reports on the inside. our correspondence is on the ground and reporting from across the continent, all the friends down the mazda you in 60 minutes on d w. m. what secrets lie behind these walls? discover new adventures in 360 degrees. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. d w world heritage. 360. get out now. it's great to be back for another edition of your favorite magazine show. this is the 77 percent the platform for africa as you. i am eddie micah junior. hello and welcome to the program. today show us quite special to me. it's all about black representation. let's dig into

what we have for you. from black panther to, to children's books. what's the status of black representation in the media? in an exclusive interview, kanyes boy about in the south you saw tells us what it means to truly represent. and we meet a graffiti artist who has given a fresh look to my tactics. i don't know about you, but i get excited when a black actor is cast in the remake of the popular field. but us is often the case . it also causes an opera with many questioning why it is even necessary to change it bash, and that many are already used to. this is the production company, for example, has received criticism for planning to use a black character in its upcoming film, the little mermaid. so why do we need a black man made? of course we need a black mermaid and

a black else in flood. if fantastical features can be blue and yellow and our ball . why draw the line at bluff? but it's not just about the color now, is it? recently there was an uproar over the fact that american film company word disney studio, cast a john, brilliant and black actress to play the role of the little mermaid. now the criticism wasn't based on the performance of the actress. highly bailey. one group asked why disney had to remake the film with a black actress instead of sticking to a white wine as had been done in previous remakes. the 1st group of people is annoyed that the fantastical film now includes black characters. and not only that, then all starved year for the film which has been produced for over 20 times now is solely missed out. and what's worse is that fantasy and re life and not any more

different for the 2nd group of people, halley bailey, being the star of an age. all fantasy is not a big when they say that these neat is playing faith by retailing the fame. all stories, but still arnie because they're tickling that last charger of people that desire to see themselves represented on screen. now when companies do this, it's called black washing. they say that these me can invest money in telling new stories, for example, about mackenzie really one windsor who fought off the european by dancing a very rigorous dance called to food. and now they've also another group of people who think that this discussion is not necessary. and i can see why in the year 20, 21 january to june normally would produced over 1000 fill. yes. and they're

not the only ones on the continent. if you look across different countries, they're blossoming film industries. now with so many film being produced with black actors, do we still need to have a conversation about having black actors? well, yes, we do. because hollywood is one of the biggest cultural vehicles in the world. and it is important to portray the world as it really is. and that means having black people existing in the same way other races do. now, disney shouldn't top casting brilliant actors just because they're black. no, however, they could invest in telling new stories such as the african mythology, for example, the famished fraud by bin or cri on the wizard of the crow. bye good, you are young or. but if these title found too complex for a children's story, then i have other examples. ariella and the talking drawn by stephanie corker,

are soon away by lupita no. and no matter which can someone peaks. the fact remains that talent had work and determination is not a preserve of just one race. that means more block actors a needed on screen one to do their job. and secondly, so that people can remember that we are all equal regardless of the race. i have a lot once you go for that fantastic breakdown, i think it's crazy that we have to constantly remind people that no matter the race or color of skin we all equal. and i guess some people need a constant reminder to dive deeper into the topic. we've invited a studio guest for today. francis obama is a journalist. it was born in lagos, nigeria, but we locate that to germany 2015. he uses photography and documentary skills to spock, conversations about this ability and the connection between identity and immigration

. yes. also the author of the children's book halide bis, let's find out more about him, the photographer, community organizer, and he's with no children, especially for children of color branches, oklahoma is not joined by birth. but in order to build a home away from home, he's taken on the role of organizing black community meet ups in germany, city of cologne. i've always photographed people. i've always been. i've always documented, black conversations, black celebrities, black fashion weeks. so when i moved to germany, was just a natural progression into fitting into such a role. he's called today's nissan, black and white spaces, with a focus around african art and culture. in this case, the famous been in bronze to an artist residency at cologne's robin, sheffield,

museum frances was able to interact with the bronzes, and now he wanted to open the door for others. been entering with ben in bruno here is just natural to one to see them because you don't get to the bros isn't it that only here because the way lose it and having to see them here for the 1st time doing the exhibition of resist made me want to show other people this exhibition, like i said, wiping black white spaces, you don't really see a lot of black people in the sense of community shad experiences. but also reflecting on a shed like history is what brought people here together. and for francis up the good start building a more acceptable because his generation and his kids the man you just saw is right here with me in the studio for francis. thanks local coming through. so why is this one important for you to address black identity?

