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Portrait of filmmaker Akuol Garang de Mabior
Design Indaba
Cape Town, South Africa
South Sudanese filmmaker Akuol Garang de Mabior was selected by Design Indaba to take part in our collaborative initiative with Google Arts & Culture, titled Colours of Africa. Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them. The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.
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- Title: Portrait of filmmaker Akuol Garang de Mabior
- Original Source: Design Indaba
- What it Means to be African: I look forward to the day when there is room for us to be more than one thing, to be regarded and regard ourselves in the fullness of our humanity. To recognise what makes us beautiful, ugly, hopeful, despairing, justified, mistaken, the things that make us alike, the things that make us different and the universe of things in between.
- Subject: Akuol Garang de Mabior
- Rationale: Blue-black is a term used to describe very dark skin – a common characteristic of South Sudanese people. As a dark-skinned black African person, I cannot deny, hide from, put on or take off my Africanness. I had to confront the negative ways the world sees Africa. The most shocking and painful realisation is that many black people and people of colour on the continent and beyond have adopted this same gaze. When people look at me, they see Africa. I wish that was a good thing. The blue-black people are looked at through a narrow lens with room for one thing at a time. In attempts to challenge this gaze, we are now a vague collection of positive things. The flipping of the lens does not change the fact that it's narrow. There still seems, in this paradigm, to only be room for one thing at a time. People talk about “colourism”, a word coined by the activist and author Alice Walker. Walker defines colourism as “prejudiced or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their colour,” and asserts, “I am worried, constantly, about the hatred the black black woman encounters within black society”. I prefer “afrophobia”, which is the active distancing from the perceived wretchedness of the deep, dark, middle of Africa – where I'm from. Making, watching and engaging with films has been my way of grappling with afrophobia. I loved seeing very dark-skinned black people on the screen in films by Djibril Diop Mambety and Ousmane Sembene. I loved that they did not fetishise, glamourise, victimise or render us abnormal. I don't think that reversals or oppositions are an effective way of attacking and dismantling the powerful and enduring stereotypes about black people and Africa. Because they say we are dirty, now we say we are clean. Because they say we are stupid, now we declare we are smart. Because they say we are guilty, now we all have to be innocent. Because they say we are ugly, now we are all beautiful. The stereotype renders us sub-human, and our oppositions cast us as super-human. Both ways we lose our humanity. UNTITLED (2018) Akuol Garang de Mabior I don't only or ultimately want to be affirmed, to be happy, to feel good, or to be comfortable I want to experience the fullness of my humanity To be recognised in the fullness of my humanity What hurts so much when you experience afrophobia in its countless manifestations Is knowing that you have not been seen in the fullness of your humanity Knowing that an aspect of the hatred is murderous That people do not just hate you, They don't want you to exist. They pray that their children don't look like you. They want to purge their countries of your kind. You do not exist in their dreams of the future. Sometimes you are melanin. You are magic. You are a mythical creature Until you start to speak about the pain you have experienced as a dark-skinned black woman Then you are crazy. You are divisive. You are jealous. You are silenced. You need to learn to love yourself Why are you so self-conscious? Why do you care so much about what people think about you? We don't want to teach or preach any lessons We want to be brave enough to face the things that cause us pain. To ask our mothers and our aunties and our sisters and our daughters What we can do to heal We are seeking not only or ultimately affirmation, validation, beauty or good feelings, We want to heal And to be recognised in the fullness of our humanity. A QUOTE FROM 'UMTHANDAZO' BY JULIE NXADI "We are not without sin There are many things we have done in the name of being strong This is us We're ugly But if we disgust you who made us lord Then who will look at us"
- Project: Colors of Africa
- Location: South Sudan
- Lead Quote: I prefer the term “afrophobia”, which is the active distancing from the perceived wretchedness of the deep, dark, middle of Africa – where I'm from.
- Hex Code: 110F37
- Colour Choice: Blue - Black
- Biography: Akuol Garang de Mabior is South Sudanese, was born in Cuba and grew up in Kenya. She has directed three short films: Tomato Soup (2017), Ihlazo (2017) and Fall into the Sky (2018). All three have screened at festivals and events around the world from the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa and the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa to the Pan African Film Festival in the US. She is currently working on her first feature-length documentary, Nyandeng, which received the New Perspectives Seed Fund (2020) from Doc Society, the Whickers Film and TV Funding Award (2020) and the IDFA Bertha Classic Fund (2020). Believing that the perspectives of African women are undervalued, she aims to create stories for the screen that reach African audiences and encourage a renewed way of seeing African identities and futures.
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