Max's ‘Coming From America’ is an Unromanticized Look at Moving to Africa

Funny, insightful and occasionally heartwarming, Coming From America honestly captures the journey of four Black American families whose search for alternative ways to live leads them to a vastly different reality. The Kellys, the Davises and the Joneses to Ghana and the Smileys to Zambia. According to Traci Grant, one of the producers of the series, the idea began as conversations around Blaxit were filling up the mainstream. “People were saying ‘Maybe we should explore other options.’ I mean, if what some of us are experiencing here in the United States is so difficult, what would it be like to live in a country where so many people look just like me? What would it be like to be one of many, instead of one of few?” Grant tells OkayAfrica.

These questions sit at the center of this show, but they don't make up its soul. Taken at face value, it is over simplistic to consider this six-part series as just an insightful look into the complexities of uprooting one’s life to a continent where life is not always as easy and where amenities like power supply and good transportation systems are sometimes lacking. It is even simpler to brush it off as yet another story of foreigners seeking cheap housing and living conditions on the continent, sometimes at the expense of locals (a matter this show doesn’t heavily focus on). Calling it a realistic guide of what to do and not do before moving to the African continent wouldn’t be far off as well.

But at the soul of Coming From America is a fascinating story about people trying to find themselves. It is about a broken family — like the Kellys trying to repair their center while finding their feet in an industry they know nothing about. It is how Julia, the matriarch of the Davis family finally feels at home when she moves her family to Aburi, an area heavily surrounded by nature. For these families, the journey to trying out a new life is one with their desire to see what kinds of people they can become in this new context.

The decision to capture these families without polish or embellishment offers an unglamorized and sometimes even disappointing perspective to uprooting one’s life to move to the continent. And at a time when Africa has gained a new look as a destination point for end-of-year shenanigans and low-cost living, the reality check is much needed.

Capturing a life-changing journey

To kickstart the project, the first step was to find families who were open to being a part of the project, which turned out to be surprisingly easy. “We found many people talking about wanting to make a change and find a better life outside of America, so it made it a little easier to find these families,” Grant says. To achieve that natural, plausible feel that the show executes really well, the filmmakers let these families live through the experience without interference. “We just wanted to capture things as they were really occurring,” Grant says. “I mean, we're literally there with some of the families as they were packing everything up. This was a huge leap that they were taking and they were sort of putting themselves in our hands to be able to document exactly what this big transition was like.”

Considered altogether, Coming From America does a good job of mapping out the emotional and psychological changes these families go through. By following them as they marvel at billboard ads filled with only Black people, as they cry when they visit a rural village and gain a different appreciation for their privilege, as they acknowledge their helplessness but also their advantages, we bear witness to a generation whose world has expanded beyond measure.