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Fred Kuwornu’s ‘We Were Here’ Documentary on Black Africans in Renaissance Europe Accepted For 2026 Oscars

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Fred Kuwornu

When Italian-Ghanaian filmmaker and historian Fred Kudjo Kuwornu set out to challenge Europe’s selective memory of the Renaissance, he knew the work would be disruptive.

What he didn’t know was that his documentary, We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, would make its way into the race for the 98th Academy Awards.

The film has now been officially accepted for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category for the 2026 Oscars, a milestone for both African historical storytelling and global cinema.

For Kuwornu, whose work has long centered on recovering suppressed histories, this project is personal.

“Among all artists with Ghanaian heritage in this awards cycle, I am the only one whose work is currently in consideration,” he wrote in a recent note to followers on Instagram. “My documentary brings back the stories that Europe tried to forget.”

Rewriting the Renaissance

We Were Here excavates a rarely acknowledged truth: Africans were not mere spectators — nor solely enslaved laborers — in 15th and 16th century Europe. They were ambassadors, soldiers, scholars, courtiers, artisans, diplomats, and religious figures, shaping cultural and political life from Venice to Lisbon, Florence to Paris.

The documentary traces the lives of figures whose stories have been buried for centuries:

  • Alessandro de’ Medici, Europe’s first head of state of African ancestry.
  • Juan Latino, the first Black professor in European university history.
  • Ne Vunda, the African ambassador to Rome, buried in the historic Santa Maria Maggiore.
  • João de Panasco, the African knight immortalized in the King’s Fountain.
  • Benedict the Moor, the son of enslaved parents who became a figure of veneration across the Americas.

Through archival work, art analysis, and expert interviews, Kuwornu reframes the Renaissance as a multiracial, multicultural epoch, rather than the homogenous image often taught in textbooks.

A Cultural Intervention With Global Momentum

Debuting at the 2024 Venice Biennale inside the Central Pavilion, the film has since been embraced by universities, museums, cultural institutions, and diaspora scholars across three continents. It has become part of academic conversations about race, migration, identity, and pre-colonial African-European exchanges.

Its Oscar consideration has amplified its reach — and its message.

Historians say the film arrives at a time when Europe is being forced to reckon with monuments, memory, and long-silenced histories. Kuwornu’s project serves as a corrective, arguing that a fuller understanding of Europe’s past necessarily includes Africans whose contributions have been neglected or erased.

Why This Matters

The Oscars often overlook African historical narratives unless framed through slavery, colonialism, or conflict. We Were Here breaks that pattern by presenting Africans as active agents of political and cultural life in pre-modern Europe.

It challenges audiences — in Europe and the African diaspora — to see the Renaissance not as a fortress of white European exceptionalism, but as a meeting point of civilizations.

For Kuwornu, this is not just filmmaking. It’s restitution.

His documentary, he wrote, “reconstructs an erased legacy that connects Europe, Africa, and the Americas.”

A Historic Moment for African Storytelling

Whether the film secures a nomination or not, its presence in the Oscar race marks a powerful moment: a global acknowledgment that the stories of Black Europeans in the Renaissance are not footnotes — they are history.

And after centuries of silence, they are finally being heard through a lens wide enough to include them.

Festivals & Events

Rooftop Market — The Studio Edition Brings Accra’s Young Creative Scene to Life

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As the afternoon sun softens over Accra on June 28, a rooftop in the city will transform into something more than a market.

Music will spill through the air, artists will paint live before a crowd, young entrepreneurs will showcase their work, and strangers will leave as collaborators.

Rooftop Market — The Studio Edition is shaping up to be one of the city’s most vibrant creative gatherings this season.

Hosted at Glaze Art Studio in Accra, the one-day event reflects a growing cultural movement in Ghana where art, fashion, music, and entrepreneurship are no longer separated into different corners.

Instead, they exist together in the same energetic space, driven largely by young creatives redefining what modern Ghanaian culture looks and feels like.

In recent years, Accra has earned international attention for its creative scene. From fashion pop-ups and art exhibitions to music festivals and photography collectives, the city has become a hub for emerging African talent.

Rooftop Market taps directly into that spirit by creating a relaxed but stylish environment where local brands and artists can connect with audiences face-to-face.

Visitors can expect far more than shopping stalls. Live DJs will keep the atmosphere lively throughout the evening while guests move between curated fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and service-based brands.

