Return to Transcripts main page
INSIDE AFRICA
African Creative Expression
Aired August 23, 2008 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ISHA SESAY, INSIDE AFRICA: Welcome to INSIDE AFRICA, your weekly window to the continent. I'm Isha Sesay. On the show this week, creative expression through film, music, television and dance.
We'll meet some artists who reflect the harsh realities of their society in their work, and some who challenge cultural norms. And a young actor shows us how he is using his talents to create a better life.
African cinema was in the spotlight at this year's Durbin International Film Festival. The South African action film "Jerusalema" made its African premiere as the festival's opening presentation. The internationally acclaimed film tells a story of Lucky, a small-time criminal who figures out a way to apply his carjacking skills to real estate. Robyn Curnow talked to the cast and crew about the dangers and challenges of shooting the film in a setting that reflects its gritty subject matter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The streets of Johannesburg are some of the most violent in the world. And that makes it an ideal location for an action-packed crime movie, says the director of "Jerusalema", a film based on gangster's hijacking inner-city apartment buildings.
RALPH ZIMAN, WRITER/DIRECTOR: The idea of a syndicated gang hijacking buildings was absolutely fascinating, and you know, that was very much my way in. The idea that somebody -- my response was the same as anyone else's -- how do you hijack a building?
CURNOW: Buildings like this are run down, don't have running water or electricity, and as many as 20 people live in a room. But they also provide easy money for criminals who run these streets, said the lead actor who plays an ingenious crime boss.
RAPULANA SEIPHEMO, ACTOR: They hijack buildings. He comes in and he promises people that he will cut the rent in half and clean it up, get the drugs out, get the prostitution out. And, you know, that's what happens, but unfortunately, he makes a bit of money on the side, and .
CURNOW: Crime dominates most South Africans' lives. On average, 50 people are murdered here every day, said the South African police, which is why telling a crime story in these mean streets was dangerous for the cast and crew.
ZIMAN: We took a lot of steps to make sure that we were safe. Our biggest department set up was security. We had probably about 20 armed security guards on set all the time. Some guys plainclothes, some guys staying with the crew, some guys spotting on top of buildings to see trouble. So we had more security guards on that set than we had camera people, sound people, AV department, you know, all put together.
Producer Tendeka Matatu says they also had to pay their local gangsters protection money.
TENDEKA MATATU, PRODUCER: We got some of the local street gangs. You see some of the guys hanging out on the corner over there. They kind of helped us with security, together with our own security, and -- and you know, and we spent six weeks in Hillbrau (ph). We shot in all of these buildings. This building here is basically we got -- this was an opening scene of the movie, and this was the first day we were in Hillbrau. We flew a helicopter straight down this -- down this road, yeah, and hovered it above that building, and recreated a raid on a building .
CURNOW (on camera): A police raid.
MATATU: A police raid.
CURNOW: That's one way to make it impactful.
MATATU: That was -- that was an impact, and we had like lots of police down in the corner and everything. And we had like really small cameras, and everybody thought, you know, kind of gosh, maybe something real is happening, people throwing drugs out the window and running down the streets and like, you know.
CURNOW (voice over): The movie captures the violence and brutality of Johannesburg's inner city, but it also pays homage to one of Africa's most iconic and vibrant skylines.
ZIMAN: Yeah, we wanted to capture Johannesburg as almost like one of the characters in the film, and we spent about 20 days before we started principal photography shooting Johannesburg, shooting the skylines, shooting the people.
CURNOW: It's not easy -- selling Johannesburg as a film location. The local film commission says the crime and expensive location fees have turned away big international productions, but is trying hard to change perceptions.
TERRY TSELANE, GAUTENG FILM COMMISSION: Johannesburg is not Capetown. However, we've got some of the oldest buildings that some of the filmmakers would be interested in. If you look around here, you'd find the architecture that is so excellent. If you are interested in doing something relevant for Europe, you could actually come here. If you want 1934 Hollywood, you can always come here. But also if you want something that is authentically African, you come to Johannesburg. You can always find, you know, something that is authentically African and South African as well.
