From Kaddu Beykat to Pumzi: Commemorating World Soil Day, 5 December

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Commemorates World Soil Day on 5 December:

Soils have been neglected for too long. We fail to connect soil with our food, water, climate, biodiversity and life. We must invert this tendency and take up some preserving and restoring actions. The World Soil Day campaign aims to connect people with soils and raise awareness on their critical importance in our lives.

The environment has long been a theme that African women in cinema have addressed in their work, from Kaddu Beykat (1975) by Senegalese Safi Faye to Pumzi (2009) by Wanuri Kahiu of Kenya. 

In Safi Faye's Kaddu Beykat the story unfolds through the backdrop of an ongoing drought in the village, causing economic upheaval as groundnuts are its sole crop. In the film, Safi Faye depicts the hardships and problems of a Senegalese peasantry bent under the yoke of an agricultural system dominated by groundnut cultivation. A culture that is imposed on them to the detriment of the food crops that allowed them to live. She challenges the authorities, but also proposes a reflection on the future through reforestation and the protection of nature.

In the 1990s, Burkinabé Franceline Oubda directed her camera on themes around the environment in her documentary film, Femmes de Yatanga, which explores the initiatives of the Association Six 'S' ("L'Association Six 'S'"), based in Burkina Faso. The Association Six 'S' in French illustrates the first letter of the words, all beginning with 's', which describes the objective of the group--savoir se servir de la saison seche en savane au Sahel (to know how to make use of the dry season in the savanna of the Sahel). Her film Femmes de Yatanga portrays the women's efforts to survive the desertification that is threatening the region by using alternative methods of rearing sheep.

Wanuri Kahiu was inspired by the late Nobel Prize laureate and compatriot Wangari Maathai, whose Greenbelt Movement challenged Africans to replenish the earth by planting trees, combatting deforestation and soil erosion.

Talking about what motivated her to make the film Pumzi, Wanuri Kahiu had this to say: “Wangari Maathai has been talking about this issue for years and we never heed her advice so I am not here to tell people to conserve the environment alone, I am showing them what will happen if we don’t. I show a land where people recycle their own water to survive.” (nation.co.ke)

And thus the African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates the importance of soil, as it highlights the work of African women in cinema who endeavor to raise the public's awareness of soil and its importance to humanity and the environment. 

Omonike Akinyemi launches a crowdfunding campaign on Spotfund for the film “Emancipado”

Omonike Akinyemi launches

a crowdfunding campaign on Spotfund

 for the film “Emancipado”

 
Description

"Emancipado", an episodic  feature film that tells the story of a fictionalized Afro-Cuban woman, Ifemorena, who dreams to return to Africa.  "Emancipado" delves into the circumstances that give rise to Ifemorena's dream -- the Lukumi community and flamenco family to whom she belongs is in crisis.

For more information on the crowdfunding campaign and to make a contribution:

https://www.spotfund.com/story/356f57ed-2d76-498b-8443-b5f3898f172f

3 December, International Day of Persons with Disabilities: A tribute to Zambian filmmaker Musola Cathrine Kaseketi

3 December, International Day of Persons with Disabilities: A tribute to Zambian filmmaker Musola Cathrine Kaseketi

Musola Cathrine Kaseketi declares: “You can make a difference”, and she certainly has, by showing that women with disabilities are not different than anyone else; given the chance to learn, excel and succeed. Musola Cathrine Kaseketi founded Shungu Namutitima International Film Festival of Zambia (SHUNAFFoZ) with this objective in mind: to showcase through cinema, the capabilities of people and women in particular, with disabilities.

She had this to say in an interview on the African Women in Cinema Blog

I grew up as a healthy and happy child. I was left with a permanent disability at the age of five from an injection in the nerve of my left leg; nonetheless, my family treated me as a normal child.

I also lived with my stepmother who taught me to be independent and a fighter. Because of the caring way that people in my surroundings responded to me, I had no idea that there was discrimination towards persons with disabilities.

It was in high school that I started to realised that I was not always accepted in society and therefore, not able to do certain things. Often my feelings were hurt after the many instances when the school authorities isolated students with disabilities from the enabled so that they could not get to know each other. My disability became a motivation to work harder and use art as a tool to communicate. 

