Zuma needs to see is Sudan documentary

What would President Zuma say after seeing the uplifting, award-winning Sudanese documentary Beats of the Antonov, which had its South African premiere at the Durban International Film Festival this weekend?

After seeing and hearing the crimes Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir continues to inflict on his own people, he would rethink his decision to let him escape probable arrest last month during the AU Summit.

You can't help but see the similarities of oppression imposed on Sudanese people, as seen in this film, and the oppression inflicted by the system the ANC spent decades fighting.

hajooj kuka's documentary shines a light on the lives of Sudanese people living in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, who fought with the Southern Sudanese for a Sudan where all citizens are treated equally but now remain trapped in civil war in the North.

al-Bashir's National Congress Party have continuously restricted press freedoms for years, making it impossible for the Sudanese public or the international community to see the destruction their government has been inflicting on its own people.

Seeing Beats of the Antonov is the equivalent of seeing the crimes committed by the apartheid system in 1976 in Soweto for the first time.

The film draws you in with its beautiful scenes of music and resilience, where people are laughing, dancing, and singing to release the frustration and fear of living under daily aerial bombardments by al-Bashir's Sudanese Armed Forces.

kuka then takes you on a journey through Sudan's identity crisis, through the eyes and voices of people living through the war.

He puts a new spin on the conventional war film by showing the human element within a war, with reflections from the young and old who are civilians in this war.

al-Bashir's National Congress Party is forcing a specific Arab Islamic identity on all Sudanese people, which oppresses and marginalizes the indigenous African identities of most Sudanese cultures.

As CityPress wrote in their review, al-Bashir's quest for a purely Arab state leaves the other 156 cultural African groups unaccounted for. Bashir calls these people black sacks and vows to wipe them out.

Instead of supporting the man who murdered, displaced, raped and tortured hundreds of thousands of Africans, President Zuma and his allies were expected to show solidarity with the victims. That would have been a real African solution for an African problem'.

According to The Mail and Guardian, the ANC described the decision to aide al-Bashir's escape as choosing African unity over the law. What kind of African unity are they talking about? The thousands of people who fought and died in the struggle against the apartheid system in South African must have turned over in their graves after hearing that statement.

There was a glimmer of hope for the Sudanese people on 14 June when news broke that the Pretoria High Court issued a statement compelling respondents to prevent president Omar Al-Bashir from leaving the country until an order is made in this court.

Millions in Sudan followed the court proceedings with great appreciation for the fellow South African activists who filed the case.

For the first time since his 2009-2010 ICC arrest warrants were issued for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in connection with the conflicts in Darfur, there was recognition that he should be held to account for these crimes from a country that saw similar crimes during the apartheid system.

Beats of the Antonov opens up a new perspective on the current debate in both South Africa and Sudan about truth and justice from the best sources possible - the survivors of al-Bashir's crimes themselves.

The ANC and all the South African public must see Beats of the Antonov to question where Africa as a continent is heading if al-Bashir is allowed to commit these horrendous crimes with impunity and support from fellow African Heads of States, crimes that are reminiscent of those committed during the apartheid system.

Beats of the Antonov premiered on Saturday, 18 July 2015 at 6pm at Suncoast.

For more information, visit: http://www.durbanfilmfest.co.za/index.php/films/documentaries/item/536-b...

By Kenika Khamisa, an associate producer on Beats of the Antonov

This article first appeared in The Sunday Tribune

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