CURNOW: Also, authentically, South African gangsters, cops and gunfire on the streets of Johannesburg -- a script that will be familiar to crime- weary South Africans.
Robyn Curnow, CNN, Johannesburg, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPEE)
SESAY: Of course, dangerous ghettos aren't a uniquely South African problem. They've long been a blight on western cities, and now growing populations are giving rise to crime-ridden slums around the continent. David McKenzie spent some time in a poor neighborhood in Nairobi, where he met some young people who seem resigned to their grim surroundings. But he also met a determined young man who's managed to act his way out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE0
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They should be in school, but these Nairobi kids have traded the classroom for a hide-out from the police. Books for drugs. And they're more than your average truants. They're part of a youth gang culture in the open ghettos of the capital that rob people of cell phones and cash, using guns to threaten their victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is good, just living this life of ghetto. There is no problem, just hustle every day. We get -- we thug and we do all those things. We just use pistols to scare, but we don't kill.
MCKENZIE: They are still new to this trade, but their township slang and the neighborhood they live in have already marked them as ghetto youth.
MCKENZIE: The Dandara (ph) neighborhood in Nairobi is feared as a hotbed of criminal gangs and drugs. Many people never even set foot in this neighborhood, and the youth that grew up here feel that they might never leave.
Chris Onyango felt he was stuck in this life of crime and drugs. It was just the way of the street.
CHRIS ONYANGO, ACTOR: (EXPLETIVE DELTED) happened in those days. The only way you can survive in the street, to be recognized by the people on the street at least. You are -- if -- you had to have money, you know? So getting this money in an easier way -- stealing.
MCKENZIE: But when he was shot in the leg when he scuffled with police, he knew it was time to make a change.
ONYANGO: Since then I have never got back to any bad doings.
MCKENZIE: Chris learned that talent can speak louder than stereotypes.
He tried a bit of acting, and he approached the director of "Inspekta Mwala", a weekly comedy hit in Kenya. The director saw Chris' knack for standup, and his command of township slang as an asset, not a curse.
And he knows how much a break can mean for young men like Chris, who are used to being derided as thugs.
NGUGI NGIGE, DIRECTOR, "INSPECTA MWALA": It helps them to appreciate that in life, one can still achieve what they want to achieve in life, so long as they're talented, they're skilled, and they're given an opportunity.
MCKENZIE: Chris jumped at this chance, but it is a rare one. Kenya's education system is good compared to the rest of the continent, but unemployment hovers at over 40 percent, and most of the jobless are young. So many fall into the trap of crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to change if I get another option. If I finish school and get a job, I will have to leave it, but if I don't, I can continue.
MCKENZIE: Certainly, it's a hope of the nation he won`t, and that he follows the example of Chris, who beat tough odds to find a way out of a life of crime.
David McKenzie, CNN, Dandara (ph).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Frustration has always been a source of inspiration for artists. Up next, censorship in northern Nigeria is giving some young hip-hop performers plenty of fuel for their art.
Also ahead, some Egyptian artists say their once-vibrant entertainment culture has become too restricted. We'll tell you who they blame and what they're doing about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA.
Artists often try to stretch the boundaries of societal norms, and that dynamic is very much at play in northern Nigeria's Muslim-dominated Kano region. Hip-hop has become a popular form of music among many young people there, but the powers that be aren't so receptive. Local musicians face censorship, and even in some cases jail. Christian Purefoy talked to a young Kano musician about his message and the challenges he faces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Recording a revolution. Hip-hop artists like Nazir Hausawa in Nigeria's Muslim Kano state are trying to bring change to a traditional society.
NAZIR HAUSAWA, HIP-HOP ARTIST: Our revolution is that we're going to sing and call people through that song, to understand who they are, especially poor people.
PUREFOY: But with his Western clothes and dark sunglasses, Nazir and other local artists are being accused of corrupting Islam, a serious allegation in a Muslim state of Kano. Nazir dismisses the claim.
