Film Screening and Discussion: "Coconut Head Generation"

Organized in partnership with the Ciné Soutaï association. Originally scheduled for last weekend at the Intergalactic Conference on Antifascism and Anti-Racism in Saorge, this film was produced by Ajimati Films in 2023 Over time, a space for discussion and political engagement emerges—an agora where they can address the difficulties they face in their daily lives (student financial insecurity, housing, sexism, patriarchy, and violence). At the same time, the “END SARS” social movement is gaining momentum in Nigeria, protesting police repression and violence. Alain Kassanda’s partner is an anthropologist and teaches at the University of Ibadan. As a result, Alain started a “Thursday Film Club” there—self-managed and free of charge—the only way to see African films in Nigeria’s third-largest city, aside from local productions. Speaking out is seen as an attempt to seize power, an act that is violently suppressed. This “smartphone” generation is insulted, called “coconut heads”—as if they had a coconut instead of a head. But young people are proving that they need to be tough-minded to assert themselves as citizens and demand a better future.