Drapetomania (2021)

Wandering through the ruins of the European Project, two figures attempt to find their way out. With their quest for freedom they rapture the timeline and disrupt the reality as the viewer perceives it. 

The film is an artistic reflection on the interventions by Mwazulu Diyabanza, who attempted to reclaim an object of the Africa Museum collection back in 2020. He entered the museum and took with him material culture symbolizing what merchants, soldiers and missionaries have stolen from his Congolese ancestors. What object would I take from the Africa Museum? And is an ‘object’ really an object or does it have an aura and a personality justice, reparation and a way home?

The term drapetomania refers to a pseudo-scientific diagnosis, that deemed Black people who wanted to escape captivity crazy, similar to how popular opinion treated Diyabanza's activism. He too was considered crazy. The film was shown on film festivals globally and was often accompanied by context programming about Black mental health in relation to colonial legacies, resilience and activism.

This film was made in collaboration with De Nieuwe Oost | Wintertuin, with the amazing contributions by Elisabetta Agyeiwaa, Rohan Ayinde, Junadry Leocaria, Illest Preacher, Peter Sumoah, Marc Sylla and Ernest Cisse.