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

Oil promises - how oil changed a country

 

Interesting documentary on how an oil discovery changed a country or rather did bring no change at all. 

This is a 85 minute DW documentary which spans a period of 10 years from 2007 when oil was discovered off the Ghana coast and it was felt that oil would bring in the riches and dramatically improve the lives of people living in a fishing village on the coast. 

Oil did come, big companies did come in with their investments and their gigantic machines and did give some work to the locals for a couple of years, but then it all dried up. People were left in the lurch. A lot was promised by the government, but nothing happened, well almost nothing. 

Well some change did take place, electricity did come in, some paved roads but fishing died completely because the algae from the oil slick that polluted the beaches and destroyed the fishing nets. The government was apparently making money from the oil but where was the money going. 

Contracts were awarded to Chinese and they brought in their own labour. That's probably symptomatic of Africa, big projects are awarded, but major chunk of the jobs go to foreign workers especially the skilled jobs. The locals are left with crumbs. 

Its also a subtle dig at globalisation, is globalisation helping the local communities from which it takes it resources, who benefits in the end - the big companies with their shareholders who get massive dividends, or the governments which pocket the taxes or the local villages who are equal stakeholders in the project. Do project affected persons get the real advantage from big infrastructure projects. Verdict is still out. 

Its a nice documentary, very languid pace, with some commentary, and lot of interviews with sub titles in English and the animations by Ebele Okoye was quite delightful. You can watch this documentary here 

Gambia, an African Odyssey

 

Interesting documentary on The Gambia, a small country in West Africa, surrounded entirely by Senegal save for a small coast on the Atlantic. 

Its basically a cruise ship with tourists visiting the country. But the narration does focus on the history of the country, its people, customs, traditions, villages, economy, wildlife, birdlife in small parts each. 

The Gambia is famous for the autobiography "The Roots" by Alex Haley in which he traces 7 generations of his family back to the Gambia. It was the centre point of the slave trade back in those days and there are some traces of that slave trade in the form of warehouses and holding posts for slaves until they were transported to America. 

Gambia is also famous for Kora, the musical instrument that originated from here and the music of this area is quite good, very rich and mellifluous. Agriculture and tourism are the mainstays of Gambia, there are no manufacturing activities. Fishing is a major activity what with the River Gambia flanking almost the entire country. 

Border trade and movement of people into Senegal takes place on a daily basis with no controls whatever, people marry there, come here for a festival, do trade there, come to work here. The documentary does take us through some villages flanking the river viz. Tendaba, Kuntaur, Georgetown, Banjul, its capital. 

Nice documentary to watch, narrative format plus lots of interviews with locals with sub titles in place. You can watch this 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 

A Walk to Beautiful

 

"A Walk to Beautiful", a moving touching award winning documentary on the problems faced by rural women in Ethiopia due to a medical condition known as "obstretics fistula" following a failed childbirth. 

These women are married off at a very young age of 10 to 12 and when they get pregnant at such young age or later, and the miscarriage happens, they sometimes get a medical condition, which is the leak of the urine or the feces. Sometimes it one, and sometimes it is both. 

Then what happens is that the women's lives are shattered, because they cannot go anywhere, they are smelling and leaking and they become ostracised in the society. They are made to live separately away from the family, in a separate shed, a lonely life. 

The documentary tells the story of some women who travel all the way to Addis Ababa, to get treated in a Fistula Hospital there. It is only when they reach the hospital that the women realise that they are not the only one with that condition. The bonding takes place, the women are treated free, taken care of, surgery takes place and they begin a completely new life. 

It is quite a heart rending documentary to know that so much suffering takes place amongst women folk in the world. There are apparently more than 5 million women with the fistula condition all over the world. 

Very nicely made documentary, tells the story from the point of view of the women concerned with sympathetic and understanding doctors and nurses. The documentary got an Emmy award.

Escaping Eritrea

 

PBS Frontline documentary on the brutal dictatorial regime of President Isaias Afwerki in Eritrea.

He has been in power since 1991, since the independence of the country from Ethiopia and has apparently led a harsh one party rule in the country. There are apparently no independent media, no judiciary, no civil society and no constitution also. No elections have been held ever since independence. 

People are jailed on some pretext or other and kept in confinement for years together without any charge being brought against them. People are kept inside hot rooms in deplorable conditions. There are many prisons dotted around the country where political prisoners and religious prisoners are kept. 

Prisoners are routinely beaten and interrogated for hours together and women are raped and traumatized by the regime soldiers. There is no human rights, no rights at all for anybody. Its called the North Korea of Africa. 

Few people tried to escape and they smuggled in video footages which forms the most part of this documentary. The UN is into it threatening to take the President to the International Court for the crimes against humanity. 

There was some hope for peace when Ethiopia brokered a peace agreement a couple of years ago, but ostensibly things have not changed much during the recent years after the peace accord. Its a nice documentary with video footages, secret interviews, voice over commentary etc. Worth watching. 