first of all, i think i'm black and it's also very important that people like me are well represented in media. and i like to speak in the german context since i live here. you hardly see black represented in media. i mean, you see if you but you hardly see it way should be and i have an actual, their responsibility of documenting such that space and also big visibility to the community days. mostly i want to say not saying what exist. oh yeah. fair enough. i mean, when you look at the current state of black representation, what are your thoughts? are we heading in the right direction? i would, i would say we are hidden in the right direction. i mean, you could look at the last couple of the last 3. the last 3 years, a lot of a lot of things that changed in germany in particular. i mean, says the george floyd conversation a lot of people now aware of the i don't see the i will the i did is they know what

they looked like, but now they take it more seriously. and yeah, i would say it's going to the right direction and more media houses i taking cognizance of the fact that black people part of the story tell it. yeah, i mean, it sounds, i mean we're seeing the black people have to be positive storytelling because of course we should write that pretty straightforward. that should be the normality. i would actually be the normal situation, but we leave sadly, you know, well that is not always what we wish for that we get, but i believe that like you asked previously, it's important that we go in the right step. a lot of things that hasn't been done properly in the past, but i think people are now taking that because of the doing the right things. now, as i leave the never said, i mean, you mentioned that you, you live in germany and you cannot all the things that you have. you've been, you've been here for a couple of years now. how has living in germany impacted the work that you do? ok, oh ok. used to live in south africa. i lived there for 8 years and i've been in germany

now for the last 8 years. and originally, i'm sure you know, i'm nigerian. so i have that journey. i had of me and i would say germany has also impacted in how i tell my stories because initially in south africa was all about the lifestyle type of work. but since i moved, yeah, i mean you, you are confronted daily with what you call the migration sometimes when you're confronted with lack of visibility and that has also made me aware that i needed to do something. so that was actually impacted my work deeply. i would say, yeah, i'm really looking forward to, you know, one of the secretions that have come up from your can you, you with a book and hair like this? right. yeah. we're going to get into that pretty soon. that leads us to talk about representation in books, lack of representation can actually be life threatened. yes, a simple example. some rashes look totally different on white skin compared to black skin disease symptoms in most medical books around the world are based on

white people. will show you an idea and illustrator, who got famous by coming up with the of the solution. we problem that nobody seemed to tackle a decades. that's how they look. ah, chileya, barry e, b, d b, illustration of a black feet. so when people around the world realize we had never seen the fields were presented, that the picture turned into much more than a showing for like a voice speaking out for the black community they had to understand or destroy was more than just american official or what it was a message of hope to do to the black community and then i said for me known drunk, i no longer a passion when the pep was for me, then a ration of dock because they have all kinds of medic, by the here. and this is one of the books that they use. if it's not textbook,

you're right off today's all around the world. and if you sort of a page is it's very easy to see that most of the illustrations here are just white . skin is almost a black people goes how, what 3 shows or don't have the babies. and for yeah, one really challenge that little patient has moved as news because disney lack of representation, medical literature, for example, some skin condition represent differently on a blocking he's on. i cities on, on the white skin, most of the clint oncology shows. we see you textbooks, a dreadful white people raise up with the rush. you talked about in what was really pink. so then if i go to the hospital, if i stop my clinicals, oh, my beautiful pink, right. she's why he's not thinking black people. so i feel this and minimal medical condition related to blunt watch. i the only reason the medical community is bestselling africa. yes. africa. yes, melanie. so once we start using our black people was we see is going to within was

a reading, is will do, it'll be like a difference between what you read not is will i will to us in our group and at them 11 to 2 actually here post late on the sunday, rita, please you. miss beecher went viral. he says several publishers have commissioned him to draw more black medical illustration. he says he plans to publish his own textbook on skin conditions in black people and wants to set up a training school for all that african medical illustrator have only one word to describe what i just saw. amazing. i guess francis is still here with me on this. you're francis. i mean, you all watched a skinny. what are your thoughts on what your friend nigerian is interesting? first of all, i would say is dorian is, is, is doing what is very important to the future of how media should be sin. first of

