WALKING WITH LIFE: THE BIRTH OF A HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN AFRICA
This is a clip of the official "launch" of the film on Sunday, April 11 at Sag Harbor's fabulous Bay Street Theatre. The theater was packed, the vibes incredible - due to the wonderful music of the BALAFON BAND, who played traditional Senegalese music - and the interest in the film was extremely high. Since then, I have been told all over town and wherever I go in the area that this documentary really opened people's eyes to several factors about Africa that they had not considered...eg women learning about the human right to health and working with their priests and menfolk to abandon the pre-Islamic custom of female genital cutting. Or the fact that people who are illiterate are not stupid and have their own forms of literacy - such as musical literacy - which should be recognized. Or the fact that an NGO can achieve extraordinary results by actually understanding the culture within which it works rather than trying to impose western ideas. To me, the most amazing discovery has been the parallels between Islamic law and human rights - which I believe is the reason that the Senegalese have so readily accepted human rights as a way of life, not just an abstract idea.