Not Mandatory But Freaking Good: The American Dream: An African Tale

Hey guys! I've been meaning to blog about this for months but my internet situation made it difficult. Since I'm in a hotel with awesome wifi, I'm taking advantage and uploading as many posts and vids as possible!


A few months ago, my sister Shola (the one who's a filmmaker) started interviewing Africans living in the United States about their experiences for a web series. The result is a honest and sometimes funny look into living in America as a foreigner, or in my case, a first generation American.


I recommend everyone check it out not only because Shola is my sister and I love her to pieces but because it's good to learn about other cultures; there's a whole world out there!


Episode one is below and the other episodes can be found here and you can listen to more from each interview, here.


Let me know what you guys think!
Episode 1: Olajuwon Ajayi from The UR4Africa Project on Vimeo.
The American Dream: An African Tale is a web series about the African experience in America.

Africans!
Share your stories with us!

Email us at:
ur4africa@gmail.com
or
info@theur4africaproject.org

Episode 2: http://vimeo.com/34386653

Africa Doesn't Need Pity

Enjoy the video above (my sister brought it to my attention because she finds all the awesome stuff first).

How adorable is this kid? He reminds me of my brother and cousin when they would reenact "The Matrix" for the umpteenth time. They were huge fans.

Anyway, nothing irritates me more than people treating Africa like a handicapped continent and its citizens like charity cases. I can't tell you how many times I've met people who automatically assumed I was poor, slow, hungry and slow of hearing ("HI JOANNEEEEEE! IT IS SO NICE TO MEET YOU!) because I'm African.

But more on that later.

JMO: ABC's Flash Forward

So I was watching FlashForward last night like I always do before Grey’s Anatomy. The plot is kind of unbelievable and the acting is sometimes terrible but John Cho, Michael Ealy and Joseph Fiennes kind of make up for it.

John Cho is perfection.

Anyway, in this episode, the Mosaic group went to Somalia to follow a lead on their case and a bunch of Somali rebel fighters shot up the place with no regard for human life. Then the head honcho – who repeatedly stated he was following God’s plan – was talked out of his killing spree by the American woman who tells him “you’re supposed to stop the war not start it” or some irritating comment like that and he does a 180 and starts helping out the group.

Because that’s realistic.

I could go on in greater detail but that really sums up what happened in the episode. Maybe I’m being sensitive but I am so tired of watching Africans portrayed negatively in the media. It’s getting old. Episodes like that are cliché and played out, not to mention irresponsible. They reinforce America’s ugly image of Africa and contribute to people’s unfair opinions of Africans.

It’s wrong.

I know Africa as a continent may not be progressing as quickly as everywhere else but not every country is run by killer hungry maniacs. It would be nice to see a positive story come out of the Hollywood machine at least once.

But who am I kidding?I don’t know if writers in Hollywood are capable of writing a story that isn’t formulaic and predictable.