Photo by Courtesy of Netflix – © 2023 Netflix, Inc.

London-born actor Idris Elba plans to move to his ancestral Africa within the next few years to support the film industry there. He told the BBC that he aims to build a film studio in the Zanzibar islands of Tanzania and another in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Elba’s mother is from Ghana and his father is from Sierra Leone.

In addition to his roles in The Wire and Luther, Elba also played the role of South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in the biopic Long Walk to Freedom, which debuted in 2013.

The 52-year-old actor told the BBC: “I think [I’ll move] in the next five, 10 years, God willing. I’m here to bolster the film industry. That is a 10-year process. I won’t be able to do that from overseas. I need to be in-country, on the continent.”

Elba said that he’s going to divide his time between Accra, Zanzibar, and Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. He declared that it was important for Africans to be involved In all stages of the filmmaking process, including acting, directing, producing, financing, marketing, distribution, and screening.

To advance his plans, Elba met recently with Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu Hassan at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In August, its government promised to give him 200 acres of land so construction could begin on his planned studio.

Elba said he wanted to shift attention toward the positive aspects of the African experience. He added that “If you watch any film or anything that has got to do with Africa, all you’re going to see is trauma, how we were slaves, how we were colonized, how it’s just war–and when you come to Africa, you will realize that it’s not true. So, it’s really important that we own those stories of our tradition, of our culture, of our languages, of the differences between one language and another. The world doesn’t know that.”

 

“We have to invest in our story-telling because when you see me, you see a little version of yourself and that encourages us,” added Elba.

Elba’s plan hopes to reverse the situation described in a 2022 report from UNESCO, which noted that the film industry in Africa was being challenged by piracy, a dearth of institutional support, and a lack of meaningful training opportunities. The report suggested that the film industry could potentially create 20 million jobs throughout the continent.

This week, Elba attended the Stellar Development Foundation’s Meridian conference in London and complained in a CNN interview: “Much of the imagery about Africa isn’t even generated from Africa. A lot of media is centered around (negative depictions of Africa). But the median age in Africa is 19; these young people are optimistic and deserve the chance to tell their own stories.”

Various African nations, especially in French-speaking regions, have traditionally created high-quality films. And Nigeria, known in film circles as Nollywood, is producing hundreds of films every year.

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