It’s an honor to present this year’s CinemAfrica Film Festival, being one of the largest Nordic region’s festivals featuring quality African films and films from the African diaspora.
I am one of many, in the current board of directors, in the legacy of CinemAfrica that started in 1998. As an idea between swedes who saw the magic of African storytelling and how it was relevant to understand the African continent and to build relations across borders and honor stories that intertwine our continents to the larger African diaspora.
There have been many before me, who have put in hours of volunteering and time just to make this festival happen and for us to carry on the legacy. That the idea has grown and prospered and lived for these 25 years is proof of engagement, courage and consistency – in a time where tolerance of the African body and experiences as well as presence is questioned, is when CinemAfrica is needed the most. CinemAfricas aim is not only to secure an entry point for African film and story-telling in Northern Europe, it is to as well ensure that the image of Africa in this region in continuously developed and renewed but also to provide the African diasporan in our region with a valid and relevant image of home and diaspora. As we are formed by what we see. On this 25th year anniversary of CinemAfrica, we have also rested in the opportunity that we have created and enabled the African diasporan in the nordics, to find safe spaces in which to explore and experience African storytelling with others of similar backgrounds and experiences, but also with those who are capable of understanding the true wealth of African storytelling through film, music and dance.
Throughout history, there has always been a dehumanization of black experiences, black stories and black bodies. Empowering the idea that black and brown bodies have been present in all aspects of world history and spaces, is a means of bringing forward our relevance to all!
I welcome you all to celebrate and honor those who in different ways, have built CinemAfrica and ensured that we can enjoy films and storytelling that matter, enlighten, make us laugh, bring sorrow but peace and that humanize us! Join us at the festival, and as a member so secure that we are here for at least another 25 years. “We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity.” – Fred Hampton, Black Panther
See you in the cinemas!
Maureen Odora Hoppers
Chairperson of CinemAfrica Sweden
