# Manchester film festival draws on African philosophy

> See My World uses pan-African thought to reshape how festivals work, rejecting colonial structures that exclude communities.
- Title: Manchester film festival draws on African philosophy
- Summary: See My World uses pan-African thought to reshape how festivals work, rejecting colonial structures that exclude communities.
- Keywords: see my world, manchester, film festival, pan-african thought, contact theatre, tunde adekoya, john mbiti, ngũgĩ wa thiong'o, african philosophy, decolonisation, the Guardian
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/news/2026/nov/08/african-philosophies-see-my-world-film-festival-manchester
- Published: 2026-11-08T12:00:39+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: see my world, manchester, film festival, pan-african thought, contact theatre, tunde adekoya, john mbiti, ngũgĩ wa thiong'o, african philosophy, decolonisation, news, world
## A festival rooted in African thought
See My World, a day dedicated to independent creators from across the African diaspora in the north of England, takes place at Contact theatre on twenty-first November.
## Building on Manchester's pan-African legacy
The festival reflects creatives and activists in Manchester building on the legacy of the nineteen forty-five Pan-African Congress in Manchester, which connected luminaries of postwar independence movements with a shared vision of liberation.
## Two thinkers shape the vision
See My World's CEO and artistic director Tunde Adekoya draws inspiration from Kenyan writer John Mbiti, an Anglican theologian who died in twenty nineteen, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, author of Decolonising the Mind, who died…
## Mbiti's philosophy of time
John Mbiti explores the philosophy and spiritual understandings of time through the concept of Sasa na Zamani, in which the past informs everything that happens moving forward.

> the past informs everything that happens moving forward
## Ngũgĩ's critique of colonialism
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o argued colonialism was motivated by cultural and economic conquest, and that European powers used language as their sharpest instrument.He abandoned English to write in Gikuyu, a Bantu language mainly spoken in Kenya.
## Rejecting traditional festival structures
Adekoya said the festival goes against the norm of how film festivals work because structures have been created to alienate and exclude communities.

> we thought our film festival would look more at how we make film accessible
## Documentaries and open submissions
Film-makers can submit films lasting up to thirty minutes from across genres with no screening fees charged.
## Key takeaway

See My World film festival in Manchester on November twenty-first uses African philosophies to build an inclusive event that challenges traditional festival structures.