Last showing - "I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO" documentary film
In only 1 location: Electric Cinema - Shoreditch, 64-66 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London E2 7DP,
Sunday 16th July 2017, at 14:45
Click on link for additional info
Decolonisation of Africa
In 1945, the continent of Africa only had four independent states: Egypt, nominally independent; Ethiopia, following five years of Italian occupation; Liberia, a republic founded by the U.S.A. for freed slaves in 1847 and the Union of South Africa, launched in 1910 by decision of the British government. What remained of the continent, was under the control of Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Britain and Germany for the exploitation of underground and ground resources, artificially low priced, in exchange for ‘civilizing’ her ‘backward’ populations. Against the backdrop of past loyalties, self-aggrandisement, dictatorship and rivalries, Africans’ determination to autonomy prevailed.
Fifty-nine years after the first democratic election, Africa’s difficulties have been numerous and overwhelming but it has faced the challenges as best as it could. With the media of the West constantly on Africa, exposing her failures more than her success, sores and wounds more than health and healing, armed conflicts more than peace treaties, huts and naked tribe people more than industries and businesspeople, it is no wonder it appears frail and incompetent. Her Diaspora has awakened with many reaching out to their roots and offering concrete support. Africa is conversely extending to her Diaspora with the aim to harness technology and knowledge.
“We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquillity.”
Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first Prime Minister, and Africa first elected Head of State, 1954.
What of white interferences? In 1998, USA president bill Clinton’s strategy in support of a wind of democracy, “involved selecting a small group from the ‘new generation’ of African leaders who passed American tests for their commitment to democracy, economic renewal and civil rights". The successor of Nelson Mandela to South Africa’s government, President Mbeki seems convinced Africa’s decline, too big for the Africans to resolve by themselves, requires western involvement. Most recently, the U.S.A. and the allied forces of Europe intervened in North Africa for the instauration of democracy in the face of mounting instability from populations eager to catch up with the West’s best. France in Mali against an Islamic movement received military support from the U.S.A and the United Kingdom. Africa’s structural and abysmal financial condition justifies interventionist measures from the First World countries and their allies. Indubitably, Africa keeps many on the payroll.
THE
DIASPORA
