Idris Elba, a British actor, has announced ambitions to migrate to Africa within the next decade, hoping to play a vital part in boosting the continent’s film industry.
The 52-year-old actor, best known for playing South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela in the 2013 movie Long Walk to Freedom, is already working on initiatives to create film studios in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Accra, Ghana, as part of his plan to boost local filmmaking.
Speaking on the sidelines of a film industry convention in Accra, as reported by the BBC on Wednesday, he emphasised the necessity of Africans sharing their own tales on the world stage.
“I would certainly consider settling down here; not even consider, it’s going to happen,” he said.
He added, “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, who has previously appeared in Beasts of No Nation, Pacific Rim, and Thor, stated that he will not commit to living in a certain location.
“I’m going to live in Accra, I’m going to live in Freetown Sierra Leone’s capital, I’m going to live in Zanzibar. I’m going to try and go where they’re telling stories – that’s really important,” he added.
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The actor was born in London to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother.
He stated that he is determined to using his influence to boost the region’s film industry.
“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,” he said.
He believes that the film industry has “soft power” and can influence worldwide impressions of the continent.
“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 colonised, how it’s just war and when you come to Africa, you will realise 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,” he stated.
He hopes to shoot films at his Accra studio one day, demonstrating the possibilities of locally produced stories.
“We have to invest in our storytelling because when you see me, you see a little version of yourself, and that encourages us,” he said
It was recently revealed that the English actor would play the lead role of Okonkwo in a new television series adaption of Things Fall Apart, the classic novel by Chinua Achebe.
