South Africa : "Dear Mandela" - South African Documentary

http://www.dearmandela.com/?q=node/1


When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three ‘young lions’ of South Africa’s new generation rise from the shacks and take their government to the highest court in the land, putting the promises of democracy to the test.
WINNER - GRAND JURY PRIZE, Brooklyn Film Festival

WINNER - BEST DOCUMENTARY, Brooklyn Film Festival

WINNER - BEST SOUTH AFRICAN DOCUMENTARY, Durban Int. Film Festival

WINNER - GOLDEN BUTTERFLY, Movies That Matter Festival

WINNER - BEST DOCUMENTARY, Montreal International Black Film Festival

NOMINEE - BEST DOCUMENTARY, Africa Movie Academy Awards

"STIRRING, evocatively shot, lucidly edited... deserves wider distribution." - Variety
"A BEAUTIFUL and INSIGHTFUL portrait." - Africa Is A Country

"GRIPPING...a call to action as much as it is an indictment of a govern
ment that has lost its way" - Charl Blignaut, City Press
"ENTHRALLING" - Mahala Magazine

"Leaves us with questions few have dared to ask about the new South Africa" - Marie Huchzermeyer, author of Cities With 'Slums'
 
FACTS
“We are all agreed that there is a serious crisis in our country. We are being forced off our land and out of our cities. For too long, we have been subject to evictions from our homes. For too long, the promise of housing has been downgraded to forced removal to a transit camp. These transit camps are more like prisons.” – Abahlali baseMjondolo statement of demands, March 2011

The number of informal settlements in South Africa has grown from 300 in 1994 to 2600 in 2011. The housing backlog has grown from 1.5-million in 1994 and now stands at approximately 2.1-million. That means approximately 12-million South Africans are still in need of better shelter.

The world’s slums are growing, too, with the number people living in such dire conditions now at the 1 billion mark – making up 32 per cent of the global urban population, according to UN-HABITAT’s new Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. The world will see this figure double in the next 30 years unless a concerted effort is undertaken to alleviate the situation.

UN-Habitat reports that around 2 million people, most of them slum-dwellers, are forcibly evicted every year. The effects of forced evictions on slum-dwellers are often disastrous, leaving them homeless and forcing them deeper into poverty.http://www.dearmandela.com/?q=node/1
 
http://www.dearmandela.com/?q=node/1

If you'd like to learn more about shack dweller struggles in South Africa and the social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, please visit their online library. It is vast treasure of resources not only about the movement, but also about other movements around the world.
http://www.abahlali.org/node/237

ARTICLES:
The Struggle is a School: The Rise of a Shack Dwellers’ Movement in Durban, South Africa
by Richard Pithouse
http://monthlyreview.org/2006/02/01/struggle-is-a-school-the-rise-of-a-s...

BOOKS:
Fanonian Practices in South Africa: From Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo
by Nigel Gibson
http://www.amazon.com/Fanonian-Practices-South-Africa-baseMjondolo/dp/02...

Cities with 'Slums': From informal settlement eradication to a right to the city in Africa
by Marie Huchzermeyer
https://www.kalahari.com/checkout/digitaldownloads/Cities-with-Slums/755...
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top