Destination Chad

 This is an interesting documentary on Chad, a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa.

Its a tough terrain with the majority of the country being desert sands. Not much by way of agriculture is to be found except for fishing which is probably the main occupation and source of living for the people here.

So this guy travels by his four wheel drive from Cameroon into Chad with Ndjamena, the capital being his first port in Chad. The beauty of this documentary is that he goes close to the local people and interacts with them in a friendly way and gets their story. Along the way he meets a witch doctor, a blacksmith, a young lady who is married with children but not educated and so on.

He also goes to the Waza natural game park, traverses through Lake Chad, Massakoury, Ngouri, Mau where he meets nomads who come to the market place to sell their dromedaries. There is also a view of an oasis in the desert which grows several fruits and vegetables.

The country is bereft of much trade and occupation except primary ones and it is hoped that oil is discovered somewhere which will then benefit the villagers and the people. The documentary is done well with narration and translation, but would have been better to have sub titles for the dialogues spoken in their local dialects rather than voice overs. Hearing different languages and dialects itself is a pleasure.

Camera work is quite fantastic along with the editing, which is done neatly. You can watch the documentary here

Nomadic Tribes of the Sahara

 

Breathtaking documentary on the nomads of Western Sahara, a disputed territory of which 20% is occupied by Sahrawi and 80% by Morocco. 

It is the most arid and inhospitable place on earth. Its surface area is about 266,000 square kilometres, comprising entirely of desert. Most of the people belong to the Berber tribes. 

Western Sahara is situated on the north western edge of Africa, with Mauritania and Morocco as its neighbours. 

Since its entirely desert, most of the travel is by camels and it could take days to go from one place to another. Camel trade does take place and trade does take place on camels. The documentary dwells on the elaborate marriage ceremony between two families, their customs, gifts, dowries, food, elaborate rituals etc. 

Life does prevail even in such harsh conditions like lizards and snakes are able to adapt to the extreme heat of the place. Some little vegetation does take place. There are some ancient hieroglyphs to be found on rocks but nobody has apparently a clue as to what it means or depicts. Ancient wonders do exist even in such marginal place. 

The documentary is full on narrative fashion, with very little dialogues or interviews of the people. Still it is a good documentary to watch and you can watch it here