SOUKEYNA OSei-BOnsu
Soukeyna O. is a writer, Film producer and founder of MZAB Studios, an anthropological media company producing film and a quarterly publication at the intersection of adventure, culture and spirituality.
Soukeyna is interested in the bizarre and avant-garde, reading and telling stories from the other side of conformity. Her work has included grassroots Black activism such as running a crafts-based Black supplementary school in London to authoring a debut poetry book with Sufi publisher Lote Tree Press (All the Birds Were Invited to a Feast in the Sky).
Books [POetry + Journals]
“I and you both know that love can only conquer. Was it you there, Pretoria? The Sphinx? Sitting amongst them? The Nilotic river-farers whose ridges go deeper than time? Yes, I recall. It was you. You, it was you. It must. It was you all along. Yes, you’re right. I see that now. Here we are then. Here we must reconvene.” – Dispatches from the realm, Soukeyna Osei-Bonsu (forthcoming)
soukeyna’s mission is to help you locate the fire and the magic within. To become the earth. tear down the walls then return and return to life.
[POETRY] New Frontiers of a hopeful Kind
(2025)
[JOURNAL] Farasha: A practical Guide To self-transformation, 2022
[POETRY] All The Birds Were invited to a feast in the sky (2021, Lote Tree Press)
Screenwriting and direction
Soukeyna’s screenwriting and directing credits include her debut feature length documentary ‘Towards sun'[2025], and her debut film and Animated short ‘Between the two worlds'[2024].
Soukeyna’s screenwriting and direction is influenced by the authors, screenwriters and directors who have poineered auteur cinema and produced timeless work that continues to inspire wonder and the love of dynamic storytelling.INcluding: Sans Soelil; The Bandwagon; Charlie Kaufman’s Being john malkovitch; Hayao Miyazaki’s spirited away; paris Blues; Bicycle thieves; Legend of the lost; bitter lake; anatomy of a fall; Twelve angry men; A passage to india; timbuktu; Citizen kane; Pandora and the flying dutchman; City of God; children of men; journey to the river sea; The secret garden; guava island.
Soukeyna’s aim with her writing is to bring the wonder of mystical cultures, the spirituality and glamour of Girl/womanhood, lost civilisations, and the oral histories of griots to the fore. she is interested in cinema as an art form first where words are the pillars of the audience experience.
Towards sun [2025], MZAB Studios
Debut screening forthcoming
A feature length documentary about afro hair, this art-house film explores what hair in the African-Caribbean community and the afro muslim community means. Looking through archives and the story of the director and her family, as well afro hair professionals and black muslim sisters, towards sun is an ode to the glamour, beauty and elegance of afro hair and african-caribbean women.
between the two worlds [2024], MZAB Studios
Debut screening at The Africa Centre, London (2024), screened at the annual Black Muslim Award & broadcast on Islam channel, London (2024) + Screened at Film tottenham {Markfield road festival}, London (2025)
offically Selected at Tottenham Film festival, International film category (2025)
This is a story about an unnamed French / Senegalese-Ghanaian Muslim woman who at age 19 rediscovers her faith and tries to balance between the two worlds – the seemingly futile life she lives on earth and the spiritual world of the unseen realm she now believes in. The monodrama is avant garde and poetic- as strange as the new situation she finds herself in when newly trying to navigate between deen (the spiritual) and dunya (life on earth).
Performance
fences and tigers and bears (O My, I’m Scared) is soukeyna’s debut solo poetry show- a forray into the courage it takes to be oneself. Inspired by the fire and the declamation of James baldwin, the razor sharp humanity of mariama Bâ, the magic of gwendolyn brooks and the steely glance of nina simone, this debut act by soukeyna is a nod to everything it means to be human and the aching necessity, like the sandy footsteps our griots traced us, in tearing down fences and returning to oneself.
Runnning: June 2025 – DECEMBER 2025, {60 minutes}
Soukeyna
Soukeyna has written for Amaliah, Islam Channel, HIkaayat, The black explorer Magazine, The drinking gourd, MZAB Magazine and has had her work exhibited at m fest in london. Her upcoming book of essays ‘Dispatches from the realm’ was in 2025 longlisted for the Azhar writing Prize. She is deeply inspired by the strange and brilliant works that came before her, (Crime and punishment, Parable of the sower, native son, metamorphosis, waiting for godot) and often imbues surrealism/ magical realism into her most recent writing to explore a cosmopolitanism, and identity that seldom hegemonically gets to see the light. Soukeyna’s work around community advocacy and public education has appeared in the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Amaliah, 5 Pillars, the New Arab, Hyphen Online and Islam Channel. Soukeyna holds a Masters degree from City, University of London in NGO Management (Merit), and a Bachelors degree from SOAS, university of london in Social anthropology and international relations (1st class hons). She has established a few charitable Causes which can be supported through osei-bonsu Giving exploring issue areas close to her heart. Soukeyna comes from Moroccan-ghanaian heritage, and has the historical royal heritage of Osei-Bonsu. Her father is direct descendant of Asanatehene Osei-Bonsu, King of the Ghanaian Ashanti empire in whose resilient spirit soukeyna tries to bi’ithnillah imbue in her readership through her poems and writing.
in her down time, Soukeyna enjoys star gazing, Tropical fruit, coconut water and long nature walks…she resides in north london where she was raised.
Projects
DJASSI Project
A free editing service for adults who need help writing letters, important documents and drafting emails. Named after lusophonic liberation leader Amílcar Cabral’s nom de guerre whose revolutionary thought orbited around pragmatic help for the community he served.
Soukeyna Care Foundation
A literary project to mobilise the community around underreported issues that affect British muslims. Soukeyna’s letters to the congregation explore substance abuse, loneliness, incarceration, disability, and more to care for britains most vulnerable muslims.
Sapient Earth
An anthropological literary and da’wah project exploring the primordial nature of man. Beauty ritual and rites of passage. womb earth and sufi wisdom. Natural femininity, self-concept, deepest self.
Books, meditations and knowledge circle coming soon.
Community education
alternative education in tottenham
[project] NANA ASma’u community school
Soukeyna ran nana Asma’u community school, a black supplementary school for young black children from 2018 until 2022 in Tottenham, North london. this was a grassroots education project centred around arts and crafts that aimed to teach young black african-caribbean children about the power of african self-esteem and the magnificence of their rich and profound histories. together we explored various empires, From mali to the sokoto kingdom, notable figures from Askia of songhay to malcolm x and black luminaries who shook up the world. The children practiced speech writing, performed poetry, created artwork and wrote short essays on what they had learned. with this project, which was an offshoot of the work of Black Muslim Forum- a Black muslim educational project soukeyna formerly ran, soukeyna aimed to undo the structural sabotage black children inherit through mainstream schooling and to instead reintroduce them to a history that is true to fact. A history and a long Genealogy that the children could connect with, take inspiration from and aspire to emulate.
Contact Soukeyna
To discuss a commission or project, please get in touch with soukeyna below:
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