Long road ahead for ex-combatants in Sierra Leone
Many former rebels now drive moto-taxis like this one in Freetown (ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images)
When child soldiers are used, issues of blame and designations like perpetrator become blurred. In these situation sometimes the cruelest perpetrators of violence are also some of its most scarred victims.
Many children were conscripted to fight with Sierra Leonean rebels during the county’s long civil war. One of SFCG’s concerns has been their reintegration into mainstream society. It is not an easy task. Many of these former rebels are viewed with suspicion and anger. They are marginalized and few want to employ them.
Rishna Gracie recently visited Sierra Leone and she blogs about the country’s difficulties in overcoming a violent past as well as the approaches SFCG has taken there. Check it out!
You can also find out more about SFCG’s work in Sierra Leone here.
Sex and the City 2 was soundly panned by most critics when it premiered in the states. In addition to poor storytelling, the film was derided for its one-dimensional and stereotypical portrayal of the Middle East. The film had its Lebanese premiere more recently, and–if Carla Haibi (a Lebanese freelancer) is any indication –that same criticism has cropped up there as well.
The Middle East deserves better than Sex and the City sequel
The SATC girls in proper desert duds
By Carla Haibi
Beirut – For fans of Sex and the City – a television series and movie centred on the lives of four single women living in New York City – the summer movie sequel Sex and The City 2 promised fashion, fun, friendships and more. Viewers who watched it when it premiered on 15 July in Lebanon felt it delivered on these fronts, evidenced by the soaring laughter throughout the cinema.
Yet despite its humour, I found it followed the lead of a plethora of Hollywood movies that stereotype Arabs and the Middle East. Sadly, such stereotypes only widen the gulf between the West and the Arab world.
read more…
Next week President Obama will host over 100 young Africa leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa. The three-day event is an opportunity for fostering greater understanding. Young people who are already working to improve their communities can benefit from sharing insights, especially on “key themes of youth empowerment, good governance, and economic opportunity,” the White House said in a statement.
Angolan lawyer and human rights activist Luis Kandangongo Jimbo, a former SFCG Angola employee has been invited to attend the forum. He worked with engaging civil society and hopes the forum will give him insights into furthering good governance.
Read more about Luis and the expectations from the forum here at AllAfrica.com!
Africa Intern Diane is working to compile media on Sierra Leone for our Freetown office. Books are easy to come by, but perhaps you will not be surprised to learn that films are…less so. A quick poll of the office came up with only two titles:
- Blood Diamond (no surprise there—this is the first entry if you google “Sierra Leone films”)
- Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
Think about it, perhaps you’ll come up with more titles –let us know if you do!—but there’s a good chance you won’t. Films about Africa and even Western news media attention to Africa are remarkably limited considering that the second most populous continent accounts for nearly 15% of the world’s population.
In a TED talk given last year, Alisa Miller illustrated the focus of American news reporting:
True world map:
Map with country sizes skewed according to the number of news stories about them:
Sub-Saharan Africa is almost nonexistent.
In film it is often difficult to find movies concerning Africa that don’t make a western character the protagonist. Meanwhile, many Africa countries have small fledging film industries that speak only to local audiences when they speak at all.
An exception is Nigeria, whose film industry –known as Nollywood has surpassed the US for number of films produced each year. While Nollywood has found popularity across Africa and in the Caribbean it is unlikely to draw Western fans –production values are low, acting is often over the top and the writing can be stilted—but westerners are not the target audience anyway. Many of those who enjoy Nollywood are simply happy to see version of their realities reflected on the screen.
Still it would be nice to see more representations of Africa on western screens, especially those that move beyond crisis events and depictions of conflict. Media has become so much a part of the way we learn about the world and communicate with each other across boundaries of place and culture that representation has real world consequences.
So take the challenge. Can you think of other films concerning Sierra Leone? What about other African films?
Oppostition leader Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo is elected Somaliland president (AP)
Africa’s horn could use some good news. All of its members save Djbouti are in the top 30 of the 2010 failed states index–with Somalia topping the list for the third year running.
But there is still cause for hope writes Human Rights Watch researcher, Chris Albin-Lackey, and it comes from an unlikely and overlooked source:
“Ask people what they know about Somalia and most will probably start talking about pirates, terrorists, and Black Hawk Down. Not many would think to mention democracy or free elections as well, but they should. Last month, Somaliland–an impoverished sliver of territory that has maintained de facto independence from Somalia since 1991–held elections that put the democratic pretenses of its neighbors in the Horn of Africa to shame.
The presidential election was described by independent observers as free, fair, and peaceful. Even more remarkable, a veteran opposition politician, Ahmed Silanyo, was declared the winner and the incumbent president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, handed over power to his rival. This is headline news that unfortunately hasn’t made the headlines.”
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has yet to be recognized by any international state or organization. If the recent elections are any gauge, perhaps more attention should be paid to a state that has held successful democratic elections with strong voter turnout (despite warnings from Al-Qaeda telling people not to participate) and a smooth transition to power from an opposition candidate.
Read the rest of Albin-Lackey’s article here: From the Horn of Africa, A Ray of Hope.
somewhere in the world
somewhere in the world
“There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.”
— Isaac Asimov
