Prof. Tamar Herzig, director of the Fred W. Lessing Institute for European History and Civilization, in conversation with filmmaker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu about his documentary film We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (2024) – which challenges the erasures of history that feed nationalist politics in Europe today, by recovering the presence of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Unveiled at the 60th Biennale in Venice in 2024, the film condenses the lives and stories of notable Africans and how their presence and skills shaped European history and visuals in the Renaissance. Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, winner of the 2025 Dan David Prize for the Study of the Human Past, is a socially engaged artist, filmmaker and scholar, whose work is influenced by his background...