HAUSAWA: So, we're not inviting Western culture. (inaudible), you know, we are youth. We can do. We can sing the song with the girls naked if we like. But we're not interested in that, because we know what we're doing. We value our religion, we value our culture.
PUREFOY: But Kano Societal Reorientation Directorate, which keeps close watch on the entertainment industry, accuses Western influences of bringing Western problems.
BAHA MOHAMMED, KANO OFFICIAL: Pants halfway down, and mannerisms and the way of speech, and things like that. And that leads in our opinion to next stage, is some -- some drug, and then the society will be the worse for it.
PUREFOY: Any music released in Kano must be passed by the censorship board. One artist, Adam Zango (ph), was imprisoned earlier this year for three months after his uncensored album was found in a local market.
Because Nazir refuses to submit his music for censorship, his songs can't be sold in local music shops.
Censorship is forcing studios like this further underground and forcing them to move out of Kano. To defy the authorities' best efforts, tens of thousands of these music videos will be distributed across northern Nigeria and West Africa, to an audience of the millions.
Many of Kano's unemployed graduates see the region's economic problems as a bigger threat than Western culture. They disapprove of what they see as government interference in the entertainment industry, which they say provides jobs at a time when the city's traditional manufacturing industries are closing down.
ROBERT GERHART, UNEMPLOYED GRADUATE: If you walk through a neighborhood, you find out -- you find guys like this, hanging out, not having jobs to do. So you know, what you expect them to do? You don't want them -- definitely, crime will be the outcome.
PUREFOY: So, for now, Nazir and his fellow artists put their frustrations into their music.
Christian Purefoy, CNN, northern Nigeria, Kano.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Some Egyptian artists are also feeling restricted by conservative Islam. Up next, the impact of Saudi oil money on Egypt entertainment industry and performers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making business news in Africa this week. Virgin Atlantic Airways is in talks to sell its 49 percent share of Virgin Nigeria. The move follows a dispute between Virgin President Richard Branson and the Nigerian government. Branson says authorities broke a deal he made with the previous administration, by forcing Virgin Nigeria to move domestic services out of the international terminal in Lagos. He accuses the government of using dishonest tactics and calls the situation regrettable.
Price control measures appear to be having no effect on Zimbabwe's crippling inflation. The latest official annual rate is 11.2 million percent, the highest in the world. Just six months ago, a loaf of bread coasts 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars. The same loaf now costs an estimated 1.6 trillion Zimbabwean dollars.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Welcome back.
Egyptian art and culture has historically been a source of tremendous national pride. The country enjoyed a silver screen heyday from the 1940s through the 1960s, with actors like Omar Sharif achieving global fame. But in recent years, Egypt entertainment industry, it has been in something of a slump, and many artists say they've been pressured to abandon their work altogether.
As Shahira Amin reports, some Egyptians blame their wealthy Saudi neighbors for this cultural trend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHAHIRA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First Denah (ph), then Abir and now Hannan (ph), three young Egyptian performers among the fast growing list of women who have lowered the curtain on their careers to don the veil. They were inspired by influential Islamic preachers like Ambra Halid (ph), who urges young Muslim women and girls to, in his words, shun worldly pleasures and seek the more lasting rewards of the afterlife.
But actress Abir Sabry rethought her decision. After a five-year absence, she says she wants to get back in shape and pick up where she left off.
"I'm delighted to be back," she says. "I've missed acting, I've missed living in general."
But she fears her decision will draw extremist backlash. "An extremist lawyer has already filed a law suit against me for taking off the veil," she tells us. And according to newspaper reports, he says "she deserves to have her legs and arms cut off."
In his book, "Whatever Happened to the Egyptians?" author Galal Amin writes about the emergence of a less tolerant form of Islam beginning in the mid- '70s.
GALAL AMIN, AUTHOR: The rate of social mobility has accelerated tremendously. People going up and some people going down. This created tension, turmoil in the Egyptian society, which created a need for a new interpretation of Islam.
