Using cadres of more than 70 documentaries, screenwriter and director Alexander Markov designs the “bright future” of Africa cherished by Soviet tutelage, elevating the first presidents of independent countries to the rank of folk heroes, fighters and saviors of the continent.
The first visits of African countries by “simple” Soviet people. The first badge with Lenin pinned on the lapel of his new African friend’s jacket. The camera conveys conflicting feelings and operators’ mindsets: immediate emotions and inspiration are mixed with ideological patterns.
Rallies in support of the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in plants and factories. A messenger from space, Yuri Gagarin, triumphantly travels across Africa, and his image appears even on the windshield of a Nigerian taxi driver.
Leonid Brezhnev, squeezing in the tight embrace of African presidents, feels his finest hour, while N. Khrushchev, the last time as General Secretary, overlaps Nile in Aswan.
M. Gorbachev, shaking hands with Robert Mugabe, closes this chain when the pathos of Soviet internationalism breaks on Perestroika like the cast-iron head of Lenin on the pavement of Khreshchatyk.
Politicians leave, but ideas remain. I recall a taxi driver in New York called Isaiah. He dreamed of resurrecting Lenin for at least a week so that he restored equality in his native Burkina Faso. The last shots of the film “Our Africa” are just wondering about the export of ideas. But enough spoilers…