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This 43-minute documentary film combines ethnography with history and heritage to narrate the story of African movement eastwards through the Indian Ocean World and beyond to the Pacific Ocean. The film highlights African music as a vibrant legacy through the genres of manja, kaffrinha and baila in Sri Lanka. Ancient migrations less known than the transAtlantic African movement to the Americas are brought to the fore.  Moreover, the achievements of some enslaved Africans in the East, albeit freed, within the sociocultural worlds that they entered into, are unparalleled in the Atlantic World.

The film will be of interest to those concerned with lost African diasporas globally.  Film producer, Professor Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, will be present at the event and there will an opportunity for Q&A and discussion after the screening.

Indian Ocean African Migrants Film Screening
with producer Professor Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya
Saturday, 11 April 2026, 1100-1215, free, no booking required
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
See: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/event/indian-ocean-african-migrants-film-screening

We’re looking for a Research Fellow in African Film and Visual History to join the international team responsible for the new research project The Uganda Film Unit Archive: Digitisation, Research and Restitution, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project is led by Darren Newbury, Professor of Photographic History, School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Brighton and Richard Vokes, Professor of Anthropology and International Development, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia; and involves collaboration with the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation.

You will be working closely with Professor Newbury and Professor Vokes playing an important role in the content mapping of the digitised Uganda Film Unit archive and related archival and historical research; supporting fieldwork, data collection and analysis relating to the responses to the archival footage among Ugandan publics and communities; and disseminating the project findings through conference presentation and publication.

To be successful in this role, you should have:

• A PhD (or an equivalent level of professional experience) in an area of history, theory or practice central to the focus of the research project
• Experience of researching in African History/Studies, Film or Media History, Visual Anthropology, or Visual Culture Studies
• Sufficient, up to date breadth or depth of specialist knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes
• Experience of data collection and data analysis (including visual data) and data management
• Evidence of commitment to engage in continuous professional development including knowledge of methods for data management
• Understanding of equality of opportunity, academic content and issues relating to student need and commitment to ethical research practices
• Competent and relevant IT skills, effective use of IT for research, and ideally teaching and learning purposes 

The appointment is for a fixed term (18.5 hours per week, 0.5 full time equivalent) with an ideal start date of 01/12/25 and an end date of 30/09/28.

Research Fellow in African Film and Visual History (0.5 full-time equivalent)
University of Brighton, School of Humanities and Social Science
Closes 28 October 2025
Details and apply here: https://jobs.brighton.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=HU3231-25-209