Crossing Borders: Redefining African Migration Through Storytelling
In an attempt to provide a human-centered understanding of African migration through film, I, Itumeleng Morake, founded Final Frame, a Gaborone-based production company dedicated to telling diverse and impactful African stories. As a Move Africa Data Storytelling Fellow, I have been trained to explore the power of data-driven narratives that reshape perceptions of migration, not from the outside looking in, but through the authentic voices of those living these experiences.
My journey as a filmmaker is guided by the belief that stories have the power to restore dignity, challenge stereotypes, and open space for empathy. I see filmmaking not merely as art, but as an act of preservation of memory, of resilience, of truths that demand to be heard. Migration, in this regard, is one of Africa’s most important and misrepresented narratives.
It is this conviction that gave rise to Crossing Borders, a documentary film that follows the intertwined journeys of Catherine Sakala and two other migrants living in Botswana. Through their own voices, the film captures the challenges they face, the resilience they embody, and the small but powerful triumphs they achieve. By allowing the migrants themselves to guide the narrative, Crossing Borders departs from the conventional portrayal of migration as merely a statistic or a crisis. Instead, it presents migration as lived reality, human, complex, and full of untold dignity.
The film seeks to:
- Provide a nuanced, African-centred perspective on migration in Botswana.
- Highlight not only the struggles but also the resilience, agency, and successes of migrants.
- Contribute to broader conversations around migration, aligning with initiatives like SIHMA’s Atlas of African Migration, by adding a cinematic and personal dimension.
- Showcase the power of storytelling as a means of advocacy, awareness, and cultural preservation.
Supporting Crossing Borders is supporting the voices of African migrants telling their own stories. The film offers more than observation; it is testimony, it is witness, it is an invitation for audiences to look beyond borders and statistics into the lived experiences of real people.
By Itumeleng Morake
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