In light of the current protests and worldwide response to the murder of George Floyd, Idrissou Mora-Kpai, documentary filmmaker and assistant professor of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies at Ithaca College, streamed his latest film America St. (2019) for free through Cinemapolis between June 2-9. Mora-Kpai’s works on post-colonial African societies, African migrations and diasporas have been screened at prestigious festivals around the world, the most acclaimed being Arlit, Deuxième Paris (2005), which was screened at the Film and New Media Program’s Essential Cinema earlier this year.

America St. follows Joe, an African American man living in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The story details his fight against gentrification to keep the shop that has been run by his family for years. Joe is an activist, a teacher and a role model in his community, whose journey takes us through a predominantly Black city increasingly threatened by white supremacy and racial separatism. Set against the backdrop of the killing of Walter Scott and the Emanuel Church massacre of 2013, the film presents a strong-willed community that is actively involved with the Black Lives Matter movement. On Wednesday, June 17, I had the pleasure of talking to Mora-Kpai about his film and the responsibility that Africans bear in the fight against racism.

Mora-Kpai himself arrived in Charleston in 2013 under an H-4 dependent spouse visa after his wife got a job in the United States South. Since his immigration status did not allow him to work in the country, all he had with him was his camera. As he explored the city, Mora-Kpai describes feeling that “there was a story here. A film to be made.” His curiosity grew from witnessing the tension between the Black and white residents of the city. Early on, his research at local libraries revealed the city’s history of slavery and subsequent migration.

“There’s no city in the United States as important to Africans as Charleston,” Mora-Kpai shared enthusiastically. “40 percent of African Americans in North America had their ancestors come through the port of Charleston.”

The Charleston Gullah Geechee community, for example, has strong ties with the African continent, and some of them have managed to trace their lineage back to Sierra Leone and other regions in West Africa, where local tribes speak similar languages as the Gullah Geechee. “What people also don’t know is that Charleston is really the place where racial capitalism started. Wall Street, the beginning of capitalism, [it all] started with cotton and rice money. The Africans who were brought to Charleston were already skilled in rice and cotton production, and that is why they were selected,” which he said motivated him to make the film.

America St. begins with a sweep through the city, with a focus on its marketplace where different artists and business owners talk with pride about their works and their continued cultivation of African cultures. The film’s main character, Joe, is introduced in his shop where he speaks of the community’s long history of violence. “The lynching hasn’t stopped,” Joe says with immense pain in his eyes. “It’s just that now, the police have guns.”

Throughout the documentary, Joe continues to advocate for better education and to fight against gun violence and gentrification. He consistently advises the community’s youth on love and support. The film also features the late Muhiyiddin Moye, a prominent local leader of the Black Lives Matter movement known for having tried to take down a Confederate flag in 2017 during a protest in Charleston. Mora-Kpai also covers the funeral of Walter Scott, who was shot in the first week he began filming Joe.

Despite the prevalence of African history to the city, and thus a shared experience of racism between Africans and African Americans, Mora-Kpai expressed disappointment towards African immigrants and Africans within the continent who have shown hesitance to support the protests against racial violence in the United States. “When I see some Africans posting on social media about police brutality in Africa, I think, yes, we have police violence in Africa, but the violence is not racial violence,” Mora-Kpai explained. “Racial violence is not an American problem, it is a problem for every African.”

Mora-Kpai further affirmed we are all the same, and that we are seen the same way. “African immigrants who are here [in the United States], because of [a lack of knowledge] and tools to analyze things, try to distinguish themselves from African Americans,” he observed. “I have my children here, the oldest is seventeen years old, and when they walk outside, no one can make a difference between them and African Americans. My children can’t go out and say, I’m an African so don’t kill me, kill the African American instead.”

“We need to understand, especially as African immigrants, that our being here is because of the Civil Rights movement. African Americans fought and are still fighting for us.” Mora-Kpai reminded other African immigrants. He pointed that while Africans are too quick to romanticize the American dream, they are not so keen on acknowledging the influence of African Americans in achieving it.

Undoubtedly, America St. comes out at a significant time when many people worldwide are looking to learn more about racism. It presents a necessary perspective on international racism, and particularly on the relationship between Africans and African Americans. Mora-Kpai hopes that people can learn from Joe, the late Moye and the Charleston community at large about prevailing racial violence to engage actively in the movements that strive for a better society.

As the interview concluded, Mora-Kpai was made aware that conversations about racism and diversity, equity and inclusion are ongoing within our institution, and he shared his own university experience. “I went to a university in Germany, where I was the only black student on the entire campus for five years. It was not easy, even if I did not face overt violence, being alone was a torture,” Mora-Kpai reminisced. “I understand the frustration of black students… I know what it’s like to be in school where no faculty member looks like you and nothing in the curriculum talks about your history or where you come from.”

Mora-Kpai emphasized the need for a courageous university administration, composed of people who can talk about racial issues beyond the current events. He expressed the need for an administration that is not paternalistic, but that takes into account the demands of people of color and holds space for an independent student body where Black students can express themselves. This advice comes at a crucial time when Black members of the NYUAD community are organizing to achieve exactly that, through the petitioned Black Students Advisory board. The advisory board will hopefully issue a space where Black matters are taken into account by the university’s administration and the general student body.

Interviewing Professor Mora-Kpai provided an opportunity to view the relationship between Africans and African Americans from a more nuanced perspective. America St. (2019) successfully draws a sensational picture of the adverse effects of injustice, making the film another fundamental resource on Black history.