona travels back in time to a plantation in North America. There, she transforms into Shola, an enslaved African woman who works in the master’s house and experiences the horrors of slavery first-hand. In becoming Shola, Mona recovers and confronts her ancestral identity and experience. Although she has suffered monstrous trauma at the hands of white men who owned people for profit, Shola’s interactions with her fellow enslaved Africans are rich in humanity, respect and dignity for one another. In particular, Shola bonds with Shango (Mutabaruka), a rebellious African who works in the fields, and Nunu (Alexandra Duah), one of the few enslaved people who remembers her life in Africa before being robbed and terrorized by European traders.
SANKOFA is produced by Negod Gwad Productions, in co-production with the National Cultural Commission of Ghana, DiProCi of Burkina Faso and NDR/WDR Television in association with Channel 4 Television. Shirikiana Gerima is the film’s co-producer.
