MY WHITE BABY

This lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana depicts the tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa as evoked through a series of vignettes, set against a child’s story of migrating from Ghana to the United States.

Set in a funk-rich sound world, Akosua Adoma Owusu’s rhythmic collage inspects the roots of Eurocentric beauty images through its rollicking, freeze-framed tour of Ghanaian salons, as children play with white dolls. A powerfully pointed look at the cross-hairs of style and colonialism.