Emeli Sandé

Singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé explores her grandparents’ remarkable stories, which span World War II, the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya, and the fight for independence in Zambia. She faces a mix of emotions: “Both sets of my grandparents were involved in violent struggles in Africa,” she says. “One, tasked with upholding the British Empire. The other: trying to overthrow it.”

Singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé visits with her parents, who share her grandparents’ war stories. Emeli’s maternal grandfather, Bob, spent four years fighting in the Egyptian desert, and when WWII ended was sent to Kenya as the British fought to maintain colonial rule. At the same time, her paternal grandfather, Saka, was caught up in the independence movement that was sweeping across Africa.

Singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé meets Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa, a Zambian expert on race relations, to find out more about her grandfather Saka’s life during the 1950s. He worked in the Rowan Antelope mine in the heart of the Copperbelt, producing the important metal for the British war effort. Dr. Sishuwa explains the workers lived under an apartheid regime, with deeply segregated living conditions.