In the turbulent summer of 1966, the artist’s mother, a twenty-year old Moroccan student-socialist, was one of some fifty Young African Leaders invited on a tour in the US to ‘learn about democracy’, sponsored by the State Department. Starting from this episode, Yto Barrada – a visual artist and founding director of Cinémathèque de Tanger – creates Tree Identification for Beginners, a film accompanied by textile and sound, through which she follows her mother in her journey and attempt to hijack the US-proposed narrative and discover the emerging voices of the Pan-African and Black Power movements. Tree Identification for Beginners opens a territory at the intersection of political history, family story, myth and fiction. By playing with wooden children’s toys from the 60s, the film ironically shows how skill-learning of recognizing simple geometric shapes and stereotypical categorization of ‘the other’ overlap. A playful reflection on the similarities between political propaganda... and infantile pedagogy.