Africa Is a Country

Regular people and the international justice system

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Regular people and the international justice system

By
Boima Tucker

Images and stories of people being violated still seem to dominate global perceptions of Sierra Leone. Two new films want to undercut that image.

A still from "Fambul Tok."

Sierra Leone is a country that still struggles to get fair representation in international media. Recent headlines have circled around the Special Court of Sierra Leone and the trial of former warlord and then President Charles Taylor. The court itself received some critical analysis recently in the form of the documentary “War Don Don.” One question that came out of that film is whether the repercussions of the court could be felt on the ground, and in every day life. What I remember most about the court from my 2006 visit to Freetown was that it was the only place in town with constant electricity.

In contrast to the ambivalence that swirls around the Special Court, I was delighted to see the film “Fambul Tok,” directed by John Caulker and Libby Hoffman, and its positive news of a grassroots reconciliation process in the country. This is a must see film for anyone interested in post-conflict healing, truth and reconciliation, or the effects on regular people of the international justice system.

War ethnographer Carolyn Nordstrom in her book A Different Kind of War Story talks about the creativity of war victims in the face of violence to rebuild and create a new future. “Fambul Tok” shows that creativity of a community to create peace in action. Victims and perpetrators sometimes from the same family reestablish ties, and work together to restore interrupted traditions and cultural norms. The process is taken up enthusiastically partly because reconciliation is already a part of the culture in Sierra Leone.

In some ways, “Fambul Tok” is part of Sierra Leone’s reconciliation with the world, as images and stories of people being violated still seem to dominate global perceptions of the country. For Fambul Tok to document and share this process is almost a message of forgiveness to the world at large for barely paying attention during the war years. The two films “War Don Don” and “Fambul Tok” definitely work in conjunction to provide insightful glimpses into the society’s rebuilding process over the last 10 years. The world today could definitely learn some much needed lessons from the people of Sierra Leone.

Further Reading

The battle over the frame

As Hollywood recycles pro-war propaganda for Gen Z, Youssef Chahine’s ‘Djamila, the Algerian’ reminds us that anti-colonial cinema once turned imperial film language against its makers—and still can.

Fictions of freedom

K. Sello Duiker’s ‘The Quiet Violence of Dreams’ still haunts Cape Town, a city whose beauty masks its brutal exclusions. Two decades later, in the shadow of Amazon’s new development, its truths are more urgent than ever.

When things fall apart

Against a backdrop of global collapse, one exhibition used Chinua Achebe’s classic to hold space for voices from the Global South—and asked who gets to imagine the future.

The General sleeps

As former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari’s death is mourned with official reverence, a generation remembers the eight years that drove them out.

The grift tank

In Washington’s think tank ecosystem, Africa is treated as a low-stakes arena where performance substitutes for knowledge. The result: unqualified actors shaping policy on behalf of militarists, lobbyists, and frauds.

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.