“I hold the world the world as but a stage Bassanio. Where every man has a part to play, and mine a sad one”
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

It is no accident that I begin this entry by quoting Old Bill. The play from which this extract is derived is the inspiration behind my entry today. You can call this my own little contribution to our grand theme Visionary Histories. Now, now, you may calm down, I will let you know where I am going with all this in due time but allow me to digress a minute.

In this play there is a special character called Portia who is one of Shakespeare’s most quoted characters of his works. There is a scene in where event take a bizarre turn in a court case when Portia gives an eloquent speech on the nature of mercy that has been quoted for eons by lawyers, activists and big orators;
The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of Kings;
But mercy is above this sceptre sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts in the hearts of Kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show like God’s
When mercy seasons justice

The enormity of thought in this speech has had had the literary world bedazzled over Old Bill’s wisdom and apprehension of human nature, but today, I saw these very qualities replicated in a movie script by an African. As an avid Afrocentric, I was filled with great pride at the glorious scripting in an extract where the writer brings age old traditional concepts alive in a character that is parallel to Shakespeare’s Portia.

Done by Charles Shemu Joyah from Malawi, "Seasons of Life" is a gripping tale about a housemaid impregnated by her employer who returns six years later to take the chap to court and claim back her son. The custody hearing is nasty in typical fashion but when the lawyers give their sum up arguments, the character Tabitha, who is Counsel for the appellant (the girl) delivers a great speech on the nature of a mother’s love.

I can literally hear the sighs and grunts from the audience which is moved by this emotive speech and behind a gentleman keeps muttering in amazement, “wow......wow......wow, what a script” (side note: it is fun watching a good movie with people who know what makes it great!) when the movie ends, there is an instant unanimous thunderous clap and if the writer were there, he/she would no doubt have received a standing ovation. This speech deserves a place in the hallways of history along with that famous biblical extract on the quality of love and it should be remembered that it was written by an African.

I have asked Amakula to publish the teletype of that particular extract and I hope they do so that you can compare it with the Portia speech quoted above. Enough said!

The sun rises in Africa, and never sets.......
There was a common saying in colonial times that the Sun never set in the British Empire. It was a British brag about the size of their empire which they tried to perpetuate by superimposing their ways so as too create that homogeneity with the homeland that enabled them to build the Commonwealth.

This evening I came face to face with déjà vu when I watched the Zambian movie "Suwi" by Catherine Musola Kaseketi. I could have sworn on my ancestors and offered my head as proof that film was Ugandan had the language not been utterly foreign. The infrastructure, the culture, the people, the issues affecting them.....were so reminiscent of what is happening here and I was amazed. I looked back at all the movies I have watched this season and realised that through out Africa, with all our different languages and histories, we are all the same. Suddenly I mused to myself, why then are always fighting each other????

Wedding Blues
Seldom have I watched a movie and laughed as much as I did when I watched Jann Turner’s White Wedding. I could do a full review on this movie but for lack of space, idle rumbling will do. It is a hilarious piece set in South Africa about a man on a treacherous road trip from Jo’burg to Cape Town to marry his pretty fiancé but from the onset, nothing goes right! It was a hearty laughing 93 minutes that we watched this movie and when the closing credits rose, it was pleasant to see everyone lit up with amiability.

Point of reckon; our cinemas are cheating us if they cannot show movies as these. Over the course of this festival I have seen many a movie cinemagoers would love to watch. My two cents are that festival organisation should work fastidiously to bring local cinemas like Cineplex on board because it does not help for us to come here watch these movies, pat each other and stop at that while African movies still have no slots on our Cinema schedule.

And now back to Shakespeare
In the quotation that I started this entry with, Shakespeare declares the world a stage where everyman has a part to play. As I watched many of these films and attended all these discussions, I have been reflecting over the season theme Visionary Histories. It sounds very pleasant to the ear but what does it mean in earnest to us?

Some of the films shown carried strong messages but others carried none at all. As we try to grow African cinema, what are we bringing to the table. Every stakeholder has a role to play but at the end of it all, what will be the sum of the parts?

In my opinion, this industry’s past has been mauled by superficiality, plagiarism and lack of Afrocentricity. One thing I personally important is for us to look back into our selves and ask our selves this question, what of Africa is African cinema going to bring to the world, and to Africans?
*written by Edgar Kangere