Screening of the film Testament, by John Akomfrah | Activity

Screening of testament (1988), one of the most outstanding films by John Akomfrah, programmed alongside the exhibitions Extreme Collision: Hand-painted Posters from Ghana, 1990s (at the Filmoteca de Catalunya), and Projecting a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica (MACBA). The film invites us to think about memory, post-colonial identity and the experiences of the African diaspora in the United Kingdom.

In testamentthe condition of the postcolony is embodied in the figure of Abena, an activist turned television reporter who returns to Ghana for the first time after the 1966 coup that ended President Kwame Nkrumah’s experiment in African socialism. Adrift in a “war zone of memories” Abena is caught in the tension between public history and private memory. The film is characterized by a sparse framing and deliberately cold visuals that evoke an emotional landscape of postcolonial trauma.

This activity is part of the audiovisual series Visions of Panafricawhich expands the imaginaries of the exhibition Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica. Activity in collaboration with the Filmoteca of Catalonia.

In collaboration with

_{Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.}

exhibition

From 6 November 2025 to 6 April 2026

Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica