Africa Day is here and the African Union has declared that the theme for this year’s celebrations on 25 May will be Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa we Want.
One such African that invokes this theme in her everyday life and work is Louda Productions founder Mpho Sethole. She is currently putting together her first docu-series titled Black Ribbon which explores and navigates African identity and roots.
She said, “Black Ribbon was inspired by the need to understand different backgrounds and why we act a certain way as a people. After reading Capitalist Nigga by Chika Onyeani, I started making time at school to document my friends. I would ask them questions about how they feel about being ‘coated’ black.”
Sethole decided on the title Black Ribbon due to how she interpreted the two words. She explained that we put ribbons on things we consider pretty or beautiful, adding that a ribbon is meant to intensify beauty and evoke a happy emotion. She said black was not a colour but rather a shade, as it was the absence of light even though some consider it a colour.
“Black, the colour that isn’t really a colour but is what we are called. I’ve always wondered why my skin had to be justified and judged. “Eventually I stopped doing that when I realised my skin is just that, my skin, it’s got colour.”
According to Sethole, Black Ribbon will help emphasise why Africans have their own platforms to promote, learn, engage and understand each other. “It takes us back to sitting around a fire and exchanging knowledge, powerful stories and is an accommodating gesture for one another.”
Sethole found it crucial to address the misconceptions about African roots and identity. “If you are born black in Africa, you are not a foreigner. We know nothing of borders and why they were placed. It is a habit we have inherited and we should undo its importance and power over us by getting to know one another again.”
The brains behind the documentary had a few words to share with the world on Africans this Africa Day. “There are many misconceptions about you, what you carry and who you are. You’ve been robbed of love. You’ve been through chapters and chapters of footprints that have been left on you.”
She encouraged the world to treat Black Ribbon as a therapy session and journey to discover oneself.
