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By Paul Ndiho
March 15, 2011

Movies can tell much about a country, its culture, values, aspirations and shared experiences. In some African countries, an emerging movie industry is helping Africans to tell their stories.
The 1982 film “Wend Kuuni,” also known as “God’s Gift,” was a breakthrough in West African cinema. Directed by Gaston Kabore from Burkina Faso, it brought the tradition of African oral storytelling to the big screen, ushering in a new genre of African movies, elegant in their simplicity and profound. “Wend Kuuni” tells the story of a young mute boy who lost his memory. Only when he remembers his past, does he regain his voice.
“…this child is told in parallel with the story of Africa, the colonial period, the slavery, and everything and how we take back our own voice and words.”

“Wend Kunni” was the first feature film ever made in Burkina Faso – and it catapulted Kabore onto the world stage. His success set him on a mission: to unlock the imagination of a whole new generation of filmmakers and help Africans to tell their own stories.
“Who are we? To me is the fundamental question. If the Africans do not see themselves on the screen they are going to disappear in their own minds and eyes.”
Kabore grew up in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital. After independence, despite few resources, the government committed to building a local film industry. Since 1969 it has hosted the Pan-African Film Festival – called FESPACO – the largest and most prestigious in sub-Saharan Africa. It also created a film archive and with the support of
UNESCO, founded the African Institute for Cinematographic Studies, which trained hundreds of filmmakers. Kabore taught there until 1986, when the school closed for lack of funds. Eleven years later, he released “Budd Yamm,” which won the top prize at the FESPACO film festival that year.
“I said, OK Gaston, now maybe as an individual you need to do something. That’s how the idea of Imagine started.”
Kabore began the Imagine Institute in 1999 – a film academy for young Africans, pouring in his own money to equip the school with state of the art technology. He raises funds to pay professionals to teach intense workshops that he believes should be free for students:

“If we want to have the best students, if we put the money like the filter to select, then we are going to lose many of them…”
Anna Piuri, from Zambia, is one of the 600 students who have attended Imagine with aid mainly from European donors. She says she could not have found quality training back home.
“What you have now in Zambia is a lot of vocational training. You might be able to learn the basics of how to handle a camera but you really don’t get the knowledge of how to really tell a story.”
An aspiring script writer, Anna is thrilled to be working with the man known as the father of Burkina Faso cinema.

“I think for Gaston to do that, to me was really amazing… I think it’s very valuable that he says OK. I made my films now. I am going to pass on the knowledge to other people… And I am not going to make you pay for it.”
“Filmmakers are not only people using techniques, they also need to continue shaping their inside world and vision…It’s not only a question of entertainment, it is also a question of survival in the cultural level.”
But today, after seven years, Imagine has been hit hard by the global financial crisis. Kabore says he wants Imagine to survive, and for students to create film Institutes in their own countries.
“My conviction is life is a journey, is a quest. We take something from those who have lived before us. We continue the journey and we have to pass something to the new generation for them to continue the journey.”
Despite the financial challenges, Kabore is committed to keeping Imagine open. He says helping other people make films is as important as making his own

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
March 9, 2011
Police in Uganda’s capital Kampala fired teargas and shoot live bullets over the heads of protesters demonstrating against President Yoweri Museveni’s huge election win last month.
General Museveni who has been in power for 25 years, won 68 percent of the February 18 vote, with closest rival Kizza Besigye gaining 26 percent.
Besigye said the polls were a sham due to widespread bribery, ballot box stuffing and intimidation.
The protesters dispersed after police stepped in and the security forces then sealed off the streets around the shuttered market in the capital.
Wednesday’s demonstration, was not endorsed by Besigye, was called by Olara Otunnu, the fourth-placed candidate and leader of the Uganda People’s Congress.
Otunnu led a crowd of about 80 people through the city before a larger group of several hundred gathered at the city’s Kisekka market, a site of anti-government protests in the past.
“We want a new president to come in with a new idea and I want to assure you, on Sunday we are doing it again, from church service we shall invade state house,” said an unidentified protester.
European Union observers, the African Union, the United States and Britain all criticized the poll but stopped short of condemning the result.

According to police, a number of people wearing yellow, the color of Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement, had their clothes torn off by protesters.
Police said eight people had been arrested. Police spokesman Vincent Sekate
“The people were putting barriers on the roads. Vehicles could not pass and all those who could access the point, when you were putting on yellow, anything that looked like yellow, whether a helmet, anything of that nature, people had started pelting stones at them and beating them up, so police came,”
Police had warned that peaceful protests against the election outcome were illegal, saying the opposition intended to cause “violence and destruction”.
Besigye and other opposition leaders have repeatedly warned Uganda is ripe for an Egypt-style uprising, though analysts question public appetite for unrest.
Besigye unsuccessfully appealed to the Supreme Court after losing the 2001 and 2006 elections. While judges agreed there had been vote rigging and violence against the opposition, they said it had not changed the overall result.

