African Studies

Examines apartheid as seen through the eyes of a young South African. It shows how the majority of South Africans, who are black, are denied basic human rights, and discusses UN initiatives against apartheid.

Examines the role of black resistance to apartheid in South Africa through a look at two of the nation's leading cultural activists and popular performers--poet Mzwakhe Mbuli and writer/ performer Gcina Mhlophe.

Examines Africa's smallest country, the Gambia, as one of only a few successful multi- party democracies on the continent. Award-winning African journalist Hilton Fyle surveys the social and economic reasons underlying this success, featuring interviews with President Jawara and other government leaders, foreign and domestic investors and businessmen, the EEC delegate to the Gambia, and the leader of the political opposition.

Examines the role of culture in the struggle for national liberation in South Africa by interspersing performances by the Amandla Cultural Ensemble with footage of the mass singing of resistance songs on the streets of South Africa and interviews with leading cultural workers of the African National Congress.

In 1975, the first Cuban soldiers went to Angola to help defend that newly independent government from invasion by South African troops. After nearly fourteen years of bitter conflict, the Angolan War ended, Namibia was established as an independent state, and Cuban and South African troops have returned home. Filmed on location in Angola, South Africa and Cuba, this documentary examines the politics of the war from both sides and features remarkable combat footage, archival material and interviews with Cuban and South African soldiers as well as grieving families of those who died in the war.

After twenty-three years of armed struggle against South African occupation forces, Namibia gained its independence in 1990. This video documents the challenges facing Namibians in rebuilding a nation dispossessed by a lifetime of colonial domination and devastated by decades of occupation.

Tells the story of the adoption of the South African Freedom Charter on June 26, 1955, when over 3,000 delegates from every corner of South Africa gathered at Kliptown, near Johannesburg, at the Congress of the People where the Charter, a blueprint for a future non-racial and democratic South Africa, was unanimously adopted.

Examines the human tragedy unfolding in Mozambique, Africa's poorest nation, where the civilian populace is not only threatened with full-scale famine but is also under siege from RENAMO, a bloody terrorist army supported by South Africa.

In 1980, following a fifteen-year-long guerilla struggle against the white-ruled government of Rhodesia and a negotiated cease fire, ZANU leader Robert Mugabe was elected Prime Minister of the newly independent nation of Zimbabwe. This documentary offers a historical overview of these events and examines the first ten years of independence, with a special focus on relations between white (minority) and black (majority) citizens.

Part of the No Easy Walk series, this video begins in March 1896 when the Ndebele people of what was then known as Rhodesia rose in armed rebellion against European settlers such as Cecil Rhodes, who had taken over much of their land in the search for gold and other minerals.

Part of the No Easy Walk series, this video traces the history of Kenya's opposition to white rule, from the arrival of the first settlers in the 19th century to the Mau-Mau rebellion in 1952, in which the struggle for land rights was central.

Part of the No Easy Walk series, this video begins with the Ethiopian victory over the Italians in 1896 at the Battle of Andowa, which confirmed Ethiopian independence to the European powers and paved the way for Emperor Menelik's modernization program.

This documentary reveals the repression of children by the apartheid regime in South Africa, where teenagers and children as young as seven years old are arrested on charges such as "intimidation" or "stone-throwing," jailed, tortured, and sometimes killed.

For nearly thirty years, in the longest ongoing war in Africa, the Eritrean people waged a bitter struggle against the occupying forces of the Ethiopian government, which were armed by the Soviet Union and Israel.

Examines the recent political history of Liberia, from the 1980 military coup led by Samuel Doe to the 1989 rebellion which ousted him from power and led to the Liberian civil war.

A docu-drama portraying the selection and lifelong education of an Inyanga, an African healer who dispenses traditional herbal remedies. The film examines the preparation and use of traditional medicines, the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and the metaphysics and cosmology of African beliefs regarding the powers of the Inyanga.

Examines the relationship between Francis Mcnam, a black domestic worker in Cape Town, and her white employers, the Silberman family, graphically illustrating the vast difference in the quality of life for blacks and whites in South Africa.

Examines the plight of tens of thousands of children in South Africa who, driven by poverty and dysfunctional family lives, struggle to live on city streets.

Features interviews with young people in South Africa, both white and black, who fought on opposing sides during the country's era of apartheid rule, from youthful cadres engaged in the liberation struggle and members of black township self-defense units engaged in guerrilla war, to the white conscripts in the South African Army's border war and young Afrikaners fearful of social change.

This video traces the undulating route of the River Niger throughout West Africa, from its source in the Republic of Guinea to Nigeria, and discusses how this majestic waterway, as an essential communications and transport link, has molded the history and culture of the region.