Generation Africa

Generation Africa brings together documentaries made by filmmakers across Africa. They tell stories of the hopes and dreams of young Africans up against near-unbeatable odds.

Stories of Migration

Fati didn't want to go to Europe, it was her husband's dream. Unemployed, the TV repairman left their village in Ghana to try to make it to Europe, but didn't make it any further than Libya. He was arrested in Tripoli, and asked Fati to join him. She went, and when she fell pregnant, the couple decided to make one last bid at reaching the West. They made it to Italy and were sent to a migrant camp. It was there that Fati broke. She asked to be repatriated. But she paid a heavy price: her husband divorced her, and her community considers her a failure.

Fati's Choice

After several months in Italy in a migrant camp, a young Ghanaian mother decided to return home

Mary Monday is a journalist for a Ugandan radio station. With only her cell phone and a portable solar-powered charger, she records, edits and reports on the life stories of the refugees in Uganda's largest camp.

Mary works for a Ugandan radio station. She reports on the life of the refugees in the largest camp in Uganda.

Mary Monday's Radio

Manuela is smart and enthusiastic at school, but sad at home. She's eleven years old and preparing her first school certificate. She lives in Edéa, Cameroon, with her grandparents who do not understand why their granddaughter is unhappy when she wants for almost nothing. Except for her parents. They left when she was just four years old, to go work in Italy. Even if she understands it was for the sake of her future, Manuela still keenly feels their abandonment.

Njel and The Separation

Manuela's parents left her behind to find jobs in Europe, and the 11 year old is heartbroken by their absence

"I was 5. I was 13. I was 16." Originally from Fana, Mali, Mariam was sexually abused by a neighbour, then by her brother-in-law, and first cousin. During the last attack she tried to fight off her abuser, and her shoulder was injured. Dancing awakens the old pain in her shoulder and reminds her of the assault: but dancing is also how she reclaims her body for herself. Pregnant with her first child, she takes part in a workshop during which, with the support of the supervising choreographer and the other dancers, she reckons with her painful past.

Stay Upright

How an abuse survivor in Burkina Faso uses dance to heal herself

In Valencia, Spain, Ouloulou, Baldé and Doucouré, three young migrants from West Africa, speak daily to their marabout, who tells them the rituals to follow to obtain legal residency status. Meanwhile, in Mali, Bakary is preparing for the second time to reach Europe, also following the recommendations of his marabout.

In Valencia, Spain, three young migrants from West Africa talk daily to their marabout.

Taamaden

Paabi, 23, returned from Libya after his second attempt to make it to Europe. He's now trying to get 1,000 euros from a local NGO to invest in his own business - but by eschewing the rules. 

Paabi, 23, returned from Libya after trying to make it to Europe for the second time.

The Price to Stay

"People tell stories, but when it comes to theirs, they either lose their memory or decide to shut up." Born in 1994 in the Democratic Republic of Congo,  Akili Nadege had to leave her homeland for Rwanda, and then Burundi. She's suffered prison, torture, a murdered father and a torn homeland, and suffered isolation and loneliness. In this intimate documentary essay, the director Claudine Ndimbira had the young woman tell her testimony through a group of readers. These men and women who know neither Akili nor her past, but they will develop with her, over the course of reading her story, a deep bond of empathy.

Lend Me Your Voice

A choir of strangers tells the difficult testimony of a young Congolese refugee

Mahad was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, known for its Little Mogadishu, in the Eastleigh district. This colorful district is actually the second largest Somali city in the world. Mahad and his friends are called “Somali Sijui”, literally “the Somalis who don't know”. They are Somalis who are as much Kenyan as they are Somali, in search of their roots and identity in the cultural melting pot of Nairobi.

Almost Somali

In Nairobi, a popular social media content creator is working on films about the Somali identity

In southeast Nigeria, Mercy hopes to join her fiancé, who lives in Dubai. But the marriage negotiations between the two families over how big her dowry should be create tensions and put her dream future with her fiancé in Dubai on the line. 

In southeast Nigeria, Mercy hopes to join her fiancé, who lives in Dubai.

Ime Ego, The Bride Price

Adama and Awa, twin sisters, are trying to track down their father, a Burkinabè who left them in Senegal when they were children. Their journey takes them to Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso, in search of the other families he abandoned along the way.

Twin sisters Adama and Awa are trying to track down their father, who left them when they were small.

Footsteps of a Migrant

In central Benin, during the dry season, which is becoming increasingly harsh due to climate change, herders migrate en masse with their livestock. As this period approaches, herder Boube, worries about conflicts with farmers over water and space.

Leave to Live

In the footsteps of the Mauritanian traffickers who organise crossing to take west Africans to Europe. Are they helping these people on a dangerous journey or are they the heirs of the slave traders of the 16th century, at the time of the transatlantic slave trade?

Business as Usual

In the footsteps of the Mauritanian traffickers who organise crossing to take west Africans to Europe.

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