Frames: Youssou N'dour

This short film is part of Al Jazeera's series called Frames that showcases six 2-minute films from around the world. (2 x 6 = 12 minute. Sit. Watch. Please.) Youssou N'dour was made by Matt Rogers, a freelance web designer and film maker currently based in Australia. His animation of Youssou N'dour's words is such a simple but effective concept that brings out the humour, sincerity and depth in the speaker. World renown musician, Youssou N'dour talks about his love for Senegal and his choice to live in Dakar rather than places like Paris or New York. Hearing N'dour speak so fondly of his county comes as no surprise as N'dour is Senegal's AU Peace Ambassador and UN Goodwill Ambassador and he has been involved in various aid and development projects for Senegal. In May last year, Africa's a Country blogged that N’Dour created a new political movement called “Fekkai maci Bole” which means “because I am a witness (or present) that I am taking part.”

China: The New Colonials

fisttap Seeps

This is a short documentary on the tensions between Chinese immigrants and the locals in Dakar, Senegal, from Al-Jazeera. It's worth reading the commentary below as well: 

link: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2010/09/20109784210335575.html

Response: This programme explores the social friction between the local people and the newly-arrived economic migrants who in my opinion represent the new colonialists - as much as they may bring economic and infrastructural development to Senegal and Africa as a whole, the attitudes towards Africans reflected in this film make me dislike Chinese presence. Yea, I do agree to some extent with Deborah Brautigam's (sorry I can't link Google, The Dragon's Gift) position on the benefits of China-Africa relations, but the Chinese are hustlers and Africans are the hustled. I've read a lot on what China has done in the Congo, Zambia and Tanzania and across the boards it's the same story: the Chinese are exploiters who don't want to integrate, flood the markets with cheap goods and they think poorly of Africans - some 'em even racist like the guy and his friends in the film. Yea I'm generalising but that's not my aim here, it's more to pose a question. Given that the Chinese are the new colonials, how are Africans going to turn around this situation to make it a win-win? If trade with the West means a two-faced exchange, like engaging in agricultural trade but getting ripped off in unfair trade tariffs and being handed aid policies like children and trade with the East means having development but also being a dumping ground for cheap goods killing local production; how do Africans change this up to become meaningful players in the global economy? It's pissing off that people continually come and benefit from us and we're still impoverished, it's pissing off that people can think so poorly of us they can dump poison in our backyards and sell us reject good, but the mother of it all is that our own leaders are so friggin' shortsighted they only see opportunities for instant personal wealth  that they will pimp themselves and the nation out to whoever's willing to pay upfront. It's rubbish really, just rubbish that the Chinese can come a set-up shop in Dakar and trash-talk Africans all they like, no different to White colonials that African nationalists fought a few decades ago. What was it all for? Fanon, Biko, Cabral and Che, what for?

Whenever I see things like this, Bob Marley's Pimper's Paradise is the tune that best describes present-day Africa.