Kwa Heri Mandima (Goodbye Mandima) is a short film by the French-Dutch director Robert-Jan Lacombe doing multiple film festival rounds over the last year. Born in 1986 in Mandima, Robert-Jan — and his family — left Mandima, the village in northeast Congo (then still Zaire) ten years later. A short interview with the director (in French) can be found here. Thoughts?
The media blog that is not about famine, Bono, or Barack Obama. Contributors are: Sean Jacobs (he started AIAC), Brett Davidson, Gregory Mann, Will Glass, Neelika Jayawardane, Kathryn Mathers, Marissa Moorman, Lily Saint, Melissa Levin, Dan Moshenberg; Caitlin L. Chandler; Dylan Valley; Abdourahman Waberi; Boima Tucker, Anni Lyngskaer, Sophia Azeb, Tom Devriendt, Loren Lynch, Basia Lewandowska Cummings, Elliot Ross, Orlando Reade and Megan Eardley; Hinda Talhaoui; ‘kola (Bukola Jejeloye); and Mikko Kapanen. Pre-August 2009 posts are archived here.
i can relate to that
my parents were expatriates in SA, working for the set up of Koeberg nuke plant in the late 70s. I was 7 when I moved to Milnerton, Cape Town and 11 when I left back to France. it took some time to adjust. And I now live in Cape Town…
B
Wow. What an astonishing meditation on white privilege and war and the innocence of childhood. I’m speechless.
My Dutch grandmother left Cape Colony more than a century ago… In her nearly 97 years, she never quit speaking of Africa. I’ve visited her home town, the church she attended (still operating)… retraced her long journey up Africa’s west coast, spending time in twelve nations.
For my grandmother and Robert-Jan, Africa’s legacy is its people and the profound influence they had on their lives. For those that embraced Africa, its a story of love. “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.