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INSIDE AFRICA
A Look at African Documentaries
Aired October 20, 2007 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FEMI OKE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to a special edition of INSIDE AFRICA. Now, this week we're looking at Africa on film: How the continent is depicted by documentary makers.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Let's show the world that we've got hip-hop here! It's not something from somewhere else! We've got some heads who know how to do the damn thing!
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OKE: We go behind the scenes at Morocco's first ever hip-hop festival. We also travel with some major U.S. rappers to Sierra Leone and see their reaction to where their bling actually comes from.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was just a lot of frustration that needed to be released. And I just let it out in the dungeons, because I felt safe, I felt it was OK to cry.
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OKE: Teenagers from right here in Atlanta tell us how a trip to Ghana to find their roots has changed their lives. And highlighting an often ignored conflict, we talk to director who put Uganda's civil war firmly in the spotlight.
But we begin this week with another story from Uganda, one of the rare countries in Africa which has actually had some access against HIV. Even so, UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program tackling the disease estimates that some 6.7 percent of adults are living with the virus. Some East African musicians decided to raise awareness, and their efforts were recorded by documentary maker Scott Hatfield.
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OKE: Now, hold on a minute. What kind of AIDS prevention campaign is this? No frail bodies, miserable faces or crying babies. In fact, everybody looks positively happy.
That's because they're spreading a little bit of love -- the title of the song that's become a novel way of spreading the safe-sex message in Uganda. Celebrity and musicians recorded the song in Kampala. It was the brain child of the Makerere University Walter Reed Project, which specializes in HIV prevention.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very difficult not to find a family that has somebody with either infected with HIV or has been affected by HIV.
OKE: The medical staff at Makerere University felt that spreading the prevention message through a hit song would be a whole lot cheaper than the cost of drugs to treat HIV. The idea caught the imagination of journalist and filmmaker Scott Hatfield.
SCOTT HATFIELD, FILMMAKER: The musicians are great that were involved with it, really fun, hip. And, you know, there is a whole contrast. You have a very serious, academic, medical side, and then you have these fun, you know, fun musicians.
Scott flew from San Francisco to Kampala to make a film about the song and the team who put it together.
POSKA LAMUNO: All that you can put together to sing that same song, each one of them picked to be one of the artists, and they sang it so well, each and everyone. Then after (inaudible), the little one came in today asking me, mommy, what is - in fact, I didn't - I couldn't take (inaudible) to her, I told her (inaudible) sing that song very well, I'll explain to you when you grow.
OKE: For Scott Hatfield, the upbeat approach was a much needed change:
HATFIELD: I just was tired of seeing these 3 A.M. commercials of like devastation and disease and Africa, and this (inaudible).
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OKE: Oh, yeah, I have that song on my brain all this week. Maybe I'll get it out by the end of today's show. If you want to find out more about the making of the documentary, visit the Web site at www.albolmovie.com. So that's www.albolmovie.com.
Now, still ahead on INSIDE AFRICA.
(MUSIC)
Oh, yeah! Hip-hop in Morocco! It's just like its American cousin, but there are some local difficulties to overcome. And ...
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diamonds affect a lot of people a lot of different ways. A lot of people wear diamonds for a lot of different reasons, you know. I've always worn diamonds because that's what I like to do.
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OKE: The real price of bling. American rappers travel to Sierra Leone to see for themselves. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making business news in Africa this week. Kenya has hired Alcatel-Lucent to build the country's first underwater telecom link. The $82 million contract is due to be signed later this month. The cable will run from Mombasa to the United Arab Emirates. On completion, the link should cut the costs of high-speed Internet access for Kenyans.
Staying in Kenya, we switch from the world of high-tech to an old stable. A record surplus means falling prices for they country's tea farmers. The country's tea development agency, or KTDA, predicts a $15 million drop in earnings compared to last year. Rising labor and fuel costs are also adding to the problem: Kenya is the world's largest supplier of tea.
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OKE: Good to see you again. You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. If you're a hip-hop artist in a Muslim country like Morocco, that sort of rules out cursing or talking about your girlfriend's bootie. To make matters worse, too much criticism of the government could land you in jail.
Now, despite these constraints, hip-hop is actually flourishing. I spoke to the filmmakers who captured the sight and sounds of Morocco's first hip-hop festival.
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OKE: Maknes (ph), Morocco, on the night that thousands of fans celebrated their country's first hip-hop festival. Filmmakers Joshua Asen and Jennifer Needleman tell the story in their documentary, "I Love Hip-Hop in Morocco." Along the way, you get to meet the men and one woman who are trying to change the world with music.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are some boys who tell me, no. This thing, it's for boys , not for girls, you know. You must study and you don't rap, you know.
JOSHUA ASEN, DIRECTOR: These are definitely artists, and they take themselves seriously as such, and that is something that we really had a lot of respect for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I believe rap is a fad that will eventually disappear as did soul music and others. It will also pass with time.
