My favorite documentaries and movies about Africa (so far)

Great Movies and Documentaries I have seen:

- Cry Freedom: Played brilliantly by Denzel Washington. The movie is about Steve Biko, the South African anti-apartheid leader. (True Story)

- Hotel Rwanda: Don Cheadle plays the role of Paul Rusesabagina during the genocide in Rwanda. (True Story)

- Amistad: An all star cast film with Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, and Djimon Hounsou. Slavery is the subject of the movie. (Based on a true story)

- Tears of the Sun: with Bruce Willis. The plot is around an ethnic cleansing in Nigeria.

- Out of Africa: played magnificently by Robert Redford. It's a love story with beautiful images of Africa's countryside.

- Black Gold: A documentary telling the story of Ethiopian coffee farmers and their struggle in the international market against giants like Starbucks.

The one I would love to see:

- The Empire in Africa: a documentary about the Sierra Leone war
- Africa Blood and Guts: Colonialism in Africa
- Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death
- Wonders of the African World

Ayemi Lawani

Africa Rising?!

Some weeks ago, I was writing about the various summits countries such as France, China, Turkey, India, Japan were organizing with Africa. I was then wondering why this increased interest in Africa.(Refer to my previous post "Another Africa-'One Country' Summit")
I found this interesting video on Youtube which might contain some answers. Let me share it with you.
Africa Rising By Vijay Mahajan



Ayemi Lawani

Et un de plus!!

Apres le Cameroun cette annee, c'est le tour de l'Algerie de modifier la constitution pour permettre au president de se representer indefiniment. Pendant ce temps la crise social continue en Algerie...
J'ai perdu le compte des pays (ou mieux des royaumes?) africains ou il n'existe plus de limitation en termes de nombre de mandats.

(Photo, courtesy of Algerie-Politique)

What is happening in DRC?

Here we go again!

A new war erupted in Congo when everyone started to forget the wars that followed the downfall of Mobutu. Or, is it really a new war? Laurent Nkunda the forgotten rebel has found a new strength and is threatening President Kabila's power. The DRC seems to be doomed by its mineral wealth. Since his election in 2006, the 37 y.o. president did not do much to assure his authority over one of the largest and richest nations in Africa.

Between:
- the foreign interests fighting for the congolese resources
- the president whose authority seems to be limited to the capitale Kinshasa
- the corruption
- the foreign nations (like Rwanda) supporting the rebels
- the UN spending billions on a peace keeping force tarnished by corruption and scandales
- and the West, which, like in Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan, is playing blind
the DRC's people don't own their destiny. With more than 5 millions people killed, this never ending war is the deadliest since WWII.
If you want to know more...how it started, who is involved..., here is an interesting article:

How We Fuel Africa’s Bloodiest War

A.L.

What to make of it??

Rose Kabuye, the Rwandan Director of State Protocol, was arrested last Sunday in Germany. She is accused by the french justice, as many other Rwandan authorities, of complicity in the assassination of Habyarimana, the ex-president of Rwanda killed just before the genocide started.

What to make of it?

Well, on the one side, that's good news. For, if she is guilty she must face justice. If she is not, justice shall prevail and she will get to go home. Same for many other people all over the world, especially in Africa. There are many people in Africa right now who committed torture, killed thousands
of their people, stole their countries' money... "et j'en passe". They should be anxious and know that there will be a payback day... wherever they go. So, I am happy.

What's the other side then??

Well, on the other side the international justice seems to be a one way road. So far I have only seen "bad guys" from developing nations arrested in developed nations, not the other way around. Nobody seems to really care when a "poor" nation asks for the extradition of a "bad guy" from a "rich" nation (refer to Equatorial Guinea's case). Even when "bad guys" from 'rich' countries are convicted in 'poor' nations, they somehow manage to be jailed back in their countries or simply be released (Refer to Chad's example).
And so, I am sad.

(Photo source: AFP)