Harlem Screening Mist — “Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense”

LesPayne

Les Payne

Madiba in Harlem at MIST Presents April 12 Documentary Screening & Talk “CONCERNING VIOLENCE” on African Liberation from Colonialism in 1960s-1970s

Documentary Screening: Madiba in Harlem at MIST
 
Acclaimed Documentary on African Liberation from Colonialism in 1960s-70s
 

The historic struggle for African independence against colonialism during the 1960s and 1970s is captured in director Goran Hugo Olsson’s award-winning documentary “Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense,” which is featured in a special screening, talk and reception at Madiba Harlem at Mist, 46 West 116th Street on Sunday, April 12 from 3:00pm-6:00pm.

Concerning Violence is narrated by singer Lauryn Hill, who recently performed at a solo sold-out concert at Madiba Harlem at Mist in March. 

There will be a post-film discussion moderated by Wuyi Jacobs, host of WBAI-FM’s AfrobeatRadio, with Pulitzer Prize Award winning journalist Les Payne, Columbia University anthropologist David Scott and December 12th Movement representative Omowale Clay.

Zimbabwean singer Tanyaradzwa “Tanya” Tawengwa will perform original songs from the liberation.

Inspired by Frantz Fanon’s book The Wretched of the Earth, Olsson (The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975) spotlights recently discovered 16mm archive footage filmed  by Swedish filmmakers that looks  at Africa’s struggle for liberation against imperialism in Southern African nations like Angola and Mozambique. There are scenes with guerilla soldiers of FRELIMO and a nighttime raid in Angola. In addition, there are interviews with independence leaders like Thomas Sankara, known as Africa’s Che Guevara and who later became the president of Burkina Faso.

Concerning Violence challenges the audience to question both contemporary and historic motives for violence.  It looks at First World countries ruling and dictating over a seemingly helpless Third World. The panelist and the moderator at the post-screening talk all bring firsthand knowledge of past and present violence in the struggle for freedom in Southern Africa. Payne’s reporting from Soweto during the uprising when the US was not supporting the struggle for independence, provided critical insights that informed and changed minds in the U.S.

Clay, a veteran representative December 12th Movement, has been part of a continuing voice of opposition to the US embargo on Zimbabwe and the violence and suffering the embargo imposes the country’s ordinary citizens. Wuyi Jacobs, host and producer of Afro Beat Radio heard on WBAI-FM, is the most respected radio broadcast voice reporting on African politics and culture. David Scott, professor of anthropology at Columbia University, who is a noted expert on Frantz Fanon and colonialism. 

“‘Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.’ This is a quote from Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth which has challenged oppressed people to demand of themselves a relentless struggle to liberate themselves,” points out Clay, from December 12th Movement. “Concerning Violence reminds us that the liberating violence of the anti-colonial struggles of the 1960’s and 70’s cost many lives. This demands that the new societies being built are “new” and must not duplicate the culture, economies and reactionary violence of colonialism.”

Following the program, recent Princeton graduate Tanyaradzwa “Tanya” Tawengwa, whose family lived through the resistance against colonialism in Zimbabwe, will perform her renditions of Zimbabwean songs from the struggle at Madiba Harlem for those with dinner reservations.

Concerning Violence is presented by Madiba Harlem at MIST, Black Out for Human Rights and Creatively Speaking. Admission is $10.00 (screening and wine/2 beers) or $25.00 (screening and dinner).

For tickets and information phone 212.828.MIST or www.madibaharlem.com

 

 

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