Using clips from more than 70 documentaries, scriptwriter and director Alexander Markov highlights 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 Lenin badge pinned on the lapel of a 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 can be seen even on a Nigerian taxi driver’s windscreen.
Leonid Brezhnev, squeezing in the tight embrace of African presidents, feels his finest hour, while Nikita Khrushchev, on his last visit as General Secretary, overlooks the Nile at Aswan.
Mikhail 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 could restore equality in his native Burkina Faso. The last shots of the film “Our Africa” are just wondering about the export of ideas. But that’s enough spoilers…