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AFRICA FOR SALE / EIN KONTINENT VOR DEM AUSVERKAUF

Credits

Name: AFRICA FOR SALE / EIN KONTINENT VOR DEM AUSVERKAUF

Guest: Ashine, Argaw; Mbuthuma, Nonhle; Mora Kpai, Idrissou; Bernau, Olaf; Donia Touglo & Band

Abstract

“We Europeans claim more agricultural land for our consumption of food and raw materials than we actually have available to us in Europe. The examples on our (exhibition) boards show what consequences this can have for people in the Amazon and Africa, and draw attention to the global dimension of our consumption... Land grabbing – the most recent aggressive form of land acquisition – is a key focal point of the exhibition, and we mustn’t forget that our European way of life contributes greatly to land grabbing... and could also curb it.” That is the subject matter of the exhibition DAS LAND, DAS WIR UNS NEHMEN (THE LAND WE TAKE) that was commissioned by the Climate Alliance (Klima-Bündnis). FilmInitiativ is co-hosting the exhibition as a supporting event for the 15th Afrika Film Festival because it not only provides important background information relating to the festival theme of “Land grabbing and migration” (on 22 roll-up displays), but it also names the names of “companies and funds who go land grabbing” and suggests what we “as citizens, customers and consumers” can do to stop it.


Activists who fight against land grabbing in Africa and who have suggestions regarding what we in Europe can do to halt it have been invited to the vernissage of the exhibition THE LAND WE TAKE. Argaw Ashine is an environmental journalist and the main protagonist in the documentary DEAD DONKEYS FEAR NO HYENAS. Persecuted due to his critical reporting on land grabs in Ethiopia, he felt compelled to go into exile in the US. Nonhle Mbuthuma also refuses to let death threats deter her from fighting the destruction of her home region in South Africa by an Australian mining company, as is impressively documented in the film THE SHORE BREAK. Director Idrissou Mora-Kpai taught people affected by land grabbing in Benin how they could use audiovisual means to show resistance, and he will present the short films that were made at his workshop.

The organisation afrique-europa-interact, which Olaf Bernau is involved in, supports returnees in Mali after they have been deported from Europe, and points out the connection between land grabbing and migration.

The musical accompaniment for the event will be provided by Cologne-based Togolese singer Donia Touglo with Vincent ‘Themba’ Goritzki (guitar) and Nico Touglo (percussion).