About — WHEN I SAY AFRICA

PIPPA BIDDLE was a wide-eyed High School student who was seduced by images of helping in Africa. On a trip to Tanzania, Pippa witnesses something that forces her to question both the endeavor and her motives.

ZINE MAGUBANE, pop culture archivist and educator, flashes back in time to unpack colonial and current images of Africa in the west. She shows their power to define and dehumanize, and reveals how little has changed over time.

BONIFACE MWANGI, once a teenager from the streets of Nairobi, started a youth-led movement for social change in Kenya, shattering the stereotype of the passive aid recipient. We follow Boniface to the U.S., where he travels to a high school and university and presents students with a provocative challenge.

Kenyan writer BINYAVANGA WAINAINA, who grew up in a postcolonial world full of promise, was a teenager when the Band Aid and Live Aid concerts ushered in a new era of doing good. He reflects on how it feels to be on the receiving end of a humanitarian gaze.

FILMMAKING TEAM

WHEN I SAY AFRICA unpacks the problematic white savior narratives that are at the root of Western entanglements with Africa. As white filmmakers we intend the film to be a space where self awareness and a critical view of media, pop culture and humanitarianism can lead Western audiences to reflect on their complicity in systems of global privilege. The film sets out to disrupt problematic narratives and asks audiences to think about different ways of representing and engaging with the continent.

Cassandra Herrman, Director/Producer

Kathryn Mathers, Producer

Sean Jacobs, Executive Producer

Linda Peckham, Editor/Co-Producer

Boima Tucker, Music Supervisor

Kesivan Naidoo, Composer