My first visit to Africa was a business trip in 2007. I’ll cherish those memories for the rest of my life. Upon return, I recall wishing every Black person living here could have that opportunity, at least once. Fortunately, I work in an industry that regularly transports people to faraway places through the miracle of film. My BPM colleagues and I are in a position to make visits to the Motherland a part of every public media viewers‘ annual experience through our recurring series, AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. This year’s series will showcase Africa’s narrative storytelling talent in addition to documentaries.

Since 2008, AfroPoP has delivered stories from across the African diaspora to public media audiences. Mostly, we’ve showcased documentary features. Occasionally, we’ve included narrative shorts, but season 16 was the first to include a mix of both documentaries and narrative features. To us, this felt like a natural and timely augmentation of our beloved series. I realize, however, that this came as a surprise to many. We did very little to prepare our audiences and public media partners for the change. So, for this week’s blog, I’ve decided to provide some context for our decision.

Africa’s Emerging Film Industry

Africa is a vast and diverse continent. It also has a rapidly growing film and emerging media sector. AfroPoP is focused on films that reflect contemporary life in Africa. The two narrative films included in season 16 came from Kenyan filmmakers. Increasingly, films on an array of topics by makers from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and other African countries come across our desks.

Promo image for “Supa Modo,” AfroPoP 16

Unfortunately, most African films end up either behind paywalls or only available at film festivals. Our ability to bring these films to the American public for free offers the potential for a much wider reach. By including narrative African films in our series, BPM is provideing public media audiences a window into the creative storytelling that contemporary Africans are producing.

Public Media’s African Film Opportunity

BPM remains devoted to showcasing documentary films from the continent, but we believe it’s time for American audiences to also consume African content that is unbound by the strictures of nonfiction storytelling. Public media has already found success featuring narrative and documentary content from the U.K. and Europe. We see no reason the same thing can’t happen with content from Africa.

My colleagues and I are in the process of finalizing the AfroPoP 17 slate. Already, one narrative feature from Africa has made the slate and others may follow. I hope public media programmers will embrace the opportunity these films offer for their stations to attract new audiences. These films have the added benefit of disrupting the warped perception of Africa as a distant place having little in common with everyday Americans. The Pew Research Center reports that roughly one in every five Black people living in the U.S. today is either an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. Nearly half the 4.6 million Black immigrants living in the U.S. hail from Africa. I’m certain these immigrants and their families would welcome opportunities to see their homelands depicted on public TV, especially in stories showcasing contemporary people and situations.

AfroPoP 17 to Premiere in June

You can count on BPM and AfroPoP to continue presenting these types of stories. I invite you to join us in our virtual globetrot and urge you to invite others to the party. Season 17 of AfroPoP will premiere June 2, 2025, on WORLD.org, PBS.org and PBS stations across the country. For updates about the series and to watch past seasons, visit our website.  

Banner image from AfroPoP Season 14 feature “Downstream to Kinshasa,” courtesy of the filmmakers.