New
Internationalist
369
July
2004
New
Internationalist
369July
2004
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The Shadow
of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda Mema The
Cry of Winnie Mandela Conversing
with Africa: Politics of Change The Shadow of Imana is a record of two Rwandan journeys made in 1998 by the Ivorian author Veronique Tadjo as part of the remembrance and reconciliation project 'Writing as a duty to memory'. Her book is an attempt to confront the reality of the genocide and, perhaps as a natural reaction to inhumanity on such a scale, Tadjo has given it an impressionistic, fragmentary structure. She brackets together a mosaic of personal testimony, reportage and traditional tales recast as contemporary fiction. These glimpses into the heart of horror resolve themselves into a kaleidoscopic view of a people caught between necessary memory and therapeutic amnesia. The author attends several sessions of gacaca, traditional village justice, and suggests that these, flawed as they are, may signpost a way towards understanding and even healing. As she says, it is incumbent upon us all to remember and to bear witness, in an attempt to 'combat the past and restore our humanity.' Gabonese author Daniel Mengara's debut novel Mema is a portrait of a wilful, fiercely independent woman. Mema, known throughout her village as the possessor of an acid tongue, has had to struggle for everything in her life. Her husband and daughters die in quick succession and she is besieged by in-laws, who regard her as a malign witch. She is forced to argue her case in the medzo, the village debates, to keep her sons and her good name. Daniel Mengara draws on the dynamics of traditional storytelling to trace the webs of kinship and respect which bind together the community. What emerges in this engaging book is a picture of an individual who sets herself in opposition to a society in transition. In so doing, she both learns and imparts a lesson; 'the one who saves a village is not always the oldest, the strongest, the richest.' Heinemann, publishers of the above two titles and for over 40 years great champions of African writing, have regrettably decided to discontinue their African Writers Series. It is, however, heartening to report that Ayebia Clarke Publishing is attempting to take up the baton and intends to publish five books from Africa this year. If the first of them is any guide, they will be worth seeking out. The Cry of Winnie Mandela by South African academic Njabulo Ndebele is a dramatic contemporary retelling of the myth of Penelope, awaiting Odysseus's return from the Trojan Wars. Ndebele gives us the stories of four of Penelope's 'descendants'; a quartet of South African women. Each, like Penelope, is awaiting a return that may never come. Powerful economic and political forces have compelled their men to wander - to find work, to prison or exile, to the arms of other women - and their wives are condemned to 'endurance without consolation'. The women debate the consequences of their waiting, both for themselves and society. Into this conversation of enforced separation comes the most famous waiting woman in South African history, Winnie Mandela. She offers the perspective of one whose waiting had the additional burden of being conducted in the public gaze; who had to become what politics made her, both the pride and the shame of a nation. This important and timely book expertly blends fact and fiction, imagination and history in a moving and powerful exploration of the experiences of South African women. What could, in lesser hands, have been an overly clinical and intellectualized exercise is humanized by the warmth and humility with which Ndebele draws his characters. The very title of Kenyan author Mukoma wa Ngugi's book makes the case for dialogue. Conversing with Africa is a wide-ranging investigation of Africa's dilemmas and his analysis is bleak; 'abject poverty, despotism, coups, ethnic cleansings - all under the rubric of neo-colonialism, all structured under the debilitating conditions of the World Bank and the IMF - continue to ravage the continent.' Ngugi's aim is polemical and he has approached his task in the spirit of Walter Rodney's groundbreaking How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. His aim is to convince the reader of the imperative need for action; for Africans to become their own agents of change. Conversing with Africa is a plea for unity; Ngugi is proposing nothing less than a Pan- African solution to the ills of the continent and although his argument is stronger on passion than pragmatism, he could justifiably point to what pragmatism has produced. If Africa is to emerge from the colonial yoke and cast off the neo-liberal shackles then it urgently needs to engage with honest voices such as Mukoma wa Ngugi calling for radical reform. The price for failing to do so is high. Rating
The
