Tobi Onabolu

Dear Black Child (2021)

Close Looking: Queer African Art and Joy

Visual description:

Before any image appears, the screen is black. A single line of white text reads: “To be all that we are, to express all that we feel and to feel at home, wherever we go – this is the power of Black Joy.” The film begins with a definition, setting the terms for everything that follows.

We enter a quiet interior. The camera pans across a stack of books—Bolu Babalola’s Love in Colour, Akala’s Natives, Paul Gilroy’s There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack, Coelho’s The Alchemist. It is a subtle but deliberate signal. This film knows the conversations it is entering.

A Black figure lies on a bed in a white room. Incense burns beside crystals. A guided meditation begins, accompanied by birdsong. A voice calls out “Black Child” in Yoruba. The figure rises, and the film shifts.

Much of what follows takes place in a forest—Hackney Wick, though it could be anywhere lush and green. The light is warm, almost golden. The central figure, known as the Seeker (Ayo Babatope), moves through the landscape in a vivid green and earth-toned bodysuit, dancing through nearly every scene. The quest is for joy.

The film moves between three visual modes: forest scenes of movement, ceremony, and community; black screens with quotes from writers such as Maya Angelou and Dudley Randall; and quieter, intimate moments between people and their surroundings.

The Seeker encounters another figure, Wanderlust (Kane Horn). Their initial caution gives way to shared movement and joy. Eventually, a group gathers. They celebrate together—through dance, food, and presence.

Costumes vary widely: red velvet capes, streetwear, feathered headpieces, tie-dyed bodysuits. No single cultural moment is fixed. Instead, the visual language reflects diasporic identity as layered, plural, and evolving.

Food becomes central. Pomegranate seeds are passed from hand to hand. Fufu, pineapple, and fruit are shared as offerings. In the context of invocations to ancestors and expressions of gratitude, these acts carry spiritual weight.

At the end, after the meditation fades and the screen returns to black, one final line appears: “It makes so much sense that Beethoven was Black…”

Context:

Tobi Onabolu is a London-born filmmaker, creative director, and spoken word artist whose work centers on the interior lives of Black people—particularly their healing, spirituality, and joy. He currently lives and works between locations, with a base in Grand Popo, Benin.

Dear Black Child was created in collaboration with A Joyful Project and Rooted, in response to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities in the UK. Over six months, the project explored joy as a collective and living practice. The film won Best Score at Cannes Indie Shorts in 2022.

The narrative follows a mythic structure: a seeker enters an enchanted forest, encounters guiding figures, and finds community. This framework allows the film to move fluidly between African spiritual traditions, Black British experience, and a more interior, poetic space.

Onabolu describes joy as a form of reclamation and frequency—a way of tuning into oneself through care, connection, and spirituality. This perspective shapes the film’s use of ritual, ancestral invocation, and embodied movement.

Interpretation:

The film states directly: “Black joy is an act of rebellion.” Joy is not presented as simple or escapist. It is a refusal to be defined by suffering. This idea resonates with a lineage of Black thinkers such as Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Robin D. G. Kelley, though the film expresses it through bodies, movement, and shared experience rather than argument.

The opening meditation room offers a contrast. Its white, minimal aesthetic suggests a detached or sanitized form of spirituality. In contrast, the forest becomes a site of transformation—alive with color, movement, and connection. It is a space where the body, community, and the natural world come into alignment.

Wanderlust functions as a guide, leading the Seeker toward community. Together, they suggest queerness as a space of exploration, connection, and joy.

Costume plays a critical role. The mixing of styles and references resists fixed identity, instead presenting Blackness and joy as unifying forces across the diaspora. Identity here is layered and self-defined.

The moment when the Seeker removes their coat reveals an iridescent bodysuit beneath, recalling metamorphosis. When the coat is later returned as a blanket, it suggests that transformation does not require abandoning the self, but recontextualizing it within community.

Food operates as both nourishment and offering. Shared meals connect participants to each other and to ancestral presence. The act of eating together becomes a ritual of belonging.

The film acknowledges pain, but does not center it. Instead, it builds toward a form of joy that feels earned—grounded in memory, community, and care.

Reflect and Explore

• How does the opening text shape your experience of the film?

• What does the shifting use of setting—from interior room to forest—suggest about transformation?

• How do costume and styling reflect diasporic identity? What would change if they were more historically fixed?

• What role does food play in the film? How does it function beyond sustenance?

• The Seeker returns to their original space at the end. Do you imagine that space has changed? Why or why not?

  
  

Learn More

Artist & Primary Sources

• Video: Dear Black Child (2021)

  
  

Further Resources

• A Joyful Project

• Rooted UK

  
  

Contextual Reading

• Audre Lorde

• bell hooks

• Robin D. G. Kelley

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Tobi Onabolu Dear Black Child Black joy film