all, i think it, that's how he should be. i mean, people want to see themselves in, in characters. people want to see themselves even in medical books, because a, i mean i, for the 1st time, i'm also thinking about it. i've never, i just realised that in most of the babies. oh do the features that you see is always yeah. we is. we don't even recognize that i'm we are we, when are used to seeing how we are. yeah. and it hits you, it really hits you when you go like, wow how for, for decade, for centuries, that's just not being the case if you actually question us. so something doesn't like, or is there something wrong with me, you know, as vote for me. i've never questioned my know, but i, but obviously i know that there's something wrong somewhere and which is one of the reasons why i took it upon myself to change this type of marriage because being a father too, and having to show your kids what they don't look like all the time is also confusing. yeah. and i would say that what the,

what the other person is doing that is the future of how even medical you can even take it beyond that. and even in labs we don't see how it also calling lab. yeah. so about really showing that black representation, you know, as part of the human race, as simple as that. you hold on a book. i see we talked about getting into this hair like this. what want to be had you to, to dig into a book like this? i must be honest. you, i would say, 1st of all, i would say a personal reasons. i've had my son, i mean then the boys and they have this type of hair. and it was a struggle having to explain why the head is different. and secondly, i took part in i, i did a documentation with almost 80 black people in germany. and i found that that had the composition on has a, is deeper than we know. it's also a mix up basically the all existence and i and for me was very important to reach

out to different age groups. and i thought, since i also have kids, it's important that i reach out to that audience. and that's what made me go into this. i'm happy about the book because i don't have kids yet. if i do have kids in future, i'll definitely have to show them the type of pay and why it's okay to have any type of entity. yeah. so let's, let's, let's talk about the audience your targets and what that look like. this can you are. yeah, i would say everybody. i mean, ever the thing about kids book is that you do not only reach out to the kids. you also reach out to the parents. you see it's a, it's a kind of interesting story. i would tell you most of the people that have that have the people that book this book and not just black kids are kids of color yellow. so a lot of white parents that bite such a book, a book like this, so they could, they able to synthesize it since i their kids to let them know that this,

this power diversity, this power in been different on the book also encompasses different and character this not just, it's not just about the head nozzles about what makes the hair. i see, i wish we had all the time to so many questions i watch, but i think let's wrap up with this. i mean, for model you said you definitely have a kind of future that you wish to see. what is the future of the future is, is what i'm, what i'm doing now. what people like me doing now, which is more represent a representation in the media and just media also having to do also having to lead. and i think that would be it's, we already making those most and our kids would leave that dream that we leave to the reality of our dreams as to if a future generation. thank you very much. thank you very much, francis for your time, francis obama. but the good news is that francis is not alone. he's got salty,

sol can yes, most famous boy about what i had is in music movies or literature black representation . my test to salty. so the ban does not only support young african musicians. they also inspire african kits to story. tell it. hello, what's up? everybody we are out. he's so good day. oh, it's a good day and you're watching listening wherever you are. 277 with saudi. so these 4 guys from kenya rock africa, famous for their gigantic acoustic performances. the boy group found a 2005, and i robi, consists of vocalists b, n g mano, so vara and eaters, for the car, the band spent the years of the quote at 19 pandemic, partially apart from each other, to grow individually. and that includes the following your own art and embracing,

who you are. at the end of last year, singer shimano had his coming out as gate a step that inspired him to his solo album. heavy is the crowd. it's always been an open secret. it's just, i guess, like people waiting for you to say like, okay, i'm gay, gay, you know, as i, i, i said again, you know, like it's, it's 2022. that shouldn't be this central topic really. but then for me, it's some being, being able to say that tend to and to fully live my, my, my life and my, him to fully be myself, enables me to be creative now to flee an in my, in my own self, and actually finding out who it is that i actually am as an individual artist. and while the band keeps nurturing the next generation of artist through their own record label, sulky salt has also embarked on a new journey to educate children through their new book collaboration called sol kits for polycarp. it's a hard project. what which you to do is to create content that is by africans for

africans and wanted like kids coming leads to especially kids are coming from where we come from was is it's much wanted that i'd been a father of 12. now think the only 5 there is a van, are you sure he's 2, he's almost 3 with and it's something that was really something that was really bothering me. you know, when, when i'm thinking about the near future and what kind of contents i want to see the, what values on to still in him. and then, ah, yeah, then on a look out there even much that she presents us. you know, you rarely ever get an african perspective on what the experience of growing up in my presentation matters to south to. so whether it is in the music industry or in education and literature. so whether you are from west east, south or north africa, no matter what your background is, the guys from. so it is all have

