Now showing in The Hillside; Promised Lands, a film by artist and researcher Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, addresses the migratory flows of bodies throughout the history of Uganda and Kenya.

In her work, Emma examines differing worldviews in the wake of colonialism in East Africa. Promised Lands is a fragmentary, essayistic meditation on (amongst other things): art, fact, fiction, memory, right-to-land and displacement. The film features the voices of the artist, her uncle Patrick Wanambwa and Theodor Hertzka, a 19th century Austro-Hungarian economist, who was one of many Europeans who tried to establish a utopian settlement (“Freeland”) in East Africa. It also makes reference to the little-known story of the thousands of European refugees who found sanctuary in Africa during World War II.

Collective will be working with Emma during 2020 as part of our Constellations Programme, a series of research-based projects that aim to bring people together and develop ideas.