Program: Yakhal’ Inkomo walkabout with Sipho Mdanda and Film screening: Come Back, Africa
Date: 27 April 2022
Time: 14:00-15:00
Venue: Javett-UP
Join us for a screening of Come Back Africa, one of the first docu-fiction films to be made in South Africa. In May 1957, Lionel Rogosin arrived in South Africa to make a political film. Rogosin, together with a South African team of underground journalists and activists, produced Come Back Africa, without the knowledge of the white racist authorities.
He wanted to avoid censorship, so he told the Apartheid authorities that he was shooting a musical that would showcase the vibrant culture of happy and content Africans in the country. In addition, Rogosin shot several hours of documentary footage, some of which got into the film.
The film is considered a docu-film because, alongside the documentary footage, Rogosin worked with William “Bloke” Modisane and Lewis Nkosi to create a script. Eighteen months later, the result was Come Back Africa, a film that combined a fictional narrative with documentary footage. The film is set in apartheid-era South Africa. A black farmer leaves the countryside and tries to make a living in Johannesburg. Released in 1960, the film offers a primary view of some thematics explored by the Yakhal’inkomo Exhibition, such as migration, systematic violence, injustice and resilience in the face of debilitating oppression.