Dear Mandela – UK premiere
When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three ‘young lions’ rise from the shacks
To celebrate Africa Day this week, DocHouse at the Rich Mix presents the UK Premiere of Dear Mandela – winner of “Best South African Documentary” at the Durban International Film Festival 2011 – followed by a Q&A with Iain Bryne (Amnesty International) & Caroline Elliot (War on Want).
Much has changed in South Africa since Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and the shackles of the apartheid were broken. Democracy was introduced to the country in 1994, as Mandela was sworn in as president. However, despite groundbreaking work and ongoing suppression of racial division, there remains segregation, not between black and white but between rich and poor.
This inspiring documentary gives us a view from within the shantytown settlements –set up for the black population during apartheid – focusing on Durban shantytown youths, who in their indignation for the lack of government support found their political voice, forming the Abahlali baseMjondolo.
Mnikelo, who is the spokesman of the Abahlali shack-dwellers movement, regularly responds to calls from other residents in the slums. He has read up on the constitution to be aware of what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour from the government officials and police, forcing them to be accountable.
The President of Abahlali, S’Bu Zikode, has been a resident of Kennedy Road Settlement (movement headquarters) for 13 years. In a stirring speech he tells a crowd, “In 1982 the white men came and bulldozed our land. The current government is new, but there is residue from the old remaining. This is my home and is all I can afford. How can they come along and destroy it, leave me homeless in my own country, by the constitution that is supposed to protect me?” The movement has done the homework to back up the spirit of the poor, who have had enough of being ignored or mistreated.
We get anecdotes as well as a clear vision of their struggle and one member describes shack life with no electricity and sharing water with the animals, while at the same time assisting with food distribution and looking after orphans. The youngsters of the slums are ambitious and want what those who live close-by in the urban centre have and don’t see why they can’t expect parity, or at least a fair deal. There are also alarming statistics, like one schoolboy saying that in some areas there is just one tap to be shared between 7000 people and no proper roads for ambulances, so people die every day due to poor living standards and negligence of the government to address these problems.
The ANC helped end apartheid and have been in power ever since, but many feel the party are awash with unfulfilled promises in relation to numbers of houses to be built for the poor. One disillusioned youth is shown inserting a sheet into a ballot box containing the words, “No land, no house, no vote”.
Anger is further fuelled by the Slums Act of 2008, a legislation giving landowners the power to evict those who have built shacks within the shantytowns, labelled “informal settlements”. The movement argues that the constitution says, “No legislation can allow arbitrary evictions”. They have extensively research and studied the Slums Act, sentence by sentence, to fight it “on the streets and in court.”
The government does get a say too in Dear Mandela and one speaker reiterates that the settlements are “transitional”. However, some families have been on housing waiting lists since 1994, so clearly not enough has been done and transit camps have made residents feel like prisoners. The Abahlali group has taken the unified frustration of the poor and translated it into an intelligent, honourable attack on the government, armed with informed arguments rather than simply fervent noise and force.
Dear Mandela (15)
Directed by Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza
Running time: 90 minutes
Dear Mandela +Q&A session
Thursday 24 May at 8pm
Rich Mix
35-47 Bethnal Green Road
E1 6LA
Tickets: £7 or £5 students/concessions
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