03-07-2025
Experience the powerful film screenings honouring Lumumba, Fanon, and Kriel in Cape Town
The first screening taking place will be that of 'Soundtrack to a Coup d'État' on July 4, at the Africa Unite office located on 6 Spin Street, Cape Town. The film screening is set to begin at 3.30pm.
Image: Supplied
Cinephiles and pan-African activists are encouraged to attend the forthcoming film screenings reflecting on not only the legacy of Patrice Lumumba but also Frantz Fanon and Ashley Kriel.
The first screening taking place will be that of 'Soundtrack to a Coup d'État' on July 4, at the Africa Unite office located on 6 Spin Street, Cape Town. The film screening is set to begin at 3.30pm.
The event will include a meet and greet among attendees, as well as a question and answer session.
The screening is inviting people to reflect on the life and ideals of Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It will include a gathering of advocacy actors, activists, communities, families, and human rights networks in Cape Town, where they will interrogate the foreign influences on geopolitical instabilities in Africa with the Congo Basin as a focal point.
The movie, 'Soundtrack to a Coup d'État', is a powerful documentary by Johan Grimonprez that explores the intersection of jazz, politics, and decolonisation, focusing on jazz legends like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Nina Simone in their roles as cultural ambassadors during the 1960s.
With a rich combination of archival footage, historical narrative, and unforgettable musical performances, the film reveals how these artists became unwitting players in the CIA's plot to assassinate Lumumba in 1960.
The documentary highlights the important protests of powerful women like singer Abbey Lincoln and activist Andrée Blouin, while probing the murky alliances between Western powers and the local forces behind the assassination.
Cinephiles and pan-African activists are encouraged to attend the forthcoming film screenings reflecting on not only the legacy of Patrice Lumumba but also Frantz Fanon and Ashley Kriel.
Image: Supplied
Adwa Movement PRO and Africa Unite peer educator, Ras Hein, said: 'An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans.
'As young pan-African practitioners, we advance the ideal that 'the People will praxis'. In the context of Congolese independence celebrated on June 30, and Patrice Lumumba, DRC's first prime minister, who turns 100 on July 2.
'We have organised this tribute event as a collective of civil society organisations, practitioners, creatives, and activists. The DRC represents the heart of Africa. In the words of Frantz Fanon, who turns 100 on July 20: 'Let us be sure never to forget it; the fate of all of us is at stake in the Congo'.'
In conjunction with the first screening, there will also be the Ashley Kriel Memorial Cypher taking place on July 11 to honour Cape Flats anti-apartheid activist and youth leader Kriel, who was murdered by police.
The event, taking place at the Castle of Good Hope at 5pm, is in commemoration of his legacy of leadership and the contribution that youth across South Africa played in the Struggle against apartheid.
The Ashley Kriel Memorial Cypher is an autonomous annual initiative that recognises that young progressives today, as in the past, have a critical role to play in the conscientisation of grassroots communities.
The event will include the screening of his documentary as well.
Cinephiles and pan-African activists are encouraged to attend the forthcoming film screenings reflecting on not only the legacy of Patrice Lumumba but also Frantz Fanon and Ashley Kriel.
Image: Supplied
Thereafter, there will also be another screening of Göran Hugo Olsson's 2014 documentary 'Concerning Violence' on July 15 to mark the centenary of the birth of psychiatrist, political philosopher, and Marxist Fanon.
The film is a 2014 documentary film based on Fanon's essay, "Concerning Violence" from his 1961 book "The Wretched of the Earth". American singer and actor Lauryn Hill narrates this exploration of the anticolonial struggles of the 1960s and 1970s.
'2025 presents us with important Africa liberation struggle commemorations: 100 years of Patrice Lumumba, 140 Years of the Berlin conference colonial project, and a 100 years of Fanon, as grassroots community leaders, advocacy space organisers and civil society organisations, we know it is important to create these spaces of alternative education,' Hein said.
Cinephiles and pan-African activists are encouraged to attend the forthcoming film screenings reflecting on not only the legacy of Patrice Lumumba but also Frantz Fanon and Ashley Kriel.
Image: Supplied
Hein said there are strong xenophobic currents in society, and that it is important to combat so that social cohesion can prosper.
'All of these dimensions (Kriel, Fanon and Lumumba) make up proper consciousness… It is different events, but usually it is the same networks (that is) growing and attracting people who want authentic and genuine grassroots initiatives like this.'
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