One of the biggest attractions is the Sip & Paint experience, where attendees can join guided canvas painting sessions while enjoying music and conversation in an open studio setting.

The event also offers something many modern city dwellers quietly crave: genuine connection. Young entrepreneurs network with photographers and designers. Artists meet future clients.

Visitors discover handmade products and creative services they may never encounter in traditional retail spaces.

For tourists visiting Ghana, the experience offers a close look at Accra’s youthful cultural pulse beyond the beaches and historic landmarks. For locals, it is a reminder that creativity continues to shape the city in exciting ways.

With limited capacity and free RSVP access, Rooftop Market — The Studio Edition promises an evening where art, music, and community meet above the city skyline.

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Festivals & Events

Karaoke, Dominoes and Connection: A Night Out That Captures Modern Accra

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On a warm Friday evening in Accra, the sound of karaoke vocals, domino tiles snapping against wooden tables, and laughter drifting across a crowded restaurant will signal the start of something more meaningful than just a night out.

“Social Meet Up: Party & Game Night,” organised by SV GH in collaboration with The Goodcute Restaurant & Bar, is bringing together a mix of entrepreneurs, couples, creatives, and young professionals for an evening built around connection.

Set for May 29 at Towneast Centre, the event reflects a growing social culture in Ghana where nightlife is becoming less about exclusivity and more about community.

In cities like Accra, social gatherings have evolved into spaces where networking, friendship, business conversations, and entertainment comfortably exist side by side.

That blend is central to the appeal of the event. Guests can move from a competitive round of cards or dominoes to karaoke performances and casual conversations over drinks.

https://ghananewsglobal.com/business-culture-and-connection-collide-at-the-signet-hour-conference-2026/ing it especially attractive for people attending alone or visiting Ghana for the first time.

Game nights themselves hold a familiar place in Ghanaian social life. Across homes, bars, and roadside hangout spots, games like cards, draughts, and dominoes often become unofficial community rituals where storytelling, humour, and debate naturally unfold. This event modernises that spirit for a younger urban crowd while keeping the same sense of togetherness alive.

For tourists, the gathering offers something travel guides rarely capture — the rhythm of everyday social life in Accra.

Beyond beaches and landmarks, Ghana’s personality often reveals itself in shared tables, playful competition, spontaneous music, and conversations with strangers who quickly stop feeling like strangers.

Food and drinks will be available throughout the evening, adding another layer to the experience.

Ghanaian nightlife thrives on atmosphere, and venues like The Goodcute Restaurant & Bar increasingly serve as cultural meeting points where music, food, business, and friendship intersect.

With an entry fee of GHS100, including a complimentary drink, the night promises more than entertainment.

It offers visitors and locals alike a chance to experience Accra the way many residents know it best — social, energetic, and deeply communal.

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Arts and GH Heritage

Why Ghanaians Still Pour Drinks for the Dead And Why the Tradition Never Disappeared

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Before the first sip is taken at many Ghanaian gatherings, a small portion of the drink belongs to someone unseen.

A splash of schnapps hits the earth. A few quiet words follow. Heads bow slightly. Then the living continue.

Across Ghana, libation remains one of the most enduring acts of cultural memory — a ritual that turns ordinary moments into conversations between generations.

Whether at naming ceremonies in Accra, funerals in Kumasi, or family gatherings in northern compounds, the act carries the same message: the dead are not absent; they are listening.

For outsiders, the ritual can seem mystical or symbolic. For many Ghanaians, it is deeply practical. Ancestors are viewed not as distant spirits locked away from daily life, but as guardians with continued responsibility to the family and community.

Pouring drink onto the ground is both an invitation and an acknowledgement. It says: we remember you, walk with us, witness this moment.

What makes the tradition especially fascinating is how it echoes far beyond the continent. In African-American communities, the phrase “pour one out for a homie” survives as an almost instinctive gesture of remembrance.

Though shaped by different histories, the emotional logic feels strikingly familiar. A drink touches the ground, and suddenly grief becomes communal rather than private.

That cultural continuity matters. It reveals how African spiritual practices travelled, adapted, and survived even after displacement and centuries of interruption.

In Ghana, libation still carries ceremonial authority, often performed by elders who recite family lineages and invoke ancestral names with precision and reverence.

At a time when modern life often pushes mourning into silence, libation offers something different: remembrance spoken aloud. It insists that memory deserves ritual, and that the bond between the living and the departed should never be reduced to silence.

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