JENNIFER NEEDLEMAN, DIRECTOR: In Morocco, there is a sense that certain topics are taboo. It is maybe not OK to speak disparagingly about religion, about the government, about the king, the monarchy, certain aspects of their culture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to stand up and make a change.
ASEN: There were just moments in filming where people really ...
NEEDLEMAN: Opened up.
ASEN: Just opened up and had to say what they wanted to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is the music that keeps kids dumb in Morocco.
OKE: By the time the documentary reaches its climax, you've got to know the entire concert lineup. The festival is packed, the audience is hyped, and then (inaudible) come on stage.
NEEDLEMAN: Initially, the crowd doesn't like to see her on stage, does not like the idea of the woman being so bold as to get up on stage. She didn't care that they were booing her. She got up there, and she just ...
ASEN: She killed it.
NEEDLEMAN: She just killed it. I mean, she killed it, and she turned the crowd around.
OKE: Challenging old stereotypes and expectations. That's "Hip Hop in Morocco."
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OKE: What a great ending! And if you saw that ending in a movie, you'd say that never really happened! Now, "I love Hip Hop in Morocco" will feature at the Casablanca film festival next month, and you can find out details of other screenings that are happening in Europe, Africa and the U.S. at www.ilovehiphopinmorocco.com.
In 2006, three American hip-hop artists traveled to Sierra Leone in West Africa. They were there to learn about diamonds, and the part they played in fueling one of the world's most brutal civil wars. Raquel Cepeda's film, "Bling! - A Planet Rock" documents their heartwrenching journey.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a war about ideology, religion or ethnicity. This is a war for wealth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're going to do the bling, it should be good bling.
RAQUEL CEPEDA, DIRECTOR: I found it fascinating, all the parallels between hip-hop culture here and what was going on in Sierra Leone throughout the conflict, because there is child soldiers, and the soundtrack of our generation is hip-hop.
PAUL WALL, JEWELER AND HP-HOP ARTIST: A lot of people wear diamonds for a lot of different reasons, you know. I've always worn diamonds because that's what I like to do.
RAEKWON, HIP-HOP ARTIST: People walk without (inaudible), with no shoes on their feet. Walking in the dirt, man.
CEPEDA: The fact that these guys trusted me enough to take them to Sierra Leone, OK, and to turn the camera on, and there was no comforts from home, and to allow me to get such raw emotions -- I mean, I think it's amazing. I think I'll always be grateful for it to them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This business, actually, (inaudible) before. It was closed as a result of the rebel attack.
These people have come to re-mine it, because this place was very rich, (inaudible) hopes of getting some big stones.
CEPEDA: And I'm really hoping that Americans, especially my generation, the hip-hop generation, will become more globally empathetic to what's going on around the world.
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OKE: Don't go away. There is more to come on INSIDE AFRICA:
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible) adapt the African way of life (inaudible).
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OKE: A group of teenagers from right here in Atlanta traveled to Africa. For some, it was an emotional journey. See you soon.
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OKE: Hello again. You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Time to catch up on some of the news that made headlines in Africa this week.
War is costing Africa a staggering 18 billion a year. A new study by Oxfam International puts a price tag on the continent's conflict between 1990 and 2005 at some 300 billion. And that's equal to the amount of international aid received during the same period.
Eritrea may be the last place that journalists should visit. Reporters Without Borders ranks the country as the worst in Africa for press freedom. The group says Eritrean journalists who criticize the government are frequently imprisoned.
And an update now on the story we brought you last week: Sudan's People's Liberation Movement has withdrawn from the government, but this week, the SPLM held talks with President Omar al-Bashir. The rift could endanger the 2005 peace deal. Egypt says it will mediate between the two sides.
And finally, London on its adopted son. Check out the video and listen out for some ululating.
Oh, yes, there it goes!
Oliver Tambo spent three decades living in exile in the British capital. A commemorative statue was unveiled this Wednesday. The former African National Congress president died back in 1993, and the statue looks quite splendid out there in (inaudible).
As you return to our documentary special, our next film tracks a group of Atlanta teens who traveled to Ghana in search of their roots. And while there, the U.S. visitors learned to appreciate things that they had taken for granted at home. Sylvia Dorsey was part of the group, and we caught up recently to talk about the trip that changed her life.
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OKE: They're African-Americans looking for their inner African, and this Atlanta black arts festival is (inaudible) find the enthusiastic young members of Habersha (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, how are you doing?
OKE: It's an organization that's made a commitment to help black youngsters learn about their cultural and spiritual history. And the high point of the year is a cultural expedition to Ghana.
Sylvia Dorsey made the trip to Ghana last July. We met up at her home in Tokesville Heights (ph) in Atlanta. It's an area that has a reputation.
SYLVIA DORSEY, STUDENT: So you have the drugs, and you have the prostitution, and you have rape. You have all the bad things, but then in the midst of all the bad things, you have the good things too. And that's one of my main reasons why I really wanted to do this, because I wanted to give people another perception about the way that we are.
