The cinema of John Akomfrah and the latencies of future in the diasporic memory

Abstract

Departing from the hypothesis that the cinema could produce its own form of historiographical writing, this article explores the presence of the African diaspora in the work of the British filmmaker John Akomfrah. In the light of the link between image and history formulated by Walter Benjamin, I analyze the uses of archival footage that capture the experience of immigrants from the former British colonies in postwar Britain in the film The Nine Muses (2010). I argue that in Akomfrah’s work the archival footage extrapolate its usual documentary status whose function is solely bear witness of the moment they came into existence, revealing new potencies in the post-colonial contemporaneity.