THE FILM – Cosmic Africa is a feature length documentary film on the traditional aspects of astronomy in Africa. It is the extraordinary personal account of African astronomer, Thebe Medupe, who embarks on a journey to reveal aspects of this ancient continent’s astronomical and cosmological past.  Filmed in the heart of the Egyptian Sahara Desert; the precipitous cliffs of Dogon country in Mali and the ancestral land of Namibia’s hunter-gatherers, Thebe unveils the deep connection humans have with the cosmos and weaves the past with the present and future. 

Available to stream on Cinema Awujo from December 17th to January 5th, 2025. Watch the film here.

COSMIC AFRICA

Cosmic Africa is an extraordinary personal odyssey of African astronomer, Thebe Medupe,  who journeys into this ancient continent’s astronomical past  unveiling the deep connection humans have with the cosmos.

THEBE’S STORY

Rodney Thebe Medupe was born on October 10, 1973.  His small rural village, situated in the north- western corner of South Africa, was then under the jurisdiction of a self-governing black homeland called Bophuthatswana. 
He was born, during the darkest days of apartheid, in a humble village, near the small town of Mafikeng.  Right from the start his mother had great aspirations for him. She called him Thebeitsile: a Tswana word meaning “the shield has arrived.” He got to dislike his English name and preferred being called Thebe. 
After experiencing his first telescopic view of the moon, Thebe is motivated to learn more about the lunar surface. He discovers that astronomers have made detailed maps of the moon. This motivates him to get involved in a lunar-mapping project of his own. He uses his telescope to study some of the more prominent features. He jots down his observation onto a piece of paper and creates his own lunar map. He would then compare his map with the more professional ones.
Thebe finds great beauty in the stars and he starts reading about constellations and binary (double) stars. 
Towards the end of high school, Thebe and a friend decide to make improvements to  his telescope.  This time they use a discarded plumber’s tube for the body.  It was his favourite ‘toy’, the love of his life that kept him happy and busy through his high school years.     
During his academic studies he came across a collection of research papers on African sky lore.  So far, his cosmic research has been highly specialised and theoretical. He begins to reflect that astronomical exploration is a passion that is intertwined with our search for our origins and destiny. Since our ancestors first started creating meaning out of the sky, our struggle ever since has been to understand where and how we fit.  When he was a child and wrote essays on whether there was life on other planetary systems, it was strictly a hypothesis…now astronomers are discovering other planets in distant parts of the universe – some of them may harbour life. He finds it amazing to think that when we look at the sky we are looking into the past. 
The light from the stars in the Andromeda Galaxy left some two million years ago, a time when two legged hominids strode across Africa. He speculates about how the very first person on Earth must have felt like when he or she looked up to the sky and wandered. 

THEBE’S PERSONAL JOURNEY TO BECOMING A SCIENTIST

What is remarkable, and the overriding factor is that Thebe describes the story of his life as: ‘being about LOVE. It is about being loved by my family, community and by my country.’
His journey is stylised by the combination of a rational western education that overlays a strong empathy with African culture acquired during his childhood.
He sees the possibility of addressing some of the damages caused by apartheid in the context of his work: astronomy.  ‘If I can get our youth to actually start appreciating their history with pride –  and once you have that kind of pride  – it will help them look forward with pride again. If their ancestors could do things like that, they can also do it.’    

MOTIVATION FOR HIS AFRICAN JOURNEY

Thebe is keenly aware that there are many places in Africa that he knows nothing about. On the whole, societies live in mutual ignorance of each other.   He needs to know if there is a place for himself and for Africa, within the world of astronomy. He is also secretly looking for the holy grail of astronomy, a new African discovery that will blow the world away. He questions why – although Africa is a place where everyone began – is regarded as the cradle of humankind – yet Western perception still dominates astronomical literature. Thebe acknowledges that he has been heavily influenced by a western education system, although extremely valid, it has also removed him and many others from their African roots. 
He has a pervading sense of emptiness, a yearning to give meaning to where we are today. To achieve this he feels the answer lies at the cradle of astronomy, at its origins in Africa. 

Motivated, Thebe embarks on a journey through parts of Africa with the objective of integrating some of the African perceptions of the universe with current scientific knowledge. 
He carefully chooses to explore the celestial beliefs of select societies in Namibia, Mali and Egypt.  He bases his choice on the very different traditional societies found in each place:  agriculturists – Dogon of Mali, hunter-gatherers – Ju /’Hoansi of Namibia  & nomadic cattle herders – early Sub Saharan Africans in Egypt.

Thebe finds out that there is a place for himself and Africa within world astronomy.  He realises that the holy grail of astronomy in Africa is that the people have not separated the study of the stars as a job or a pastime.  The stars are the breathing essence of the cosmos, which has been totally integrated into their lives and their mythology.
He and the viewer realise that we must stop always thinking that what we can discover from the Third World is ours to own and exploit, that we should take a little time to listen to the wisdom of the people who have walked a lot lighter and for a lot longer, because it is their way of thinking that can sustain the path ahead. 

Astronomy cannot be separated as a science from their perspective – it is an intimate tapestry, merging into their prayers, their lives, their dreams and their deaths. 

From Thebe’s perspective it strengthens his relationship with science, as he sees a bigger more holistic picture.  He realises that we all have an African heritage and that this great continent is the place where people first began to look up into the heavens to try and determine the future. 

VISION AND STYLE – Written By Directors Craig & Damon Foster

At first it was very daunting to make a film about an African perspective of the Universe – such an enigmatic, huge and illusive subject. Not to mention that the stars are so difficult to photograph. The words of the ‘Merlin like’ figure of Annaye Doumba, an 87 year old spiritual leader in Mali calmed us considerably. He said ” the Earth and the Sky are like man and woman……to understand the heavens you must first understand our earthly ways”. We realised that for many African people the Cosmos is an extension of the natural world and that many of the daily activities of people on Earth reflect the movements of the celestial bodies in the sky.

We began to see a world view quiet different from our own. A view that showed us how very scientific our concepts of space and time were – how we existed in that bubble. This new ‘view’ was startling in its richness and openness. It was less concerned with answers and more interested in experience, in ritual, in the transcendent. We had to find a way to express this in film.

In this ‘view’  the everyday world and the spirit world are seamless. So we kept the photography and the editing formal and classic, but we gave it an edge, a feel that would convey this way of looking at ‘reality’. We used sound in a less formal way, subtly shifting perspective and pitch to give a sense of the inner world of shaman or diviner. Allowing the viewer a chance to see the cosmos afresh. There was still a vital element missing.