The star of “Luther” Idris Elba plans to put his cultural expertise at the service of projects in sub-Saharan Africa. He has just taken a new step by concluding a partnership with Mo Abudu who heads the very active Nigerian audiovisual group, Ebony Life.
Idris Elba makes no secret of his ambitions for the film industry in Africa, the continent of origin of his parents who immigrated to the United Kingdom where he was born in 1972. Currently starring in the film Luther: Fallen Sun (on screens and on Netflix), last part of the adventures of the iconoclast London policeman now in disgrace, he has just concluded a partnership with Mo Abudu, at the head of Ebony Life, which has actively promoted Nigerian cinema in recent years. The Nigerian audiovisual group is the first company on the continent to benefit from an agreement enabling it to develop several projects for Netflix, the American video-on-demand giant.
Free training in cinema professions
“I am pleased to announce that Mo Abudu and I have joined forces to nurture and promote talent from Africa and the Diaspora…”could we read on the social networks of Idris Elba in mid-March. Training in film professions and content production are the two axes of the collaboration with the company of the British actorGreen Door Pictures (GDR), reported the boss of Ebony Life in an interview with Forbes.
THE model of the training structure launched by the Nigerian media, the Ebony Life Creative Academy supported by the State of Lagos where it is located in Nigeria, will thus be duplicated on the scale of the continent. The establishment, operational “for three years”is available free of charge to students. The production component aims to “ bringing African stories to the international stage”, Mo Abudu said.
Idris Elba got into production in 2013 when he created GDR. Initial objective: to have greater control of his acting career. But very quickly, he confided to the British professional journal broadcastinghe realized that there were few production companies run by people of color, especially black, whose vocation was to support black talent in their various artistic projects.
“The challenge was to create an operational production company serving the ‘diversity’ in all its legal aspects but also in favor of a diversified approach to storytelling”, he confided, while selecting quality projects.
An infrastructure to host international shoots
On the African continent, Idris Elba wants to build studios and an infrastructure capable of hosting international shoots, as countries like South Africa and Morocco are already doing. He started in Tanzania or Ghana, his mother’s country where he shot beast of no nation (2015) by Cary Fukunaga. A grueling shoot (link in English) because the technical infrastructure, among other things, was not there.
A few months ago in Accra, the capital of Ghana, he explained his project Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo. The opportunity to announce to him that he intended to shoot part of the film he was preparing on Ghanaian territory in December 2023. An experience which should constitute a life-size test in a country where he now regularly visits. In a message on Facebook, which accompanied photos showing him dressed in traditional ceremonial attire during the Akwasidae festival (in Ashanti country), the British comedian promised “exciting things to come”.
Investment in the film industry is already looking promising. At least when Idris Elba describes his experience. In December 2022, in Washington, while participating in the summit bringing together African countries and the United States, organized by the American administration, the actor spoke about the development of the film sector by taking his own example. In Africa, he said, his activities in the cinema generate “5 billion dollars a year”, thus recalling in the extract published by Vox Africawhy it is crucial to invest in the film industry on the continent.
Banking on the virtues of the film industry
“It’s because it is a window on Africa. It is also a mirror”he argued. “If we want to change [le discours sur l’Afrique]we need to spend some money on our media, our films, our stories, our storytellers, our creators (…)”, he added. African countries would thus follow the model of the most developed states in the world which have used “movies and television”, books, magazines and media to build and establish their image, both internationally and within their own borders.
A crucial step for a country like Sierra Leone, where Idris Elba’s father is from, who visited the country for the first time in 2019. He then explained what had motivated his interest in Africa. “I’ve been an actor for many years now. I’m very happy and very lucky about it. (…). But when it comes to the entertainment industry, America or Britain can’t harbor my ambition. Africa can [le faire]“, he confided to the BBC during his stay.
Committed to the African continent
His projects are not only artistic. Although he is associated with Drizilik, a music star in Sierra Leone, to produce the title Ashobi, released in 2022 and became a hit. The country’s brand ambassador, Idris Elba is now working on the development of a “chartered city” (city governed by a certain number of rules which are de facto binding on those who choose to live there), Sherbro Island City, located on the island of Sherbro (south coast of Sierra Leone).
With his wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba, Idris Elba has invested socially and economically in recent years in favor of the African continent. The couple have been United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors since 2020. The British comedian and musician, who played Nelson Mandela (South Africa’s first black president), was again recently invited to join the American vice-president, Kamala Harris, during her recent African tour, the first stop of which was in Ghana.