Moving Africa

JWTC
by Nancy Henaku

A year ago, I stumbled on a book titled “South Africa: the people and the land” at the University of Ghana Bookshop and I bought it without second thoughts. I haven’t read the book till date but it remains one of the “to read” books in my library. Now that I am preparing to attend the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC), I am definitely going to read it before I leave Accra. When I bought the book I never thought I will ever have the opportunity to travel to South Africa (at least not anytime soon). I am therefore very grateful for the opportunity granted by the Goethe Institut’s Moving Africa Programme not only to visit South Africa but more especially for the rare learning experience I will have during my time there.

I see that the fellows and speakers for the workshop are coming from different parts of the world. Looking at the outline of the programme I am really expecting some stimulating discussions and experiences. But most especially, I am looking forward to learning more about South Africa. I have heard people describe Johannesburg as a beautiful city and I am looking forward to comparing the Johannesburg I experience during my visit and the Johannesburg I have reconstructed from books and television.


Interestingly and perhaps significantly, this is also the very first time I will be travelling by air. I am pretty much excited but I hardly know what to expect. My flight will take more than five hours and as the time draws nearer I am wondering what it will be like to be above the ground for this long. I have tried to collect stories from other people’s first time experiences on the plane and a majority of the people seem to be suggesting that flying is just like been in a car. Though I feel flying can be risky, the thought of travelling to South Africa alone is enough to allay all my fears.


I have had very brief encounters with some South Africans and they come across as very warm and friendly people. A South African I met once performed poetry using only clicks from Xhosa which made me totally fall in love with the language (of course I am aware that there about eleven official languages in South Africa and I am all too eager to hear people speak those languages in a real life situation). My image of South Africa now is that it is a great country with a great people and I am hoping to return to Ghana with some fond memories of the place. I have read some South African writers (Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Alan Paton, Nadine Gordimer e.t.c ), seen some South African movies, listened to some South African music and watched some South African dance performances but there is nothing like getting to know a people from personal encounter. So for me, this trip will help me to know the land and the people in a more intimate manner. I have heard about crime in South Africa but I also understand that in today’s world “nowhere cool” including my own backyard.

I am very eager to make my trip because I feel that a place like South Africa with its heterogeneous population might provide me with a complex view into the nature of the modern African state. Moreover, while this trip is essentially an academic one, it is also for me a journey to psychologically connect with a people who (like Thabo Mbeki) proclaim “I am an African”. As time draws closer, thoughts of the country invade my mind and I keep asking myself ‘how could I miss deeply a place I have never seen?”

Fespaco
by Anita Afonu

On our final day we were taken on an excursion to a place called Opera Village which was created by German theatre director Christoph Schlingensief. The Opera Village essentially is a place for artists to showcase their work which also has a school and hospital to cater for the surrounding villages. On our way I saw vast lands of deserts and dryness. The ground obviously had not seen water in such a long time and the air was dusty. I wondered how the trees managed to stand in defiance of the weather. At that point I began to appreciate my county for not being landlocked. The dryness seemed to eat into my soul and all I wanted was to just see water.

What stunned me about the Opera Village was the architecture. The buildings were made from brown bricks butt the roofing was done in such as way that the air that blew in the room had a cooling effect. We were showed around the classrooms, kitchen and the hospital which was still under construction. There were also a large number of stones, some of which had been carved into statues of rabbits. It reminded me of a place in Ghana called ‘Bongo’. Bongo is full of rocks and there is even a rock shrine there where people go to pray.

After about an hour and a half of touring we got back into the town where we had lunch. I ordered rice and fish and I was glad to have had my favourite fish (tilapia). The seasoning tasted different and the difference for me was in the quantity of pepper. In Ghana, great seasoning means a lot of pepper and spices. After lunch I went to the FESPACO market to buy a few souvenirs. The closing ceremony was just about to start and the weather was beginning to dehydrate me. The rest of us all felt the same and so we decided to watch it live on TV.

Blaise Campaore, the President of Burkina Faso gave the highest award; Etalon d’or to Alain Gomis from Senegal for his film Tey/Aujourd’hui. I was happy the highest award was taken by an African and it really inspired me to push my career as a filmmaker.

Later in the evening, all of us from Moving Africa gathered at the Institut Francais where there was a mini jazz concert; the ambiance was great. Personally it felt good to be amongst my colleagues for the last time. I was going to miss everyone most especially Matrid, Richard and Jorge de Palma. I never really realized how close I had gotten to all these people…sharing my interests and love of film and cinema with them. I was going to miss the funny mannerisms of Jorge de Palma, the Angolan guy who was always trying to catch up with the world and really didn’t care what anyone thought about his quirks, Richard, the calm, humble and intelligent young man from Rwanda and Matrid, the crazy fun loving lady from Kenya.