Midnight in D'jibouti

 

A breathtaking documentary on D'jibouti, a tiny nation on the Horn of Africa. 

D'jibouti has an unique geographical importance because the geological tripoint is located here when three tectonic plates meet together. The tectonic interaction is at the lowest elevation of any place in Africa and second lowest depression on dry land (source: wikipedia). It also has the hottest point on the earth's crust. 

It has got a huge coast with Red Sea in the north and the Gulf of Aden in the east. The D'jibouti port is located strategically just below the Mediterranean so it becomes a legal and illegal spot for trade. Smuggling of gasoline is done in exchange for whisky, vodka and liquor which is sent to the Gulf states. 

Smuggling of exotic animals takes place from here to the Gulf and the Orient, and luckily in D'jibouti they have an animal refugee centre, where wild animals which are caught in the process of trafficking are housed there. 

Villagers in plenty are after khat, a kind of localised opium which is grown in plenty and trade takes place. Being a very hot place, not much activity takes place in the afternoon, which are spent in enjoying the khat.

Pearl, lobsters, shark fishing are important activities and fetch a good price in the market, especially with the international hotels located along the beaches. The country has plenty of breathtaking beaches dotted along the coast line. 

Salt is another trade, especially refined salt, which does not require much processing. All in all, a newly independent country, with not much of manufacturing activity, but plenty for tourists, and lot of illegal trade especially in drugs and arms which make it a focal point for the international agencies like UN to monitor. Good documentary, as the narrator follows a few examples and takes us around their daily life activities. Typically like what a good documentary should be. Worth watching. 

You can watch it here 

Grand Sweep of Nature

 

Breathtaking documentary on wildlife in the northern peninsula of the Tibetan plateau. 

Stunning videos and story from the tough, harsh upper reaches where survival is difficult with very little water. Tibetan antelopes look to migrating hundreds of kilometres to the lower levels in order to survive and grow. 

There are breathtaking array of wildlife in this harsh landspace all their unique story of survival. There are elephants, wolf, bear, antelopes, and then vultures, raven et al. Bear and wolf are the top of the food chain, so one kill of an animal fills the stomach of so many animals. Its absolutely magnificent, the story of survival in the wildlife. 

Its part of the series called Forces of Nature by Free Documentary on youtube, so planning to watch all of them. You can view them here 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbvrgK-PvcY

British Virgin Islands

 

Documentary on British Virgin Islands, the group of islands in the Caribbean which is ruled by the British, hence the prefix British to its name. 

It has got more than 50 islands but only about 16 of them are inhabited. Apart from tourism there is not much going on there, except for rum production which is locally made using sugar cane. There are some organic farming going on, but the mainstay of these islands are obviously the tourists, especially the billionaire Americans and Europeans with their cruise liners and yatch and all. 

The documentary picks up some three or four subjects and works on their story like the hermit crab race in one island, which sees a lot of frenzied betting, the rum production in one village, organic farming in another and the like. 

Its also the home for a lot of overseas banks which offer tax free status to the monies of the rich people around the world. So there's a huge presence of banks and their very minimal staff in the capital city. BVI is known as an offshore banking centre so i guess lots of transactions takes place running into billions of dollars. 

Nice documentary to watch, kept the interest intact. 

Congo: a journey to the heart of Africa

 

BBC documentary on Congo, the giant country the size of Europe in the middle of Africa. 

The team travels from Kinshasha, on the western coast of the nation bordering the Atlantic Ocean to Lumumbashi, on the eastern coast. The country is huge but racked with numerous problems from corruption, to poverty to lack of development. 

The colonizers looted the country like anything forcing its citizens to become slaves and get beaten or killed. Belgium was the worst offender with King Leopold a brutal king greedy of the riches this country had to offer. 

Then Mobutu Sese Seko, the Zairean leader who ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 4 decades was an autocratic dictator and kept its citizens on impoverished state. He had Patrice Lumumba the only popular leader of Congo, killed. The country is rich in minerals like copper, cobalt, gold, diamonds etc. which is why even the eastern neighbours like Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda have eyes on those natural resources. 

The country has immense potential to tap hydro electric power with raging rapids along the Congo river, but very little development. Then there is fighting on the eastern part of the country in Goma, where the government is not to be seen at all. Local leaders have sprung up destroying the peace and potential of this country. There are about half a million refugees within the country itself.

Interesting documentary this, the presenter goes from Kinshasha to Mbandaka, Gbadolite (which was the home town of Mobutu) Kisangani, Goma, Beni, Kalemie and finally to Lubumbashi. The country is breathtakingly beautiful with its rain forests, rivers, mountains, wild life, gorillas, its rich minerals but poor state of governance. 

West Africa

 

The last part of the BBC four part series on Lost Kingdoms of Africa. Art historian travels to West Africa to discover the ancient history of Benin, Mali, Nigeria etc. 

