Not Supposed To Be Here: A Review

Never in the history of the world has the cry of one child for his mother been heard on every continent, nor caused a movement equally as widespread, until George Floyd's strangled 'mama' latched on the ears of the world and refused to let go.

The protests have been powerful. The experience, epic. But conversations, clashing.

Then this short film by Katung Aduwak and Jojo Silla, titled 'Not Supposed To Be Here' comes along with a ribbon and ties everything up into an interesting bouquet of ideas.

Our timelines have been full of them: should we be trending #BlackLivesMatter vs #AllLivesMatter? Is Donald Trump's presence in the White House enabling racial violence?  Should white people be begging for forgiveness for slavery? Isn't violence during protests a reaffirmation of racial stereotypes? Isn't hating white people racism too?

Katung and Jojo take the ideas underscoring these conversations and make them grow on the screen through animation and compelling narration.

But there's one strain of conversation that often doesn't stand out in popular online conversation that Katung and Jojo set centre stage. It's the same conversation that minds like Malcom X identified as crucial when he said "who taught you to hate your own kind, to hate the race that you belong to? So much so that you don't want to be around each other?'

Not Supposed To be Here is about two black men, one American (Jeremy Smith) and the other African (Gbenro Ajibade), who get accosted by a white policeman. For whatever reason, they are handcuffed and laid side by side. The dialogue in this unfortunate position is not about how to get out of the situation, but about WHY it is the other person's fault that they are in the situation.

Statements laced with hate-filled stereotypes are flung by each at the other. But dialogue triggers something in each man. Katung and Jojo do something impressive in the space of minutes. they take us into the minds of each man, into the bits of truth maliciously twisted into the suffocating stereotypes that they're now confronting. And we see that in their minds, they can't breathe too. There's hate kneeling on their necks. So they scream.

This movie is a mirror held up. And we find it reflecting things like this:

Did you see the title of that email? 'Another Stupid African'

Remember what Mr X said. Remember that racism is about a 'race' not a group within that race. A house divided against itself cannot stand. How are WE (honey, I'm black) ever going to overcome racism when we are hostile to members of our own race? I'm not saying that whoever sent that email is African American, 'Chen' sounds Chinese to me. I'm just saying the content is telling.

'I am not supposed to be here!' both men yell at the police officer eventually.

Who is?!

Watch the film, ignore the flurry of 'F' words and Gbenro's flunctuating accent (which I choose to believe was on purpose), and become a protagonist in this conversation: Not Supposed To Be Here

Esohe Ewaenosa Iyare

The french and Igbo versions of this article will be available as soon as possible. Don't forget to subscribe!