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African Shirts (http://africanshirts.blogspot.com/2006/04/carmen-with-clicks.html) discusses the vibrancy of the South African film industry which he compares with that of the Francophone African countries and Nigeria’s Nollywood. Two of the latest films from SA are U-Carmen eKhayelitsha and Oscar winning Tsotsi.

“U-Carmen is a Xhosa language film based on Bizet's opera Carmen, and it won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival last year.” He gives credit to the SA government for supporting the industry, whilst Nigeria still operates as a kind of “one man band running around with a camcorder filming his friends putting on ridiculous American accents, and making up the script as they go along”. He says: “Genuine filmmaking knowledge would mean that international film houses can come to Nigeria to shoot films. Nigeria has a vast and varied landscape, from desert in the north to equatorial savannah in the south - who wouldn't want to film there? However, it seems Nigeria's all land and no knowledge with which to use the land. Nollywood, watch and learn.”

Agathon Rwasa (http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2006/04/tutu-admits-that-his-trc-failed...) comments on an address by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to participants of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee held in South Africa. He quotes Tutu as saying:

"South Africans are tremendous people and the successes of the TRC had set an international benchmark in dealing with post-conflict situations, yet it failed to meet the needs of victims or reveal the full truth in many cases…My own concern is if we'll be able to uncover the evidence (of atrocities). I have my doubts. The apartheid government was very adept at hiding and destroying evidence. Cases go on for a long time and then people are acquitted and I fear it is traumatising for the victims.”

My Hearts in Accra (http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=507) comments on a piece from the New York Times on oil, corruption and Africa which mentions 5 African countries least known for oil export: Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania and the Congo Republic. All of which score low on the “Corruption perception index”. Zuckerman wonders whether it is possible to have natural resources without corruption?

“It’s possible to have natural resources and not have rampant corruption - Botswana is blessed with an abundance of diamonds and outranks many European nations on the TI index - but the nations who pull it off are the exception, not the rule. It’s a reminder that mineral wealth is a curse as much as a blessing - there are very, very few nations that go the path of Norway, rather than the path of Nigeria.”

Weichegud! ET Politics (http://weichegud.blogspot.com/2006/04/never-again-to-yet-again.html) comments on the genocide taking place in Darfur and the failure of not only the West but Africa to act. She reminds us of Rwanda and clearly the lessons have not been learned and the need for Africans to take notice of Darfur.

“You want a reason why the West doesn’t care about Darfur? Because Africans don’t care about Darfur. We pointed at the West the last time. And we are doing it again…by August 2005, an estimated 370,000 Darfuri had died. That figure hovers at about 400,000 today. Over two million have been displaced, and three million suffer from dire food shortages - all because they have dark skin. They are being persecuted by an African nation whose hubris has been augmented by an African Union and an African head of the august United Nations.”

In particularly she singles out Kofi Annan, who has in her opinion failed twice now, in Rwanda and now in Darfur.

“Yes, and I do hold Kofi Annan responsible because his tenure as Secretary General of the UN has been particularly bad for Africa. This was our one shot at this kind of high visibility leadership…We looked for moral leadership, and instead what we got was a tragically wobbly and fluctuant chief who had two, count ‘em, two genocides under his belt. Maybe after the carnage hits a million people Mr. Annan will amble back to Sudan to offer a ‘oops we did it again’ speech, the same speech he gave in Kigali on May 7, 1998.”

Freedom from Egyptians (http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2006/04/egypts-dahab-attacks-for...) comments on the bombing of Dahab in the Sinai peninsular – the third city to be bombed.

“This is the third attack in Sinai around Egyptian national days. The 2004 Taba attacks came on October 6 (Army Day). Sharm El Sheikh’s attacks on 2005 were at the eve of July 23 (Revolution Day) and yesterday Dahab attacks took place at the eve of April 25 of 2006. The relationship between these dates and those heinous attacks in Sinai has yet to be interpreted. These three national days have political significance. The message sent here might not be Islamofacist and could hint that the perpetrators are not Islamists.”

One Arab World (http://onearabworld.blog.com/703267) also comments on the bombing with a series of real time updates, including photos of the aftermath.

Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/04/victory_for_human_rights.html) reports on the release of 9 Cameroonian men on homosexuality charges. The men were refused bail and have spent the past 12 months incarcerated having to share cells with the most violent criminals. The trial lasted exactly 10 minutes – one year in prison in Cameroon for a trial that lasted only 10 minutes is a harsh price to pay for ones’ sexuality, the freedom of which is supposedly enshrined in Cameroonian law as a country that is signature to various human rights declarations.

“Congratulations to Alice Nkom and Duga Tianji, their team of lawyers, IGLHRC and all the human rights defenders that fought so hard to achieve the release of the 9 men at great cost to themselves…Whilst we can and must celebrate this victory, the 9 men who have spent the last 12 months in the unimaginable filth and squalor of prison now have the uphill task of trying to rebuild their lives knowing that though they are free, that freedom is incomplete as they remain imprisoned in a community of hate and homophobia. The struggle continues - 4 lesbians are still in police custody and 11 female students have been expelled from school for ‘confessing’ to belonging to a ‘network of lesbians’.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected]