Panel 4: Film Discussion – John Akomfrah’s Mimesis: African Soldier

This conversation discusses Ghanaian-born filmmaker, John Akomfrah powerful new film "Mimesis: African Soldier," with historian Carina Ray, and visual studies scholar, Joseph Oduro Frimpong.

An act of remembrance, the film commemorates the millions of African soldiers who fought in World War I. Each soldier’s story represents a point of departure, a place they left behind as they journeyed into a world of violence and upheaval. For many, there was no point of return. Those who survived have been written out of the history of WWI as a European war. Akomfrah’s film returns these soldiers to a history which is incomplete without them.

This film discussion was part of The Africa Institute 'Global Ghana: Sites of Departure/Sites of Return', the second edition of its ‘country-focused season’—an annual initiative exploring one African country or African diaspora community through a range of scholarly and public programs.

Read more: https://theafricainstitute.org/