In the Fall of 1998 I took up a brief research fellowship in Cambridge, MA, and spent some time hanging out with Alexis Sinduhije, a Burundian journalist who had been on the fellowship program the year before. At the time, Alexis had decided to stay in the US, travel to the south and interview African Americans about their attitudes about Africa.
He came across as a jovial, but tough guy with strong views. Everybody it seemed liked him. So I am not surprised to find out that when he left Cambridge, he went onto bigger and better things:
In 2001 he started a private radio station in Burundi to foster peace between Tutsis and Hutus following a lengthy civil war and ethnic pogrom in the early 1990s that claimed more than 200,000 lives (these events happened at the same time as Rwanda, but hardly got the same level of press).
In 2008 Alexis was nominated as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. More recently he launched his own political party and challenge the candidate of Burundi’s political elite in next year’s presidential elections.
Not everybody liked that and since then he has been harassed, imprisoned and his life threatened. However, Sinduhije is still running. (Here, here and here are some background links about his electoral struggles.)
It’s that guile and courage that may be why a group of hip hop artists–among them, Alfaress, Infinite, Yardsteppa, Baay Musa and Diamondog–have made a mixtape about him.
Just listen:
Forklifts need to be driven under certain rules. If you want a box trailer for a specific reason such as this, you may be able to find something already designed for your needs.