OKE: Sylvia's experiences drive a documentary that follows a group of teens as they discover Africa.
DORSEY: There was just a lot of frustration that needed to be released, and I just let it out in the dungeons because I'm felt safe, that it was OK to cry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their attitude -- that's like forest, and they're dressing (ph), that's like forest.
UNIDENTIFIED: Black Americans, I see them as if they are white. But only their color is different. I don't see them as they are a part of us.
DORSEY: You have some that accepted us, and you have some that called us (inaudible), and that's just foreigners. And you're like, well, how could you not understand that, you know, what we went through? You know, with slavery, we just didn't show up in America, we didn't just drop out of the sky.
OKE: It took a year and a half and over 200 tapes to make the 50- minute documentary.
TRESUBIRA WHITLOW, DIRECTOR: I tried to look for the moments that I felt really kind of captured what I felt the story was really about, which was about reconnecting with a legacy that is sometimes hidden and sometimes viewed with some misconceptions.
DORSEY: I've never even heard of Ghana. I didn't even know Africa - I mean, Ghana was in Africa. I just know, OK, this place is Ghana, I just know I was chosen, and I think that I've been chose by somebody, some force, and I'm just going to make a big difference.
OKE: Sylvia Dorsey, who went from Atlanta, Georgia to Ghana, Africa, and now has plans to change the world.
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OKE: If you'd like to find out more about "The Black to Our Roots" project and where you can see the documentary, have a look at the Web site that's showing on your TV screen.
Still ahead on INSIDE AFRICA:
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People's heads been chopped of and boiled, and ears and noses been chopped off. It was overwhelming. So, that instant, I wrote the song "For You, Gulu."
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OKE: It was an anthem of hope that turned into a documentary. When we return, we'll introduce you to one woman who drew attention to a long- ignored African conflict.
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OKE: You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Welcome back. The civil war in northern Uganda continued for more than two decades before last year's cease-fire. But as the Lord's Resistance Army and government troops fought each other to a standstill, many Ugandans simply got on with their everyday lives. Angella Katatumba helped change that. Her recently released song and documentary has become the anthem of hope for a conflict that is now hopefully on the road to resolution. Our Nick Valencia spoke to her in Kampala.
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ANGELLA KATATUMBA, FOUNDER, FOR YOU GULU FOUNDATION: This is for you, Gulu, to let you know we care and pray for you, Gulu.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're listening to the anthem that helped wake up a nation.
VALENCIA: Angella Katatumba's song "For You, Gulu", and a documentary that accompanied it, has generated awareness and much needed aid for Uganda's war-ravaged northern district of Gulu. A mere three-hour drive from the Ugandan capital where she was raised.
KATATUMBA: We always grew up here, and there was fighting in the north, but we never knew it was that serious. When I went on the Internet, I was shocked to see people's heads being chopped off and boiled, and ears and noses being chopped off. It was overwhelming. So, that instant, I wrote the song "For You, Gulu."
VALENCIA: Katatumba became involved with Gulu through a Canadian NGO working on a fundraising initiative called "The Gulu Walk." Overnight, she went from musician to humanitarian. In the process, she has helped raise over $4 million in aid for the devastated community.
The last 21 years in Gulu have been filled with violent clashes between government forces and Uganda's main rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army. At least 2 million people in the region are still displaced.
KATATUMBA: My role is more like to encourage people, to let the people in the north know that there is hope, there is somebody from the west of Uganda, who could actually help us in the north of Uganda.
VALENCIA: The 27-year old Katatumba said she inherited her passion for helping people from her father, Boni H. (ph) Katatumba, Uganda's honorary council of Pakistan.
KATATUMBA: He always says to me, you know what, Angie? As a musician, you can even die tomorrow, because at least you've left something, something positive, you've left - you've left your music, that's positive. You have left, you know, your Gulu initiative. That's positive. It's impacted some people's lives. So at least if I did die, I know that it's little, but I have done a little to build my country's progression.
VALENCIA: The war in Gulu seems to have stopped for now, but Katatumba's work is far from over. She has booked international events to showcase her documentary and raise even more money for peace in the region. And with her angelic voice, Angella Katatumba makes certain the people of Gulu will never be forgotten.
Nick Valencia, CNN, Kampala, Uganda.
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OKE: And coincidentally, this Saturday was the international Gulu Walk Day, so if you took part in it, congratulations, and send us your photographs.
And that's a wrap as we end our look at documentaries around the African continent. And I must say a special thank you to the organizers of the international black DocuFest in Atlanta. Their great lineup of films inspired this program. Send us an email and let us know what you thought about the show. Our email address is insideafrica@cnn.com. We're going to play out of the show this week with that AIDS awareness song from Uganda. This is the only time you're going to hear me say this: From me to you, there is a little bit of love.
END
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