A Little Blackman from the Congo

South African filmmaker, Tshililo waha Muzila, undertakes a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in Spain wearing an orange life jacket as a visible response to the Mediterranean migrant crisis. His journey echoes the reality that, according to the IOM, in 2019 alone, 87,315 migrants arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, while 62 died attempting the crossing, their stories dissolving into an unseen ocean. Along the route, he confronts the coded language of exclusion, where migrants are labelled Negrito Del Congo, revealing how European perceptions of African identity shape visibility, attitude and acceptance. The journey parallels his experiences in South Africa, where xenophobia fractures communities and reveals similar patterns of denied Blackness shaped by economic strain, political failure, and inherited division. Between land and sea, Europe and Africa, the film becomes a global meditation on migration, colonial legacy, and contested Black identity. As Tshililo traces a restless search for dignity, the film exposes how survival and selfhood are negotiated in a world shaped by borders and erasure.