Three years after Michael Jackson`s death, a film has been released about his and his brothers The Jackson 5`S first-ever visit and stage performance in Africa. Narrated by renowned actor Robert Hooks, the camera follows Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5`s tour to Senegal,in West Africa. The film includes live footage of their visit to an African market, classic live footage of the group spontaneously performing "Hum Along and Dance," and extraordinary footage of the Jackson 5 performing on stage before a packed audience at the height of their career in the mid-Seventies.
"The history of the film is nearly as interesting as the footage itself," explains the film's South African distribution company 7UP FILMS director Mark Harris. "It was made by a group of African investors who ran out of money trying to finish the film. In 1982, the owner of this film, an anonymous businessman bartered with one of the original producers, acquiring a 16mm print of this rare documentary, in exchange for a rough diamond. Years later, the film's owner reached out to Gregory Gates, Exec Producer of Image Nation Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to progressive media created by and about people of color, to help him find a collector/buyer for the never-before-screened work. Gladly,he accepted and the film was put together.
What
was evident from their first performance in Dakar,was how plugged in
to African-American culture the Senegalese-and indeed all
Africans-were at that time. It is a trend which has grown immensely
over the ensuing years. A fitting tribute to the King Pop three years
after his untimely demise.
