Djimon Hounsou Shares His Mission To Unite Africans In Diaspora

There’s a lot of disconnect between African Americans and Africans a lot of misunderstanding on both sides. Why do you think that is?

According to Djimon Hounsou, It’s mostly due to the lack of knowledge because we don’t know about our history, we don’t know about ourselves. Sometimes when you address an African American about you know, you know your origins or if you tell them that you’re somewhat, it’s impossible that you’re from anyplace else outside the continent of Africa. They seem to want to refute that understanding and you know…. that’s part of the disconnect.

I came to America at the age of 23 and I felt this profound disconnect with African Americans, when I started making this film that was directed by Steven Spielberg called Amistad. As I was doing research for the film, I became profoundly aware of the disconnect of Afro-descendants from the root and culture, that was really what compelled me so many years later to start my foundation. So my foundation, one of the leg of Africa reconnect is to organize curated trips for young African Americans from the age of 18-29 to visit Africa and to hope that they would see and experience things.