NEW YORK (US) – Rapper Nathan Nzanga has taken part in BLM marches in Portland, Chicago, and Seattle, which is his hometown, apart from writing songs reflecting his protest against racial prejudice. Now, the US-born son of immigrants from Congo in Africa has starred in a movie featuring his music and it was released online last month.
The musician, whose compositions narrate his story as an African American, said: “I feel like God gave me the gift of being able to tell stories. I’m trying to find ways to make sure we see the human in one another.”
The short film, which runs into 13 minutes, was made by the musician with director Caleb Slain and it is titled ‘Enough’. It begins with the song “Truce.” The 22-year-old had penned it when he was attending a teenage camp in 2016.
In between camp activities, he used to follow the news. That was how he learned of the death of Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016 after he was gunned down in a convenience store by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On July 6, a police shooting at a traffic intersection in Minnesota claimed the life of Philando Castile. On July 7, a gunman mowed down five policemen during a rally against police brutality in Dallas before being shot dead after a standoff with law enforcement officers.
“It seems like every day we add a few more names to the list,” the musican wrote in “Truce,” adding, “I’m scared that I’m the next one that they’ll hit.”
The movie also features another of Nzanga’s songs, one he wrote following the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd because of police brutality.
“Every time something like this happens, we see ourselves in the person that the police decided not to treat like a human,” Nzanga said.
When Steven Cleveland, a professor of ethnic studies and history at California State University East Bay, happened to watch the short film, he set out to use it to strike a conversation about race, violence and policing in classrooms on his campus as well as across the nation.
“The vision for this is to go into spaces and be able to bring both sides of the story so we can begin to have dialogue and build us up and move us to places where we can get sustainable, transformative change that we need,” Cleveland said.
Nzanga describes how he and his family had to open their bags for searches as they left a store while white customers were spared.
