AI: African Intelligence (2022)

Manthia Diawara's latest essay film, AI: African Intelligence, explores the points of contact between rituals of African possession cults, such as those found in traditional fishing villages on Senegal's Atlantic coast, and the emergence of new technological frontiers known as artificial intelligence. Looking at the intertwining of tradition and modernity, Diawara asks how we can move from disembodied machines to a more humane and spiritual control of algorithms. Could Africa be the context in which such unlikely algorithms evolve?