Films > Africa Calling
Africa Calling
Africa Calling is a series of eight short films carrying messages direct from ordinary Africans to the G8 leaders who met in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July 2005 to debate aid, trade and debt redemption for developing countries in the context of the MDG 8 'global partnership for development' . Filmed by four of TVE's African Partners - from Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone - the series was broadcast in the week leading up to the Gleneagles on Channel 4 in the UK and on television channels across Africa.
The eight vignettes provided a platform for Africans to participate in the debate on the future of their continent. The films convey the realities of everyday Africa through a series of intimate portraits of individuals - Bola who runs a traditional catering company in Nigeria; Margaret, a Masai jewellery maker in Kenya, and Sulaiman, a Sierra Leonean farmer who lost his arm during the country's civil war. Each of them tells the G8 leaders then preparing to sign up to decisions affecting the lives of millions of Africans exactly what they - the real Africans - think.
Twenty-year-old Livvy lives in Namibia and is HIV positive. "I don't want your sympathy," she says. Instead, what Livvy wants is for world leaders to commit more resources to fight AIDS so that she, and millions like her, can have access life-saving drugs.
Abimbola runs a business manufacturing high quality lenses for spectacles in Lagos, Nigeria. Continuous power cuts, coupled with the lack of a reliable water supply, mean his equipment is always breaking down, making it difficult to keep his business competitive. He explains to the G8 leaders how cancelling the debts of his country would enable Nigeria to invest in improving its infrastructure to boost manufacturing industry.
Sulaiman is a gardener in Sierra Leone. He wants rich countries to stop selling arms to Africa. "Instead they should build roads, schools and medical facilities, and start thinking about the youth who are the future."
"Much of the debate on Africa around the G8 has focused on involving world leaders and members of the public outside the continent," said Jeff Dale, head of marketing at the UK development NGO Christian Aid which supported the project. "As Christian Aid, we are keen to ensure the real voices and opinions of people in poor countries are heard. Africa Calling gives the opportunity to help redress the balance."
Individual stories in the series were filmed by TVE's Partners:
Communicating for Change in Nigeria
Ace Communications in Kenya. Contact
For a more detailed description of the series and links to related sites, please visit africa calling.
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Partners
'The MDGs in Focus' was made in association with:
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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