Corporation There is a vast amount of material that will shock and challenge even those who thought they knew the depth of corporate malfeasance. From Bolivia (where Bechtel claimed rainwater as their property) to Nazi Germany (where IBM and Coke found ingenious ways to continue business as usual) the film ranges over numerous case studies that leave little doubt about the brutal amorality of the corporate world. There are interviews with not only the usual suspects - Michael Moore, Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein - but also a variety of characters from the corporate world, many of whom may now regret having been interviewed. Free-market guru Milton Friedman is there, as is the thoughtful CEO of Interface Carpet, Ray Anderson - that rarest of birds, a genuine corporate reformer. At two-and-a-half hours long The Corporation could have stood a tighter edit. But corporate wrongdoing provides such a rich vein that it must have proved too difficult to leave much on the cuttingroom floor. That aside, The Corporation is an excellent documentary which doesn't get stuck in the might of corporate power but shows many voices and actions of resistance. Drag an apathetic or apolitical friend to see it with you - they may never be the same again! Rating
The alternative video news magazine is back after a five-year break - and sizzling with cheeky radicalism. The logo says it all: UNN (Undercurrents News Network) formed out of CNN with the C twisted back. The first issue of the relaunched magazine is a medley of news footage, stylish animations and clips (or the full works) from some of the best activist documentaries around. Included are extraordinary scenes from Australia's Woomera detention centre break-out, but also videos featuring other less well-known actions, such as US students taking on Harvard in defence of the Ivy League university's underpaid cleaners. There are many hilarious moments. The Meatrix - a cartoon parody which takes us into the world of intensive animal farming - has the power to convulse. The Keanu Reeves character as a pig, sporting fashionably small dark glasses, is inspired. A love duet between Bush and Blair provides another sure-fire humour hit. The mix and internationalism of issues is good. One quibble, some of the clips are just that little bit too short - but web addresses are given and you can easily log on for more. It's radical, it's not for profit, and it's damned good. Rating
While France in recent years has proved a crucible for boiling up some amazing sounds from the collision of Arabic, African and DJ cultures, there have been few bands that have really pushed the envelope. Aïwa, founded in 1998 in the French city of Rennes by Iraqi bassist Wamid and rapper Naufalle, do just that. Their self-titled début album is one where you learn to expect surprises. It opens simply enough: an Arabic wail of ' Yiyi' gives way to woodwind and drums before it is caught up by Severine, a chanteuse whose darkly moody vocals constitute one of the highlights. And then she's gone: overtaken by fast-paced grooves, blistering rap from Swank and, from DJ Koulechov, rimshot beats that ricochet with energy of their own. At other times, sounds emerge that have an imagination and association of their own. Could that be a coiled spring being stroked on 'Azeri'? And what is the dispassionate lyric - a text from a medical pharmacology book, perhaps - being intoned on 'Poz'? If a minor downside is that the lyrics aren't always audible and that the sleeve offers no notes, then it's made up for on Aïwa's nine-minute closer, 'Baghdad'. A rampage of groove, rap and prayer, it's a work of pure emotion that needs no translation. Rating
'Oh my land,' sings/drawls/declaims Patti Smith within bars of the start of Trampin', 'what be troubling you?' The answer? Plenty. Smith is categoric in her castigation of the Iraqi war abroad and the erosion of civil liberties at home. But the real weight of Trampin' comes from the exacting price that brutality draws from all those involved. Smith has not mellowed with age. Which, at a time when righteous indignation is in short supply, is probably a good thing. An artist whose 1975 début Horses set the world aflame, her work has been consistently refined and concentrated to the extent that, when she speaks, we listen. Although Smith's band still boasts its muscular, rocky attack, it's the shamanistic power of her performance that we really adhere to. The deceptively languid style on 'Radio Baghdad' carries the song through its full 12 minutes, its rich imagery flicking from past to present - from an evocation of the splendours of Mesopotamia to the terror of an air raid. The territory is perfect for Smith. Her language has a poetic vivacity that's never been stronger or more angry. The album is an incitement to compassion as much as it is a journey that ends with the dignified peace of the old spiritual song 'Trampin''. Rating
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| © Copyright
2004 New Internationalist Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. |
In the
past decade, Africa has furnished examples of the best and the worst
of which humanity is capable. The election of Nelson Mandela as South
African President in 1994 spoke of hope and reconciliation but, at
almost the same moment, Rwanda was being torn apart by genocide. Across
the continent, AIDS, ruinous civil wars, corrupt politicians and the
IMF's malign strictures have blighted the lives and aspirations of
millions.
The West's responses have varied between indifference and naked self-interest.
Perhaps it is time we stopped prescribing remedies to Africa and started listening
to what Africans themselves
are saying.
This blockbuster
doc from a team including Mark Achbar - who gave us
Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent - takes apart the modern corporation and finds
therein a psychopathic condition. Quick-paced, witty and vastly engaging at the
outset, The Corporation then settles into the pattern of a more conventional
documentary.
Undercurrents
News Network
Aïwa
Trampin’