I met a man without hands who led a normal life and could even eat using a fork and knife. This encounter motivated me very much and inspired me to write a story about self-determination in 1989. It was very successful and was a catalyst for the change in attitudes towards disabilities in Zambia. 

I continued to use dramatic poetry, writing and stage acting as a tool to foster the spirit of self-confidence and self-help, and to impart self-acceptance, self-determination and independent living.

In 2018, Musola Cathrine Kaseketi received the Her Abilities Award, the first global award honoring the achievements of women with disabilities: “Look at your obstacles as your motivations to achieve your goals. Ignore all the negative intimidating voices. Embrace the positive, empowering words because you are just like any other woman.”

Photo: Musola Cathrine Kaseketi receiving an award.

2 December: International Day for the Abolition of Slavery | 2 décembre : Journée internationale pour l'abolition de l'esclavage

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery |

Journée internationale pour l'abolition de l'esclavage

The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, 2 December, marks the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317(IV) of 2 December 1949).

La Journée internationale pour l'abolition de l'esclavage commémore l'adoption par l'Assemblée générale de la Convention pour la répression et l'abolition de la traite des êtres humains et de l'exploitation de la prostitution d'autrui [A/RES/317(IV)] du 2 décembre 1949.

Film images:

Ceddo, 1977: Ousmane Sembene

Tabata Ndiaye

Sankofa, 1993: Haile Gerima

Oyafunmike Ogunlano, Alexandra Duah

Adanggaman, 2000: Roger Gnoan M'Bala

Mylène-Perside Boti Kouamé

12 Years a Slave, 2013: Steve McQueen

Lupita Nyong'o

The African Women in Cinema Blog commemorates United Nations World AIDS Day

As highlighted in past commemoration posts, African women in cinema often use the visual media as a tool for awareness building as it relates to matters that touch their societies and burning issues that effect Africa.

In this regard the initiative Scenarios from Africa had as objective to give young people a unique occasion to learn more about HIV/AIDS. The 2011 edition demonstrated the extent that African girls and young adults seized this opportunity to tell these stories. Among the 25 frontrunners 17 were girls/young women--the youngest 12 years old. Furthermore, among the awardees of the three grand prizes two were young women.

Burkinabé Fanta Nacro has played an important role in the above initiative, as prominent African cineastes adapted films using these scenarios: A Call to Action, A Love Story, A Ring on Her Finger, The Champion, Iron Will, Peace of Mind, Never Alone, The Reasons for a Smile, Tiger Tigress. Also from the Series, Cameroonian Kidi Bebey’s Looking for a Brave Man explored relationships in the age of AIDS. A young woman seeking a serious relationship demands that her partner act responsibly which entails taking the AIDS test.

Fanta Nacro’s filmography also includes the 1998 short film, Le Truc de Konate (Konate's Thing). The comedy employed as a means of consciousness-raising proved very popular with the Burkinabé public, intermingling an established distrust of new concepts and old-fashioned masculine virility and honour with female consciousness.

With a more solemn tone, Tsitsi Dangarembga of Zimbabwe relays the tragic costs of AIDS in Everyone's Child, directed in 1995. The film focuses on the devastating consequences for the children who are left to fend for themselves after the AIDS-related death of parents. On a joyful note, in Zambian Musola Kaseketi's film Suwi, the young Bupe finds a happy home, while Tanzanian Beatrix Mugishagwe’s Tumaini tells a story of hope.

Kenyan Wajuhi Kamau, of the Film Production Department of the Educational Media Service of the Minister of Education, emphasises the effectiveness of video as a means of educating people about a range of issues, from AIDS to family planning. Using both the documentary and drama presentations, the objective of the agency is to allow people to see themselves reflected in the images. "When you see yourself, you see your situation, then it is easy to remember and change attitudes and behaviour." Zimbabwean Prudence Uriri has also focused on issues related to AIDS and health in general. The Unesco-commissioned Madizela and Samora (2003), and Life (2002) produced by Rooftop Promotions, are two AIDS-focused films directed by Uriri. She sees her role as a filmmaker to open a dialogue regarding the problems that people face, and in so doing they may be better informed.