a message for every young african on the country. door, the youth, a beer into all the young people who are there. please lead with love, with everything you do, the reflection or positivity, good vibes, good energy and love b. b, you do, you live, you live for yourself. put yourself as your 1st priority, and it is something very cloudy color little bit. if you're, if you're an african kid out there and you only speak your african language, speak if you don't have to conform to english. yeah. just speak it. you'll be known, we just learn english to be understood won't. why? but just ah, i that

ended on one of my favorite se, so sauls, nowhere is like africa. no, it's like, oh, i have a good voice. it's a good job. i was also good is to be transported from one place to another in a sheep i'll call looking vehicle. in kenya, they call them my tattoos. they are many buses that are sometimes equipped with l. e. d khaled t. v 's and huge boxes. the vehicles. how many unique designs of graffiti artist, mohammed katara, aka, why graphics is the master of my talk to design. ah, my food limit, his mom had got that. and normally people calling demography because of the job i've been doing since sad than 19 ninety's. so my work, his graffiti body shop and everything about cars and mortal bikes. when i started, i started on canvas, doing cameras was not giving me that pleasure. which,

you know, i, every time i used to work and was, i always wanted people to see what i've done. but most of the time you do conversely, ticket to some one, maybe 2 or 3 people see if that's really good. they deal. should they play this on? cause it was cars are moving canvas. so that's when i said i'm just doing his hands on what are the small designs? the foster may study, they said it would take us in said matter to them, they said they bring the graffiti on the outside but of small things. because at that time the pull dinard testing was normally how we study. the glands comes with the vehicle. we assess it, if there's any body work, we do it. there's somebody served customers. they are very crazy customers. no, you have to differentiate. you get a crazy customer. he tells you, okay,

do what you want even did like a via p logins wrong guy. that's when people said in knowing this, i just graffiti abstract think because normally at that time if you did something, someone could not sleep. there are leg. this had demonic things and they be, you're cussing something doesn't infect little than it was the fust im i put a t v wanda mccarty. first they did it on my car. i had a small totally winette put it into an inch on the dashboard. people are shocked at that time. it doesn't look like that you see like today, and matter to can have you been like 3065 scenes that's 2 liens. and that time, that's how he started every day. busy and it did something different thing, maybe the board, the improving may be fits the kind of colors i'm doing, maybe the kind of graffiti i'm doing. so every day i wanted to do something different, even if i'm not doing them as much as i used to do before, but i created of a trend in people every did say and do settle, innovative new kind of things. oh,

good, you know 2016. i was featured in forbes magazine, i think that was the biggest assessment. people look up to me. it has given people the morale that it doesn't matter who, which, which i bureau, where you come from. you can do anything. i go every people know me. i've been good for that and being determined that one day i would make it wow, that's what i call strain inspiration. the key message for me is that it does not matter who you are or where you're from. you can do anything, mark my words one day, you will make it now and that note of inspiration. it's a rap on this edition of the $0.77. i hope you enjoyed that as much as i did. well, i always love to hear from you. so connect what else across all our social media

platforms that's play you out with a song from nigeria and artist johnny drill titled, how are you my friend? i'm good and hope you are to eddie mike, a junior is my name. banks were sharing your time with me. i've been out with a ah, with

who was making the headlines and what's behind them. dw news africa, the show that was the issues in the continent. life is slowly getting back to normally where on the street to give you in the report on the inside. our

correspondence is on the ground reporting from across the continent. all the trends doesn't matter to you. in 30 minutes on d, w. go look at all the harvesters or immigrants and everything you enjoy eating at home with your family, was harvested by people and i wore be exploited migrations an issue that divides europeans like no other. what's at stake in this debate? the future is being determined now. ah, europe reveals part one in our series in the 75 minutes on d. w. o has no limits. i love is for everybody.

i love is life. i love matters and that's my new podcast. i'm evelyn char, mom and i really think we need to talk about all the topics that more divide and deny that this. i have invited many deer and well known guests. and i would like to invite you to an end sheet. music can't be destroy it. you can try, but it's impossible. with she performed for her life in auschwitz. here was the nazi meister room. 2 musicians who lived beneath the swastika of from about the sounds of power and inspiring story about survival. thanks to music. fetch the cello playoff.

well, i guess the only one i'm super lucky uses under the swastika starts november 19th on d. w ah ah, ah, this is dw news live from berlin. twitter is facing the class action challenge from for my employees. after new boss mosque lease off nearly half the workforce, he says it's to make the platform profitable. we'll see you in court with a response from twitter for my staff. also come.