Dan Banda, a veteran filmmaker and graduate student in Life Sciences Communication, will screen his latest film “A Road from Lubumbashi” on Wednesday, November 2nd, at The Marquee in Union South.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
7:00PM
Union South / The Marquee
1308 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI
According to Banda’s filmmaker statement:
For over 100 years, a wide spectrum of writers and social activists have called attention to the exploitation of resources and people in central Africa, referred to as the Congo Free State, the Belgium Congo, Zaire, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle to present day websites like Enough and Friends of the Congo, there has been a call for the general population of Western countries to take action to end what are commonly called “the crimes of the Congo.” These crimes include extraction of natural resources, war, slave labor, wide scale corruption, and disease. But, each new generation of users of Congolese resources (people, ivory, rubber, and minerals) seem to suffer from a mass amnesia when linking their consumerism with the continuous exploitation of the Congolese. Today more than ever this is true as technology toys have become king. A Road From Lubumbashi tells the story of our connection to the Congo, brings voice to the Congolese as equal partners in this issue, and provides an idea which consumers and creators of technology can play an active role in reducing the crimes of the Congo.
The event is sponsored by the African Studies Program and the Wisconsin Union Directorate. It is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the African Studies Program website.