Fespaco
by Anita Afonu

I was upbeat on the second day and had breakfast at the hotel after which I headed to Cine Burkina to watch some films. I watched five short films, some of which were very good and some got me asking why they were selected for the festival. Cine Burkina is probably the main cinema hall in Ouagadougou and it had a recreation place where people can just spend time and wait for the screening of a film. After the screenings I got outside only to realize there was a mini party happening amongst the filmmakers. I tried to blend in but just couldn’t, probably because everyone had someone to talk to and I seemed not to. Not feeling up to the socialization I decided to walk to the hotel and rest and watch the next film in the evening.

As I walked around I made a few observations. Unlike Accra, Ouagadougou seemed to be sparsely populated. Most of the people transported themselves via scooters and bicycles. There were the vendors in the streets who were bent on giving me a hard time so I could buy their wares, but of course I am an Accra girl who has mastered the art of bargaining so I showed them the stuff I was made of. I was also stunned by the fact that strawberries were grown in Burkina Faso considering how hot the weather is. There are absolutely no strawberries in Ghana and so at that moment, I decided I was going to take some back to Ghana. At about 15:00hrs the rest of the Moving Africa Participants arrived and I met them for the first time. I met Didas from Uganda, a quiet and seemingly deep thinking young man, Richard from Rwanda who had an air of friendliness about him, Moses from Uganda, a very ‘serious’ journalist but also very intelligent and interesting man to chat with, Jorge de Palma from Angola who seemed to be trying to catch up with the whole world, Matrid a young fun loving lady from Kenya and Simon a very laid back and cool young man from Mozambique.

Later that evening I watched How to Steal two million by Charles Vundla Cine Neerwaya. Although I enjoyed the film, I felt that too much attention was paid to the main plot such that the subplot was not well treated. Much later my film Skin Canvas was screened at the Goethe Institut where the feedback was great. It was a totally new experience watching it again as I haven’t watched it in the past two years. I also watched some other short films from the other Moving Africa Participants and it was great to see other people’s work.

I have to say that the currency conversion in my head was very challenging because we were spending in the thousands unlike in Ghana where a thousand is a lot of money. We drove by a place called Kwame Nkrumah Avenue and at that point I couldn’t help but feel proud that someone from my home country had made so much impact that an avenue had been named after him. Another thing that got me stunned was the adherence to time. Film Screenings were on time and the people worked with time. I was stunned because Ghana is full of indiscipline and a lack of adherence to time is probably what we are most notorious for. We have gone as far as to even rename GMT as Ghana Man Time. When a Ghanaian tells you to see him at 2pm, he most probably means 4pm. So just imagine a wedding that is supposed to start at 12:00.

The Moving Africa participants and I decided to sit by the pool and get to know each other and it was a very interesting experience getting to know them.

Fespaco
by Anita Afonu

I arrived in Ouagadougou on February 25 at about 15:00. I was met by the director of the Goethe Institute in Burkina Faso. Since I was the only one that had arrived, I spent the rest of my day with her and she drove me around showing me the city of Ouagadougou.
I watched a film that evening by Gudrun Widlok titled Adopted at the Hall of residence of the University of Ouagadougou and then continued to Cine Burkina where I met other filmmakers from Germany, Sweden, France, USA, Senegal, Mali, Tunisia and Algeria. Being amongst a large number of Germans, it was a beer night. There was plenty of beer and kebab and I helped myself to a bottle of Brakina (Burkina Faso’s locally brewed beer) and I must say it wasn’t bad at all.

I was intrigued by how the people of Burkina Faso had so much appetite for film and cinema and I wished it was the same with my country. All over Ouagadougou there were film posters and it was just one film screening after the other.
I found the weather a bit harsh as it was so hot. The weather was fluctuating between 39-45 degrees and it was just painfully hot. The breeze was equally dry and hot which didn’t help much either. In Ghana, my home country, it is a bit better as we have the sea breeze and our temperatures were between 22-30 degrees and also if one felt hot, one could just walk to the beach and enjoy the cool breeze under the coconut trees and maybe have a cool coconut juice!

For dinner, I had fried plantain and fried potatoes which were a little bit different from how it is made in Ghana. In Ghana, the potatoes are cut into large sizes and also they are sweet potatoes. Plantains are salted unlike in Burkina where no or very little salt is added.
I could speak some French to get by so it wasn’t so difficult blending in. My Hotel room was quite big as I had a living room and a bedroom. I tried to watch some of the programmes on the TV and comprehend but they were speaking the French a bit too fast for me and it was difficult catching up so I retired to bed looking forward to the next day.

Fespaco
by Anita Afonu

It´s another four days until I leave for Ouagadougou and I am quite excited. Attending FESPACO to me is almost like a pilgrimage for every African Filmmaker.

I have never been to FESPACO before because during the period that I could have gone, I was tied up with school work and so couldn’t make the time for it. Now, the opportunity has come for me and I am really looking forward to it. The Moving Africa platform essentially is a platform for artists such as myself to meet other artists from the continent, meet and share ideas.

I am looking forward to meeting other young filmmakers, watching some good films and most of all experiencing a different culture. I think that experiences of that nature broaden one’s general understanding and perception of life and also inspire new ideas for new films.