“As the world is getting smaller, it’s a story about people who come to America with an idea of what could be,” said NYU Accra Director Frankie Edozien. “We may be seen by some as people who sell on the street or work in car washes, but beneath all of that there is a long line of Africans who came here as a way to get a higher education — to get that American degree.”
“You do what you need to do,” he went on to explain, “and what you have to do to get into higher education. And then you do what you have to do to stay in. When you see Africans graduating, there is a lot of jubilation. The joy is not just that you’ve gotten this wonderful degree. You’ve had to do so many things, take on so many jobs. The journey that we take to get there may have many twists, turns, and diversions, but as Africans we think it’s a journey worth taking. The end of our dreams are not the jobs that we have at the moment, those are only the beginning. We return home to build up our communities. That was cut short for Amadou.”
The recently released Netflix series, Trial by Media, focuses on six true crime stories and the role of the media in their narratives. The third Episode, 41 Shots, examines the journey of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year old young man who immigrated to the US from Guinea to pursue a college education. Instead, Diallo was tragically shot to death outside of his home by police officers who claimed Diallo drew a weapon when asked to produce his ID. Set within the context of the stop-and-frisk program that emerged under former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, the episode looks at the case from a range of perspectives — including Kadiatou Diallo, Amadou’s mother; police officers and other city officials; and Edozien’s thoughtful narration of his experience as a reporter covering the case.
Working on the case as a reporter “took years of my life,” said Edozien, “from the day Diallo was shot, to the day his family received the settlement from New York City.” While there were many journalists covering the story, Edozien’s work on the case began right from the moment Madam Diallo arrived in New York from Guinea.“I was there when she arrived in the Bronx right after she disembarked from the plane. I remember when she came out, grabbing onto her, looking at her and saying, ‘my name is Frankie, remember me.’ I also remember reading about that moment in her book, My Heart will Cross this Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou. In her book, she talks about how awful the experience was and how a reporter approached her and gave her his name.” That moment of human interaction coupled with “the fact that I was constant, that I was there to tell a story, not to tell a story and move on” said Edozien, led to the development of trust.
Looking back over twenty years later, Edozien explained that seeing the story made available to a wide audience on Netflix “was a joy.” Initially, however, Edozien had no expectation that his contribution to the documentary, as an advisor to the producers, would result in his own appearance in 41 Shots. He was contacted at first because, as a reporter who had covered the case extensively, the producers frequently came across his name during the process of conducting background research for the show.
When Edozien was first contacted by the Netflix series producers about the episode, he was initially hesitant because he did not want to take part in a project that might cause Diallo’s family to relive the painful memories related to his death. However, upon talking with them, he found that the producers “wanted to do this right, to tell the truth, to create an honest portrayal of what led to Amadou’s killing.” He discovered that they wanted to provide a sense of what actually happened and to spark a conversation about the role of the media in a high profile case. Edozien notes that,“in telling viewers about the role of the media, you have to tell the story.”
When meeting with the producers to provide insight about the case, Edozien expected to serve as only an advisor, though he later agreed to appear in the show as a narrator of particular events. He was also committed to ensuring Madam Diallo’s views were included in the documentary. “Even though she had been very public and had spoken a lot about her son, she never had the opportunity to tell her story. My big goal was that one day we were going to do it, and convince Madam Diallo to do it. She is a very private person, and she’s focused on her foundation. But I made a case for why she should sit down with the producers. I knew they would talk to lawyers, and talk to everyone [in New York who had been] involved. But once they got Madam Diallo to speak, I knew this wouldn’t be a one sided thing. I thought ‘my work is done here.’ Ultimately, that was all that I wanted.”
Reflecting on his connection to the case, on a personal level, Edozien noted that he “understood Diallo’s journey, even though the police just saw him as a street peddler.” “If you are any kind of ‘other,’ explained Edozien, “you are judged by the way you look or speak. If you are somebody who is vending on the street, as he was selling hats and gloves, the assumption is that you don’t have any formal education. But that was far from the truth, he was on his way to becoming a student studying computer science. But he was also a black man studying in the vestibule of his house. And he was also a black man confronted by a police man. The gun they thought he was pulling out was actually his wallet and ID — exactly what anyone would pull out to provide to police when being stopped.”
Considering the recent shootings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, among other headlines detailing racial injustices, said Edozien, “it’s sad to see that so many years later a certain type of body provokes fear. You can have a black man simply standing, and this evokes fear.”
“What was great for me,” said Edozien about the release of the documentary, “was that people saw Diallo. The thought that he was there only to sell on the streets is not right. He had a plan — to get a degree and return to Guinea.” In fact, said Edozien, “the last words Diallo said to his mother were, ‘mom, I’m going to college.’ He was going to register, to make her proud one day, and that sentiment stays with Madam Diallo.”
The experience of living through the death of her son became the impetus for creating the Amadou Diallo Foundation. Edozien explained that while her son didn’t make it, Madam Diallo wanted someone else to be able to make it into higher education. “The Diallo family has not stopped in its commitment to tertiary education for people who might otherwise not go.”
“Ultimately,” says Edozien, “this kind of storytelling is in service of educating people. We are still trying to learn to see everybody as just people. We are still trying.”