Air Afrique collective takes its name from the pan-African airline Air Afrique, founded in 1961. A means of international transport, but also a symbol of African independence and embodiment of pan-Africanism, the company was a major patron of African arts and culture until ceasing operations in 2002. The Air Afrique collective was launched in Paris by Lamine Diaoune in 2021 to revive and interrogate the Pan-African ideals of the defunct airline, which will be explored in a programme bringing their ciné-club to London for the first time.
These themes are foregrounded in two shorts exploring unspoken societal dilemmas that persist in Dakar. In Et La Neige N'Ă©tait Plus (1966), the tale of a young Senegalese student who returns from his studies in Europe aboard an Air Afrique plane, the limbo and uneasy mobility of the diasporic condition is highlighted via a portrait of the first generation of postcolonial migrants to France.
Les Tissus Blancs (2020) revisits the city in the present day, following Zuzanna as she frantically wanders the city on the eve of her marriage, dissecting the gendered and overlapping pressures of religion and culture experienced by Senegalese women. Directed by Moly Kane, the film continues the legacy of Euzhan Palcy, the first black director to win a César Award and Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion, and Kane’s mentor, who was profiled in the most recent issue of Air Afrique magazine.
Following the screening, Air Afrique propose a conversation discussing their collective and magazine, as well as the importance of preserving and reactivating Afro-diasporic cultural heritage.
