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INTERVIEW - A film with an African view of aid and development

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 16 February 2007 00:00 GMT

Director Abderrahmane Sissako (centre) on the set of Bamako Copyright: Artificial Eye, 2005

Criticism of the economic policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is nothing new in development circles. But few people have had the courage and the skill to make a film about it - not least one that&${esc.hash}39;s set in Africa and gives cinema-goers a taste of how Africans feel about the debt and poverty dislocating many of their lives.

Bamako does just that. In a fictional trial, ordinary Malians hold international financial institutions to account for what they see as the damage caused by neoliberal policies. But this is no ordinary court-room drama.

Click here for a short review of the film.

AlertNet&${esc.hash}39;s Megan Rowling net Mauritanian-Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako and his wife and co-producer Magda Abdi Gonji for a chat about the politics behind Bamako.

MR: What motivated you to make this film?

AS: I wanted to tell the story of Africa in different way because Africa is most often known in terms of wars and famines, and there is something in this that is simplistic and doesn&${esc.hash}39;t show the true face of the continent...

I wanted to tell the story of an Africa that is aware, that has an alternative analysis of the difficulties we are experiencing today.

I wanted to make a film one day that confronted these issues head on, and I got to the point where that was possible, having made other films. When you already exist as a writer, you have more freedom to address such subjects than if it were your first film.

What message do you want to give to audiences in the West?

AS: Not to limit themselves to what is said about the [African] continent, but to try to understand a bit more. That people should better understand the responsibility of institutions - because they are not abstract things, they are states, and states are made up of people, and so everyone has some responsibility, and can demand accountability.

I would like there to be a mobilisation to demand accountability. Because [international financial institutions] are acting in people&${esc.hash}39;s names, without people really understanding what they are doing. So I&${esc.hash}39;d like there to be a deeper analysis of the African crisis.

And the second thing for me is, above all, the question of the debt. I would like to make people aware of this, but more than anything, to have an audit carried out of the debt, to work out who profits from it. There has never been such an audit. And once we understand who profits from the debt, we will be able to see its injustice and demand its complete cancellation.

MAG: We hope [the film] can catalyse new institutions, new discussions. There&${esc.hash}39;s a petition on the site that people can sign. All the young people who see the film, and all the universities who have asked to show the film in class will discuss it, and this catalyst can lead to other developments. That&${esc.hash}39;s the essential thing.

Has there been any negative criticism in Africa of the film?

In general, some said perhaps it would have been better to criticise [African] leaders, to attack them more.

But while I&${esc.hash}39;m aware of the responsibility of African politicians, I didn&${esc.hash}39;t want to emphasise that - although it would have been easier than attacking the big institutions.

[African] corruption is a justification that the West always uses as an argument for under-development [in Africa]. But it&${esc.hash}39;s a pretext; there is hypocrisy here. For me [corruption] isn&${esc.hash}39;t the major problem.

What do you think of existing debt-relief initiatives?

AS: The act of cancelling the debt gets covered in the media, but not the conditionality that is attached to it, which profits the north more than the south - such as privatisation by big corporations.

But what about the global shift from structural adjustment (economic reforms imposed on poor countries) towards poverty reduction?

AS: This is the speciality of the World Bank and IMF - always to find concepts that are created to sweeten people&${esc.hash}39;s views, to close their eyes. They said structural adjustment was meant to help people, but after 25 years, people are still getting poorer. They should stop this permanent lying.

People don&${esc.hash}39;t even talk about development anymore, they talk about reducing poverty - and that&${esc.hash}39;s been going on for 15 years. We should also stop pigeon-holing Africa within the prism of debt.

To help Africa, we need just policies - we should be thinking instead about sharing wealth, so people can profit from it. So that young people of 20 or 22 are not driven into boats to seek a better life elsewhere. They need to be able to eat, to go to school in their own countries ... there needs to be a real development.

Is there a need to change the system of humanitarian aid, on which Africa seems dependent?

AS: It&${esc.hash}39;s too easy to criticise humanitarian aid. Each time a man suffers less because someone has held out their hand to them, it&${esc.hash}39;s a good thing. But looking more deeply, there are things to be done.

Certain people, certain NGOs, whether they are African or European, working together, have certainly thought about these issues because they are in the field and have experience - and they should be listened to more.

The second thing is the media in general. The information they see as useful and choose to write about creates an image of a continent. They talk about someone who adopts a child because she was a star [Madonna] for almost 10 days - morning and night. Meanwhile there are thousands of young people in dugouts trying to cross the ocean, but no one talks about it. Where is the real violence here?

How can art help African voices be heard?

AS: Cinema and art allow a conversation, a dialogue on these subjects, which is rare and not obvious. Art allows people to come together...

Not everyone can take a plane to Dakar to see for themselves. So art enables people to transcend certain boundaries that have created bad feeling.

Will you continue to do political films?

AS: Not necessarily. I don&${esc.hash}39;t want to give myself a role. I do what takes my fancy, things that make me passionate, and mean something to me. Certain stories can&${esc.hash}39;t be made overtly political...

MAG: But if you have the capacity to express something around you that people are talking about, you have a duty to make art - it&${esc.hash}39;s us; our families; our world. Being an African artist comes with a certain duty. We have a voice - which we use. If there&${esc.hash}39;s a microphone, you should take it.

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