Seven African Documentaries to Watch Ahead of Karam Gill’s “Wizkid: Long Live Lagos” December Premiere

In 2020, Wizkid  released Essence featuring Tems, the fourth single off his Made in Lagos album. One year later, the remix featuring Tems and Justin Bieber followed. That song is sitting as Wizkid’s most-streamed record, first song with a lead Nigerian act to crack the hallowed Billboard Hot 100 and has gathered lots of accolades from around the world. This singular song proved Wizkid’s coveted position as one of the drivers of the “Afrobeats to the World” vehicle. 

In 2023, during Wizkid’s historic sold-out show at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, the production of Karam Gill’s Wizkid: Long Live Lagos commenced. The documentary is part of the HBO Original documentary series created by Bill Simmons. And Gill’s Wizkid: Long Live Lagos which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2025, is set to debut on HBO on December 11, 2025. As the documentary film is set to premiere, Culture Custodian has curated a list of seven African documentaries around topical African subjects and issues. These documentaries cut across personal, political, cultural, historical subjects and issues. 

Bobi Wine: The People’s President

Bobi Wine is an Ugandan politician, singer and activist whose music and activism challenges the decades-long rulership of Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986. Born Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, Bobi Wine rose to fame as a musician and earned the nickname “Ghetto President” for his socially conscious music that addressed the struggles of underprivileged Ugandans. Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President chronicles Bobi Wine’s transformation from a pop star and activist into a political opponent challenging President Museveni. The film details Wine’s fight for democracy and the state’s brutal response, including violence and repression against his supporters during the 2021 presidential election. Produced by Ventureland, Southern Films and Bleat Post Production and distributed by National Geographic Documentary Films, the documentary tracks Bobi Wine’s usage of music to call out corruption and entrance into formal politics in 2017 when he was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Kyadondo County East constituency. Part of the documentary gets dedicated to when, in 2020, he became the president and presidential flag-bearer for the National Unity Platform party and how this political decision affected him, his wife, Barbie and their family. 

African Queens: Njinga

The Jada Pinkett Smith-Produced Docuseries, African Queens: Njinga documents the history of princess Njinga, her ascension to the throne in a patriarchal community of  Ndongo (present-day Angola) and the complexities around her leadership. The dramatized documentary has Adesuwa Oni, Thabo Bopape, Siya Sikawuti, Philips Nortey and others playing lead roles. The series blends this fictional retelling with experts’ opinions and archival footage by featuring academics and notably, Queen Diambi Kabatusuila, a real-life woman king of the Bakwa Luntu people, in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. The series is historically significant because it subtly contends with the historical and media erasure of African women’s stories  and contribution to historical and national issues. 

The Letter 

Maia Lekow and Christopher King’s The Letter is the directorial feature documentary work from the husband-wife director duo. It tells the story of a 95 year-old Grandmother accused of witchcraft by her own family.  Her grandson Karisa, travels home from the city to investigate this accusation and it gradually emerges who sent the threatening letter and why. Karisa’s investigation reveals that her grandmother isn’t the sole witchcraft suspect. There are other elderly women accused too. This reveals how Christianity and the erasure of the African past is constantly turning hundreds of families against their elders, branding them as witches as a means to steal their ancestral land. Also, consumerism and the universal theme of land dispute gets entangled in this witchcraft accusation story. The debut feature-documentary by Lekow & King, The Letter premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2019 and was Kenya’s official submission for Best Foreign Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards.

Sudan, Remember Us

Hind Meddeb’s Sudan, Remember Us, is a documentary that chronicles the Sudanese revolution from the 2019 uprising through subsequent military crackdowns and the 2023 civil war, highlighting the fight for freedom by young Sudanese artists and activists. The film, which adopts an observational narrative style, acts as a cinematic archive and media that documents  the fight for freedom through the eyes of young artists and activists. The focus on young Sudanese protesters including Shajane, Maha, Muzamil, and Khatab who use art, poetry, music, and slogans as forms of resistance gives the documentary a thematic focus. This thematic focus is instinctive because it shows a practical example of arts’ ability for political resistance. The poems and songs that these young protesters read and performed carries the Sudanese people’s pursuit of justice and calls for global awareness of a conflict that has displaced millions.

The Battle for Laikipia

The Battle for Laikipia is a 2024 documentary film that examines the intense and escalating conflict over land and resources in the Laikipia region of Kenya, a crisis intensified by climate change and rooted in historical colonial injustices. Co-directed by Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi, the film provides a balanced yet unflinching look at the long-standing disputes between two main groups: the semi-nomadic indigenous Samburu herders and fourth-generation descendants of British landowners. The documentary explores conversations around land rights, climate change and  colonial legacy and justice. The unresolved historical land injustice that colonialism caused features prominently in the documentary. It also discussed what justice should look like on both sides of the divide for indigenous nomadic herders and the British landowners who consider themselves Kenyans. 

Afrobeats: The Backstory

The Ayo Shonaiya’s 12-episode documentary series,  Afrobeats: The Backstory is created to track the evolution and global rise of the Afrobeats music genre using footage recorded over 20 years. The series traces the genre from its early roots to its current global status, featuring interviews with key industry figures and exploring the cultural significance of the music. The docuseries features foundational figures, contemporary artists and industry players including Kenny Ogungbe, Dayo “D1” Adeneye, Tony Allen, Obi Asika, Keke, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Eldee of the Trybesmen, Weird MC, late Sound Sultan, and others. The documentary’s archival footage rests extensively on footage recorded by Shonaiya over two decades, which captures candid moments and performances from many other artists and contributors over the years. 

   Dahomey

Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop, is a 2024 documentary film that chronicles the return of 26 looted royal artifacts from a museum in Paris to the Republic of Benin. The documentary follows the journey of the artifacts from their storage in the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris to their arrival in Cotonou, Benin. The statue of King Ghezo, one of the returned artifacts,  is one of the documentary’s most striking features. This artistic choice humanizes the artifacts and allows them to express the trauma of its decades-long cultural displacement. Another crucial aspect of the documentary is the observational documentation of the students of the University of Abomey-Calavi debating about the returned artifacts. The debate represents the complex and diverse internal African conversation about the legacy of colonialism, cultural identity, and the true meaning of restitution.  The film had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in 2024, where it won the festival’s top prize, Golden Bear.