He starts off at Benin where he discovers bronze sculptures dating back to more than 2000 years ago. The craftsmanship and technology to produce such exquisite pieces of art were very much present in those times. 

Next stop for him at Timbuktu in Mali, which was at one point of time a busy trading hub with traders from Arab coming to sell their wares and take home local items. Timbuktu has entered into a state of decline for many centuries now. 

Djenne and Jenne Jena which are nearby and Timbuktu did have some olden bronze & pottery sculpture history some evidence still being retained because Jenne Jena is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are evidence of archeological remains at these places. The sculpture is unique in the sense that lot of animist influences have been found in the form of shapes of snake, leopard, etc. in the sculpures. The locals revere the animism because they feel that the animals protect them. 

Djenne has got some Islamic influences because of the Arab traders who built a Grand Mosque in the city. All the houses in the city are made of mud and each house has a separate and distinct style of architecture depending upon the number of females in the household and the number of children. 

Dogon country in Mali is another place which has a rich cultural history. Interesting series this and not boring at all. Dr. Gus has kept it nice short and crisp and being an expert himself he dwells into more detail at each level of his visit. 

Great Zimbabwe

 

BBC four part series on the lost kingdoms of Africa, this is part 3 where Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford goes to Greater Zimbabwe. 

Greater Zimbabwe is a city in the southern part of Zimbabwe which was the capital of a kingdom but not certain which king ruled here. They have stone walls with narrow passages that had some significance. 

Before that he went to Manyikeni an architectural site in Mozambique which has got some connection with the Greater Zimbabwe style of buildings. 

The Kingdom of Mapungubwe in present day South Africa is also another place where gold trading used to take place and there were links to the Swahili Coast of East Africa. Its a world heritage site 

Two other places that Gus visited were Kilwa Kisawani and Rhapta and both were gold trading centres. Kilwa Kisawani is in Tanzania and now a World Heritage Site. Moroccan traveller Ibn Batuta apparently visited Kilwa and was mightily impressed by it. Lot of trade used to take place in the ancient past between the east coast of Africa and the Gulf Arab regions, India and China. 

Good series to watch so far. 

Ethiopia

 

A BBC four part documentary on the lost kingdoms of Africa takes us to Ethiopia, known as the cradle of civilisation from where ostensibly the first human beings came out of Africa and traveled by foot to various parts of the world. 

Ethiopia has a rich history dating back to pre Christian times when King Solomon and Queen Sheeba's son had connections with Ethiopia. There are legends that it is the birth place of Judaism. 

Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford, art historian and narrator of this documentary takes us to various places in Ethiopia which could possibly show the connection to King Solomon and Queen Sheeba. The kingdom of Aksum probably contains the ark which is zealously guarded by the local administration there. 

Dr. takes us to Harar, Lalibela, Gondor, Dire Dawa which has rock cut caves dating to the pre historic and pre Christian era. Ethiopia has more religious history behind it and tied to it are the monuments of the past built by the kings of that era. There are rock buildings carved out of a single piece of rock, like those found in Hampi and Ajanta in India and hieroglyphics giving messages of the kings of that era. Interesting documentary to watch. 

  

Nubia

 

Interesting BBC documentary on the lost kingdoms of Africa. This four part series starts in Nubia, the extinct kingdom which once encompassed the present day Egypt and Sudan put together. 

Interesting to note that there are apparently more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt. The documentary shows the ancient rock drums which were used by people to communicate with each other, the rock cut paintings of cattle, the hieroglyphics depicting the life in ancient Nubia more than 5000 to 7000 years ago. 

The whole area was full of vegetation and life and commerce in those days but desert started creeping up over the years and centuries making it what it is today. The presenter goes to a few village settlements to understand their life and the history of the area. 

Apparently frequent battles used to take place over the vegetation of the land and there was one cremation spot where apparently more than 200 men and 5000 heads of cattle were sacrificed. The documentary is a mix of commentary and interviews, so its a good series to watch.   

City of Ghosts

City of Ghosts is a 2017 documentary about a group of underground citizen journalists "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" (RBSS). RBSS came into being after ISIS took control of Raqqa a town in Syria. Most of the footages are the actual real footages of the crimes being committed in that place. The actors are also the real ones who are behind the RBSS. It is a moving account of the atrocities being committed by the extremist group in that town. Many of the RBSS members' own family members were shot dead by militants in Raqqa. RBSS members in Raqqa used to send footages to their friends in other countries who then used to post it on social media. The ISIS had completely cut off all contact for Raqqa with the outside world including destroying roof top satellites.

Raqqa is a beautiful town and people were leading normal lives but the arrival of ISIS in 2014 changed all that. This is a beautiful documentary and the RBSS were also awarded the International Press Freedom Award in 2015 for their brave efforts.

And the latest news is that Raqqa has been freed from the hands of the militants as per this news report

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-ignominious-end-of-the-isis-caliphate