Carleton College is pleased to announce the premiere screening of a new documentary film “Cemetery Stories: A Rebel Missionary in South Africa,” directed by Cherif Keita and edited by Dominic Fucci, on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:15 p.m. in Olin Hall, room 149. The screening is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.
“Cemetery Stories” follows the footsteps of two families, the Wilcoxes (of Northfield) – white American missionaries, and the Dubes – Zulus from Inanda (South Africa). Their friendship in the late 19th century, is an important yet little-known landmark in the struggle for Black liberation and democracy in South Africa. Along the way, Keita discovers lost pieces of both family histories, reconnecting them after ninety years. “The film tells how a man from Northfield helped change the world, was forgotten, and the rediscovered,” says Keita.
Keita spent eight years traveling back and forth between the U.S. and South Africa, uncovering the connection between the two families. During this time he kept asking himself why he, a West African Muslim and professor of Francophone literature, was the one passionately piecing together the lost story of two Protestant missionaries in the distant land of South Africa. The answer came to him the day he discovers he has been “chosen” for this surprising quest by two “unappeased” souls in Northfield, the American town where he resides.
A native of Mali, Keita is a professor of French and chair of French and Francophone studies at Carleton. He is the author of several books and articles on both social and literary issues in contemporary Africa. His documentary film “Oberlin-Inanda: The Life and Times of John L. Dube,” about the life of the first President of the African National Congress of South Africa and his education in the U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century, received high honors at the 2005 FESPACO (Festival panafricain du cinema et de la television de Ouagadougou), the largest African film festival.
This very special event is a co-sponsored by the Carleton College Department of Cinema and Media Studies, the Carleton Film Society, and the Northfield Historical Society. Olin Hall is located off First and Nevada Streets in Northfield. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-5779.
