TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou

Name: TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou
Released: 2026-04-02
Duration: 1 h 30 min

TUKKI, which means journey in Wolof, follows Senegalese composer Alune Wade as he records his album New African Orleans, in Dakar, Saint-Louis, Lagos, and New Orleans. Along the way, he retraces the routes of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and interviews musicians, scholars, and cultural practitioners who have dedicated their crafts and research to Black Atlantic histories and cultures. The film was co-produced by a collaborative ethnography organization, the Neighborhood Story Project. Together, we worked closely with community-based organizations—social and pleasure clubs, Black carnival organizations, a museum dedicated to the history of slavery, a Mami Wata shrine—to build bridges between our communities on both sides of the water. Inspired by the stories of Pan-Africanism in Senegal and Black carnival traditions honoring African ancestry in New Orleans, the end of the film follows Victor Harris, the Big Chief of the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors, as he travels to Africa for the first time to participate in a parade we organized in the Dakar Plateau. As Victor says, “It was a connection that’s always been part of my entire life. Being here, I’m not going to say is a dream come true, it was something that had to happen to me. Coming to this land...my life is fulfilled.”PT1H30M2026-04-02TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou"TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou"

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