Slave Routes: A Global Vision / Africans Out of Africa

Film

by Georges Collinet & Sheila S. Walker

Details

Various Countries / 2011 / 55mins / Documentary / English and French

Africans out of Africa evokes the centuries of forced migrations of millions of people from the continent of human origins enslaved in societies of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Portraying the stark realities of this tragic past and the inequalities inherited from it, the film also shines light upon the contributions of these Africans and their descendants to the development of the societies in which they found themselves, and highlights the contemporary importance of this globalized African Diasporan presence.

Trailer

About the Directors

Georges Collinet

Georges Collinet, a native of Cameroon,West Africa, based in the U.S., is one of the best-known and best-loved broadcasters on the African continent. Collinet's French and English language music programs broadcast to Africa via the Voice of America. They have entertained millions of devoted fans. Wherever he travels in Africa, he is acknowledged by musicians and the public alike as a favorite son of the continent. Born and raised in Cameroon, then educated in France, Collinet came to the U.S. in 1959 to produce a film and ended up staying. As he puts it, "The film didn't work out, but the country worked on me so well that I stayed". A warm, relaxed music enthusiast, Collinet worked with African musicians in Paris during the '70s and early '80s, supporting their efforts to retain African roots in their music and to develop a distinctive professional sound. He co-founded the first journal in Paris devoted to contemporary African music and co-created the Maracas D'Or, the equivalent of the Grammys for African music. Collinet's interests are as diverse as his background. In addition to hosting PRI's successful Afropop Worldwide series, he hosts two television programs broadcast to Africa. Collinet has hosted and produced several films on development issues in Africa, and traveled to Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Madagascar and elsewhere to work with local media professionals and artists on creating effective messages on issues important to those countries. Learn More

Sheila S. Walker

Sheila S. Walker, PhD, cultural anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, has done fieldwork, lectured, and participated in intellectual and cultural events in most of Africa and the Global African Diaspora, and her goal is to educate the public about this diaspora. Her book, African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas, resulting from her international conference on “The African Diaspora and the Modern World,” has a companion documentary, Scattered Africa: Faces and Voices of the African Diaspora. Her book, Conocimiento desde adentro: Los afro-sudamericanos hablan de sus pueblos y sus historias/Conhecimento desde dentro: Os afro-sul-americanos falam de seus povos e suas histórias/Knowledge from the Inside: Afro-South Americans Speak of their People and their Histories (in Spanish and Portuguese), features chapters by Afrodescendants from all the Spanish-speaking countries in South America. She co-produced the documentary, Slave Routes: A Global Vision for the UNESCO Slave Route Project. And her most recent documentary is Familiar Faces/Unexpected Places: A Global African Diaspora, which was shown at the United Nations as the 2018 Black History Month program for the UN International Decade for People of African Descent. It was sent for showings at UN Information Centers in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. Dr. Walker was a Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for African and African American Studies, and held an endowed chair in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, and was a Distinguished Visiting Professor, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the African Diaspora and the World Program at Spelman College.

Website — afrodiaspora.net Learn More