Made to Fall in Love, is a short film that captures the spirit of Afro Caribbean people and their relationship with love throughout the diaspora. The purpose of NoHa Collective’s first official initiative is to present Black love in a new perspective.
“What does your relationship with love look like?” The collective inquires.
In most African societies, talks about love are usually accompanied by a sense of uncomfortability and can also be fraught with trauma. Made to Fall in Love puts forward the thoughts, stories and testimonies of Afro Caribbean people on the theme of love as a collective of young people with African and Caribbean backgrounds.
Love has been largely disregarded in Afro centred discourse, resulting in a major lack of understanding of this crucial aspect of social life.
NoHa Collective hopes to reach a large audience and display a variety of tales and artwork by collaborating with East African periodical Tangaza Magazine, Toronto based media house Luminary and Trad Magazine.
In recent years, there has been a surge in scholarly interest in love. Historians have looked into the rise of romantic love and marriage in Europe and the United States, while anthropologists have looked into how globalisation has shifted local perspectives on the same themes.
Made to Fall in Love aspires to begin to comprehend and fix this underestimated consideration of love amongst Afro Caribbean discourse — with the contributors arguing for the value of love from personal perspectives and anecdotes.
The collaborators collectively argue for the significance of paying attention to the many various cultural and historical strands that comprise love in Africa and the Caribbean, through responses that personalise love presently.
What a treacherous topic love truly is. From a cultural perspective, it might be what has saved each and everyone of us from surrendering to our trespasses, or the straw that broke the camel’s back.
With a history of colonisation, displacement, location, immigration and relocation, it is no wonder that the performance of indulging in love, is seen as a luxury within the African diaspora, however, the act and practice of it has never been scarce.
Today, we take the first steps in actualising and documenting our experiences.
NoHa Collective is returning to, digging, deriving and displaying Afro Caribbean culture in all forms and manifestations. The collective states:
Through exhibiting both historical and contemporary artistic and cultural expression. We will explore what we have both lost and become through colonial assimilation, where and when we find inspiration and why we will never stop fighting our way home. Wherever that may be.