By Paul Ndiho
March 8, 2011
Children fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo struggle everyday to set up a new life.12 year old Ujumbe’s life was abruptly uprooted by civil conflict two years ago. Her family fled the violence and came to live in Walikale, a remote rain forest territory in DRC. VOA’s Paul Ndiho has more:
Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the most dangerous places on earth for a child. It’s the second poorest country in the world, and here, children have been used as soldiers, sexual slaves or laborers by armed forces and militia groups. The UN estimates that over 100,000 people have fled their homes since 2008, when violence between the rebels and the government troops began escalating.
“It’s very hard living here. Back home there is war so I have to stay here.”
Ujumbe knows that her childhood has been starkly different from that of teenagers in other parts of the world.
“My life is different from their lives because they have means.”
Adolescents make up approximately one-fifth of the global population, and young people need to stay in school, especially girls from the most marginalized areas of the world, where they are vulnerable to early marriage, violence and forced labor. Ujumbe says that staying in school is the only way to keep her out of danger.

“It’s good going to school because at school they teach us how to be and how to live outside of school. I like going to school and hope to finish but I’m not sure if another war will crop up and displace me again.”
Ujumbe worries about the most basic necessities many take for granted. A better life will be a challenge for Ujumbe’s generation, but she remains hopeful.
“I want my country to be a country of peace; for everyone to return home; for everyone to live well.”
Over five million people have died from war-related violence, hunger and disease in Eastern Congo in the last decade.

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
March 3, 2011

Stakes are high in Nigeria as presidential candidates are busy campaigning for April elections. The poll pits incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan against seven challengers.
The elections have generated a lot of buzz across the country. About 67 million people came out to register in the recently concluded voter registration. However, the electronic system designed to make the process more efficient has come under heavy criticism. Some Nigerians wonder whether the new system will really help make the vote more fair. Government official Dimieari Von Kemedi says it will.
“The voters register is credible because the process that was used was based on biometric data capture, which means that they could easily phase-out all the double registrants which will probably reduce the figure a little bit, I don’t know. But on the whole the process of registration was a credible process, so that should only lead to a credible voter register and I’m very confident that Independent National Elections Commission (INEC) did a good job.”
President Jonathan opened his campaign in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” between the mostly-Christian south and predominantly-Muslim north. His candidacy disrupts an informal regional power-sharing deal that would have given the ruling-party nomination to a northern candidate.
Analysts say President Jonathan needs to do well in central states to offset what could be opposition from northern voters. He’s campaigning on themes of national security and the economy. Commentator Okey Ndibe says there is optimism.

“Nigerians think that there is a great opportunity for their votes to be felt in elections that are coming up in April. Even so, I think that there is much to be concerned about. The internal primary processes for all the political parties were notoriously undemocratic. In all the parties it was either the story of candidates being imposed on the membership of the party or certain candidates using resources, financial resources, to bribe primary voters. And so, I’m wondering if the parties would not respect the ethos of democracy in their own internal process, whether they are going to be respectful of the integrity of the elections, the general elections coming up in April.”
Mr. Ndibe is confident that Nigerians are going to make their voices heard at the ballot box. He cautions the political elite against trying to manipulate the vote.
“Well, Nigerians have always been good at doing that I hope that in the shadow, in the wake of violent convulsions in places like Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, and so on, that Nigerian politicians might be chastened and understand that they run the risk of instigating rather widespread violence should they try to rig the forthcoming elections as egregiously as they have done in the past.”
At least seven Nigerian politicians have expressed their interest in running for president, but political observers say the opposition’s best chance of defeating the ruling party is forcing the vote to a second round, where President Jonathan would face a single opponent, such as Nigeria’s former military head of state Muhammad Buhari, former Nigerian anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu, or some such candidate.

By Paul Ndiho
February 25, 2011
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington has opened its doors to an exhibit showcasing African and Brazilian art.
“Artists in Dialogue Two (II)” chronicles works by artist Sandile Zulu from South Africa and Henrique Oliveira from Brazil. Karen Milbourne, museum curator says the interaction between the artists began a year ago, when they met at the museum to survey the gallery space.
“An artist who works with what we’d consider to be very transitional idioms of art history. Here you have an artist like Sandile Zulu who is working in the vocabulary of the minimal list… He’s work is very clean, it’s very essential, it’s real just the essence of a very profound message and yet he’s using it instead of the classical painting but doing it with fire.”
Zulu makes designs on his white canvases using fire, water, and earth, his trademark technique. His muted color patterns are seen near the entrance of the gallery, while Oliveira’s dynamic forms emerge from the back. Oliveira’s two giant, wood installations bulge out from the wall like snarled tree roots, looking like two elephants.
Milbourne says Henrique Oliveira was inspired by Zulu’s use of fire.

“He has taken this unyielding material and also worked in this vocabulary also something very familiar of painting but taking you to someplace else… So you have these classical starting points and yet there is nothing classical about these two artists.
“Arts in Dialogue Two (II)” is a way to celebrate ties between Africa and the African Diaspora, according to Museum Director Dr. Johnnetta Cole:
“A museum is at its best is in the story telling business, but I think it’s a mistake if we think that there is only one story to be told, and we got it memorized and just hope that everybody who leaves the museum has the same story. But the extra- ordinarily thing about being in a relationship with this continent is that it will then take you into the Diaspora, it will then take you into the rest of the world, and that’s a lot of stories.”
Oliveira builds his paintings in layers, much like a collage, splattering different colors. His paintings are busy with abstract shapes, popping with bright colors. “Artists in Dialogue Two” is on display at Washington’s Museum of African Art through December. So if you are in DC, after many hours of braving the cold weather, shopping, sight-seeing…! You might want to pass at the museum and see for yourself.