A DEUSA NEGRA (Black Goddess. BR/NG 1979. D: Ola Balogun)
Introduction: Didi Cheeka (Lagos) and Vinzenz Hediger (Frankfurt, ConTrust)
Lecture: Crossing the Black Atlantic: Ola Balogun and A Deusa Negra (1978)
Reversing the course of the middle passage a significant number of relatively well-to-do Afro-Brazilian families relocated from Brazil to Lagos in Nigeria in the early20th century. In his 1978 film “A Deusa Negra” pioneering Nigerian film director Ola Balogun, who is himself from one of those families, tells the parallel histories of the transatlantic slave trade and one young contemporary Nigerian’s search for his Afro-Brazilian roots.
Didi Cheeka is an off-Nollywood filmmaker, critic and archivist-activist in Lagos.
Vinzenz Hediger is professor of cinema studies at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Film: A DEUSA NEGRA (Black Godess. BR/NG 1979. D: Ola Balogun)
“On his deathbed, the young Nigerian Babatunde makes his father promise to search Brazil for traces of his ancestors who were once enslaved there. Based on a can-domblé rite, his journey leads him deeper and deeper into the foreign culture and, in a dream-like sequence, gives him a deeper understanding of the suffering and resilience of his ancestors. Balogun effortlessly combines the present with the past, real worlds with magical ones, discourse with trance. The music by Nigerian drummer Remi Kabaka, which plays with repetitive patterns and distortions, also contributes to the hypnotizing atmosphere.” (Arsenal e.V.)
Further information and program: Here…
