In 1960, sixteen newly independent African countries enter the United Nations, a political earthquake that shifts the majority vote from the colonial powers to the global south.
In February 1961, the jazz singer Abbey Lincoln and drummer Max Roach gatecrashed the UN Security Council to protest against the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s first post-independence prime minister.
In a decade of seismic protest – a wave of decolonisation movements across the African continent, and the struggle for civil rights marching in the US – the assassination of Patrice Lumumba unites the Afro-Asian block, with a demand for the UN General Assembly to vote for immediate worldwide decolonisation.
This involving film, deeply researched and anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, interweaves archival records with the story of the Black jazz legends – including Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone – who defined the era in more ways than one. It reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers, and the fascinating connections between post-war jazz, US imperialism and the Pan-African decolonisation movement.
Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation at the Sundance Film Festival.
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- Words by
- Joe Harris
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