Nda Mona

Credits

Name: Nda Mona

Country: Südafrika

Year of publication: 1999

Format: Beta

Language : OF m. engl. UT

Duration: 26 Minuten

Direction: Pakleppa, Richard

Abstract

The film takes a critical look at the internal dynamics of the SWAPO-led liberation struggle against apartheid South African colonialism. Those labeled as collaborators and traitors and who survived the punitive actions of the guerilla movement remember their experiences and narrate them on film. These voices stand in opposition to the official post-liberation arguments to forget, reconcile and move forward. Juxtaposing these opposing voices, the film dramatizes a clash of memories and throws up a different dimension to the question as to what happens when local/individual memory and state discourse come into conflict in what Richard Werbner terms “the making of political subjectivity.” Nda Mona foregrounds the other side, so to speak, of the SWAPO-led liberation struggle, that is, the actions against its own adversaries or those tagged as such, in much the same ways as the post-apartheid South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission insisted on laying bare the actions of the ANC and other anti-apartheid groups and individuals some labeled as “crimes.” Are these instances of blaming the victims? Are such interrogations of actions taken in the heat of struggle ideological and premature, especially in light of the fact that the story or stories of the struggle from the point of view of the combatants have yet to be told? These are some of the questions raised in relation to films such as Nda Mona and others that are seen to place in the background the narratives and actions of the colonial state that the liberation movements were fighting against. In Zimbabwe, Flame by British-born and Zimbabwe-naturalized Ingrid Sinclair has occasioned similar debates.
Film and History in Africa, A CRITICAL SURVEY OF CURRENT TRENDS AND TENDENCIES, By Mbye Cham, Department of African Studies Howard University, Washington, June 28, 2002.
The four films in the Landscape of Memory series are: Nda Mona (I have Seen) by Richard Pakleppa, Namibia; From The Ashes by Karen Boswall, Mozambique; Soul In Torment by Prudenec Uriri, Zimbabwe; and The Unfolding Sky by Antjie Krog and Ronelle Roots, South Africa.