I saw The Eyes of Ghana, executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, and if you’re new here, Ghana has a very special place in my heart. What was supposed to be a 10-day birthday trip last year somehow turned into four months there. It was one of the most peaceful periods I’d felt in a very long time. The film is really about Chris Hesse, Kwame Nkrumah’s personal cameraman, who spent years documenting Ghana’s independence era and preserved more than 1,300 films from that period. And that part really stayed with me. Because Nkrumah’s story itself is enormous. He helped lead Ghana to independence, became its first prime minister and later its first president, pushed a Pan-African vision for a more united Africa — and somehow I also never knew he earned two graduate degrees from my own alma mater, Penn. Like… how did I go to Penn and barely know that? He also survived assassination attempts, became increasingly authoritarian, and was eventually overthrown in 1966 while U.S. officials had already been tracking coup plots against him. So no, this 90-minute film doesn’t tell the whole story. It really isn’t trying to. What it did do was remind me how much I love the act of documenting. Every time I make one of these little videos — even when 200 people watch 😂 — I genuinely enjoy filming, taking photos, finding the story, preserving a moment that otherwise would’ve disappeared. I’m still finding my community. I’m still learning to be consistent. But I think that’s how I know this creative thing is real for me: I love making it even before anybody claps. And maybe that’s why Chris Hesse’s story hit me. Who documents history matters. Who preserves it matters. And who gets to tell it later matters. So go see The Eyes of Ghana. Then learn more about Nkrumah. Learn more about Ghana. And if you’ve never been, go. Especially if you’re Black American. There’s something powerful about getting curious about the places, people and history we were taught to feel so far removed from. And apparently, I’m becoming a filmmaker one 90-second Reel at a time 😂 #panafricanism #ghanatiktok🇬🇭 #BlackAmerican #blacktravel #BlackHistory - @britt.happens