[WSIS CS-Plenary] [Amarc-info] Community radio doc "The Ravaging of Africa" available for download

[Kristin Schwartz]

Dear community radio friends:

My name is Kristin Schwartz and I am a community radio producer from
Toronto, Canada. My colleague Asad Ismi is an award-winning writer on
international politics. Together we produced a radio a four-part radio
documentary series about the destructive impact of U.S. imperialism on
Africa, featuring voices of African activists interviewed at the 2007
World Social Forum held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Part 1, "Militarizing Africa" describes how the United States has fomented
the devastating war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as
taken part in and engineered the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.
Part 2, "Economic War" focuses on the World Bank's and IMF's decimation of
the economies and social sectors of Guinea, Zambia, Kenya and South
Africa. Part 3, "Corporate Plunder" details the disastrous effects of
Royal Dutch Shell's operations in Nigeria and those of Canada's Tiomin
Resources in Kenya. Also highlighted is the massive tax looting of Africa
by Western corporations.
Part 4, "African Resistance" celebrates the liberation of Southern Africa,
the defeat of U.S. aims in the Congo and Somalia, as well as the diverse
non-military struggles against U.S. domination that were represented at
the World Social Forum. Reviews of the documetary follow at the end of
this message.

The series will be broadcast in part on "Making Contact", the U.S.
National Radio Project's public affairs program heard on over 200 radio
stations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa and Ireland. In addition, 26
U.S. and Canadian radio stations have aired or committed to air the
documentary.

The series is available online for free download at these sites:
http://wsf.amarc.org/
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=23508
http://www.ncra.ca/exchange/dspProgramDetail.cfm?programID=57759

We are also willing to mail CD copies to broadcasters who are unable to
download the files.

Please consider broadcasting this series on your station. We want to share
our work with you and allow the voices of the impressive and dedicated
people we interviewed to be heard throughout the continent.

In solidarity,

Kristin Schwartz

Reviews:

1. A must-hear documentary, especially for those entities (both in and
outside Africa) whose role it is to chart a sustainable course for the
continent’s future. It’s also a powerful tool for those individuals and
groups that are actively involved in challenging the Western
bastardization of the African continent. This well-researched
documentary provides credible evidence of how the Western European nations
and the United States have for many years been devastating the African
continent through the plundering of its precious resources, as well as by
their continuing support for and instigations of military wars.  The
documentary successfully highlights some of the serious problems that
nations in Africa continue to face as they struggle
against the United States’ selfish determination to dominate their turf.
This documentary cannot be ignored by anyone who cares about Africa’s
economic, social, and political emancipation from the bondage of
neo-colonialism.
--Maria Mboono Nghidinwa, Ex-combatant of South West Africa People’s
Organization (SWAPO), the former liberation movement of Namibia. Ph.D.,
Mass Communication and Media Studies, Howard University, Washington D.C.
[SWAPO is presently the ruling political party in Namibia].

2. "A great project. 'The Ravaging of Africa' can be of enormous
educational importance in reinforcing African perceptions of the sources
of their current predicaments, and in educating those searching for ways
out of their present desperate straits.  Warm thanks for your efforts."
--Professor Dennis Brutus, Honorary Professor, Centre for Civil Society
University of Kwazulu-Natal Durban s.a.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Africana Studies, University of
Pittsburgh (U.S.).

3. "An excellent series that really gets to the heart of the matter and
lets you listen to those radical African voices you won't hear anywhere
else."
--Roberto Nieto, Media activist and radio-host, CKUT Radio 90.3 fm at
McGill University, Montreal.

4. "A fantastic series. We air tons of good programming, but "The
Ravaging of Africa" really stood out, because it tied together the various
ways Africa is impacted by the imperial project, something you usually
don't get in a single program or news report. I really
appreciated the rich production as well."
--Leigh Robartes, News Director, KRFP / Radio Free Moscow 92.5 fm, Moscow,
Idaho (U.S.)[Pacifica Radio Affiliate]

5. "Thanks for the excellent programming. So many Americans are unaware of
how people live and struggle in other parts of the world. This
program provides vital information about Africa and its people."
--Cathy Murillo, News and Public Affairs Director, KCSB  91.9 FM at
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA [Pacifica Radio Affiliate]

6. "'The Ravaging of Africa' is a compelling and timely new media
presentation of the over 500 years of the West's pillaging of Africa. The
body of work is firmly ensconced in the tradition of Walter Rodney's 'How
Europe Underdeveloped  Africa' and Patrick Bond's 'The Looting of Africa'.
 'The Ravaging of Africa' deserves the widest possible
distribution as it does a tremendous job of sharing with the public a
critical prism through which Africa's relations with the West ought to be
viewed and analysed.
--Maurice Carney, Executive Director, Friends of the Congo (U.S.),
www.friendsofthecongo.org/index.php

7. "The unprecedented affluence we enjoy in the Global North is directly
dependent on the violent plunder of resource-rich nations across the
Global South -- particularly the nations of Africa. 'The Ravaging of
Africa' provides both the historical overview and the illuminating details
we need to make sense of this crime-in-progress, and gives prominent place
to the voices of front-line African activists leading the resistance."
--Dave Oswald Mitchell, Editor of Briarpatch Magazine



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