# Madubuko Diakité

Madubuko A. Robinson Diakité (born 17 December 1940) is a U.S.-born human rights lawyer and documentary filmmaker currently residing in Sweden. He has traveled widely throughout Africa and currently freelances as a guest lecturer and consultant on African migration, the African diaspora, human rights law, film history and mass media.

## Early life

Diakité was born in New York City 1940. Following his parents' divorce, his mother married a journalist from Nigeria, and he and his three siblings spent most of their teenage years there. Encouraged by his stepfather's important role in the struggle for independence from Britain, Diakité developed his own interests in journalism and human rights. Upon returning to New York City in the 1960s, he attended Hunter College, New York (No degree), and then earned a law degree at La Salle Extension University in 1967.

## Career

Inspired by documentary filmmakers in New York at the time, he earned a diploma in documentary filmmaking at the New York Institute of Photography under George Wallach. He arrived in Sweden as a foreign student in 1968 and earned a Swedish B.A. (fil.kand) and an M.A. in film at the Department of Film Studies, Stockholm University (1972-3) under the guidance of Professor Rune Waldekranz, its founder. In 1973, Diakité won an Honorable Mention prize for a film on youth in Harlem at the Grenoble Festival of Short films (For Personal Reasons, co-produced with SVT2, Malmö). After completing studies for a Ph.D. in film history (ABD) at Stockholm University he published the draft of his dissertation as a book entitled A Piece of The Glory: A Survey of African American Filmmakers and Their Struggles with Popular American Myths in 1992.
During a one-year stay in Zaria, Nigeria, he established the film unit at the Centre for Nigerian Cultural Studies, Ahmadu Bello University (under Professor Michael Crowder, Director).
In 1992, Diakité earned an LL.M. at the Faculty of Law, Lund University, and continued to earn a Juris licentiat in 2007.
Diakité has published articles on film and human rights law for several international publications, and has headed several projects on the rights of people of African descent in Sweden. He is also the publisher of The Lundian Magazine, an English language newsletter in Sweden, and is the director and CEO of The English International Association of Lund, an NGO based in Lund, Sweden (founded in 1987).
In 2008 he published Not Even in Your Dreams, an autobiographical work.
Diakité is a Senior Researcher Emeritus at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law|Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden. His current research at the institute examines focuses on African diaspora issues. He has also researched human rights and migrant workers in Africa.

## Personal life

Diakité lives in Malmö with his Dutch-born wife. He is the father of Swedish rapper Jason "Timbuktu" Diakité. And uncle to Nigerian-American actor Chet Anekwe
Noted Films After graduating from the New York Institute of Photography Diakite produced, directed and edited the following 16mm films: Dreams of G, a short film co produced with the late Boris Bodé about the dreams of a lonely girl in New York; For Personal Reasons,a 35 minute film about an angry black youth in New York who sees no way out of his misery than to take vigilante actions against NYC policemen; Det Osynliga Folket (English and Swedish), a 35 minute film about case studies of discrimination of foreign students and immigrants in Lund, co produced by Gary Engman with a special thanks to SVTV (Malmö) and Herbert Söderström; En Dag På Mårtenstorget (Swedish), a 35 minute film about Mårtenstorget, a farmers market in Lund, Sweden.
Distributor Filmform Stockholm, website: filmform.com
Noted Articles Trans-Atlantic Crossings: Madubuko Diakité and Black Radical Documentary, by Dr. Christian Rossipal, Film Quarterly, Spring 2023, Vol. 76 Number 3,pp 12 - 24.
Recent Awards CinemAfricas Honorary Prize 2023 Stockholm. 20th October (Cinema Africa)