AMIN: Some Islamists have resorted to both violent and peaceful means to alter Egypt's arts and entertainment scene, from terror attacks to religious classes credited with luring hundreds of thousands to the hijabs.
Egypt's best-known belly dancer has resisted the trend.
DINA, BELLY DANCER: I believe in my art. I love dancing very much. I say this is enough, I have to run. But I never do it. I love dancing very much.
AMIN: But many other native-born dancers have quit, and foreign dancers from as far away as Argentina and Russia have replaced them.
Egyptian filmmakers are also under pressure. This production company CEO says an influx of petrol cash has had a restrictive impact on his industry.
MOHAMED GOHAR, CEO, VIDEO CAIRO SAT.: The same people who take down your two towers in New York, before doing that they came to Egypt, and tear its two big towers -- culture and media.
AMIN: Gohar flicks through the TV channels to show us what he describes as a flooding of Egypt's satellite space.
GOHAR: Nine fundamentalists Wahhabi channels sponsored with very high money. They give you alternative religion ideas from how to cook the chicken until how to deal with each other.
AMIN: "Egypt has always been secular and liberal," says this cinema goer. "It's as if our culture has been hijacked."
Many liberal Egyptians share those sentiments and long for a return to their country's cultural heyday. Despite recent developments, both Abir and Dina say they're confident that day will come.
Shahira Amin, CNN, Cairo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Here is a quick look at the stories making headlines around the continent.
Pirates hijacked three ships in the same day off the coast of Somalia. An organization dedicated to fighting crime on the high seas called the multiple hijackings unheard of. The International Maritime Bureau says pirates seized a German cargo ship, a Japanese-flagged tanker, and an Iranian-flagged vessel. The IMB urged the United Nations to take serious actions to stop piracy.
In eastern Algeria, two car bombings killed at least 11 people just a day after 43 people were killed in a separate blast. The interior ministry labeled all three bombings terrorist attacks.
And Zambia is mourning the death of its president. Zambian and French officials say Levy Mwanawasa died in a Paris hospital nearly two months after suffering a stroke. Mr. Mwanawasa was credited with launching a far- reaching anticorruption campaign in Zambia. He was also an outspoken critic of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. President Mwanawasa was 59.
INSIDE AFRICA will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA.
Now, let's take a look at some standout performances by African athletes at the Beijing games.
Pamela Jelimo has become the first Kenyan woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. The 18-year old prodigy won the 800-meter title, posting a time just under one minute, 55 seconds. Earlier this year, Jelimo switched from the 400-meter race at the urging of her Kenyan teammate and mentor, who came in second.
And Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry finally took her place atop the medal stand. She won the 200-meter backstroke with a world record time of 2:05.24. Her victory ended a string of frustrating second-placed finishes that followed record-breaking swims in preliminary heats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRSTY COVENTRY, ZIMBABWEAN SWIMMER: I think like anybody, you have so much pride representing your country, and it's such an honor for me to be able to do that. And today kind of winning the gold medal, but then standing on the podium and getting to hear my national anthem was -- it just meant so much. It's kind of the world to me, and my mom got all emotional in the stands. I just (inaudible) not look at it. And you know, it's really just such an honor for me to be able to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: All told, Coventry takes home one gold medal and three silvers.
Now, without winning a medal, a South African swimmer also made a splash in Beijing. Natalie Du Toit became the first amputee to compete in the Olympics by taking part in the grueling 10-kilometer open water race. She finished 16th, and says she plans to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London. Du Toit's left leg was amputated at the knee at 2001 after she was a hit by a car while riding a motor scooter. The plucky young swimmer was back in the water within a few months. She now swims long distance, open- water races, because they primarily require upper body strength.
And there we must leave it. Be sure to check us out on our Web site at cnn.com/insideAfrica. And tune in next week for a brand-new edition of INSIDE AFRICA. Thank you for watching.
END
