“Bigger Than Africa” Digs Deep Into Black History

Bigger Than Africa, Toyin Ibrahim Adeyeke’s award-winning documentary about the enduring influence of the Yoruba culture, will air on WORLD on Saturday at 11 p.m. EST as part of Black History Month programming. Distributed by American Public Television (APT), the film will be available for two years on PBS.org and the PBS Video app (available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO).  

When the slave ships docked in North America, Brazil and the Caribbean, Africans carried with them hundreds of cultures, traditions and belief systems. But it was the Yoruba culture, in particular, which survived slavery to take root across the New World. Featuring interviews with experts including Afrobeat musician and activist Femi Kuti, Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo, Nobel Laureate and playwright Wole Soyinka, Bigger Than Africa traces the journey from the “ports of no return” in West Africa to destinations across the Americas, and back again, revealing how Yoruba identity, spirituality and traditions endured, evolved in the diaspora and continue to thrive today.

Bigger Than Africa, which has been screened at the United Nations, won Best Documentary at Charlotte Black Film Festival, the Jury Special Award at the Festival International du Film Panafricain de Cannes and Best Documentary at the International Houston Black Film Festival. It was also nominated for an Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Documentary. The film was produced by Motherland Productions Inc.

“Bigger Than Africa is a unifying documentary,” said Adekeye, a Nigerian-born, Los Angeles–based director. “It helps West Africans understand what became of those taken during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, while giving descendants of the enslaved a deeper sense of the lives, cultures and histories that came before the Americas and are woven into their very being.”

In addition to its Saturday broadcast, Bigger Than Africa will re-air on Monday at 5 a.m. EST. The film will also air on public television stations nationwide (check local listings).