Nanny is the brilliant new African Film from Sierra Leonean-American Director Nikyatu Jusu

Last week Nanny premiered on Amazon Prime Video, and when I watched it from Freetown, it was apparent why it had won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. 

Nanny is an intimate and layered portrayal of an undocumented African immigrant experience in the US. But not just that. Nikyatu Jusu’s film touches on motherhood, grief, mental health, African mysticism, and racism. Also, it gives us a love story that puts to bed the often perpetuated myth that Africans and “Foundational Black Americans” can’t get along.

I don’t want to spoil this movie by going in depth on how Africans in the diaspora will feel represented in this film, but we are. Many women in the diaspora will see themselves or their mom in Aisha, the lead character played by Senegalese-American actress Anna Diop.

When I was seven, two brothers drowned in the Atlantic Ocean. Neighbors accused my mom of witchcraft––they said she had sacrificed her sons to Mammywata. When I was 19 and living in Paris on a student visa, I took work as an Aupair to a white American family. I picked up their children from school. I took them to the playground, where I was surrounded by other African women nannies and the white kids they cared for. 

In NY, where I lived in Harlem, I would braid my hair on 125th Street.  For two decades, my train stop was the one train on 145th street and Broadway. 

I’m a mom who often travels for work, and when I call my son (who I’m raising with my mom and sister), I am at the mercy of the mobile network and his mood.  A call sometimes ends before much is said.

When I finished watching Nanny, I told myself only a Nikyatu could have made this film. Only a first-generation American African who carries the double consciousness of being Black and African could tell this story in this way––complex, with reverence for authenticity and humanity.

Beyond the brilliance of this film, I’m thrilled for Nikyatu. I discovered her over a decade ago when she was wrapping up at NYU Film School. She had made two short films; African Booty Scratcher and Say Grace Before Drowning. I became an instant fan and started following her on the socials. I’ve watched in anticipation of a breakthrough like this because her films then as Nanny were “own voices” stories focused on Black and African communities. Unfortunately, there isn’t always room at the table for stories and storytellers who don’t center on whiteness or the white gaze in America. One successful film does not have an industry change or a career make, but I’m happy that with Nanny, Nikyatu has a platform to share her art with the world. It was long overdue. 

If you haven’t seen Nanny the psychological thriller with small juju (American people say “horror”) by Sierra Leonean-American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu consider this your invitation. Nanny is now playing on Prime Video and select theaters in the US. You are very welcome!