Documentary filmmaking as a vessel of lived histo-cultural realities: a reflective discourse of 'voice' in indigenous language films

Most Indigenous African cultural forms are often undervaluedand underappreciated due to stereotypes and the lack of histo-cultural foundations undergirding such cultures. In this paper, I reflect on my film Yaaba Kccse (2024) as a means of examining the prospects of using Indigenous Language as a mode of anchoring culture through documentary filmmaking. My focus is to offer insights into the concept of voice in documentary films, with the aim to establish the cultural importance of Indigenous Language Performances, and songs as philosophical and cultural repositories. The decolonial theory is espoused as a gauging mechanism for the notion of 'voice' in documentary films in particular. Using content analysis, extant literature and coupled with my experiences in the field of practice, I offer practical notions of voice in documentary films and as such, emphasise how they could help shape and alter audience perceptions of existing stereotypes and cultural myths of Indigenous Language Performances.