Land & Environment

Throughout Africa, oil has correlated with imperial subjugation, local authoritarianism and flagrant human rights abuses. It is now no longer in doubt that there are absolutely no guarantees that extractive activities are safe. One accident could jeopardise an entire ecosystem.

The issue of ‘blood diamonds’ has once again made the news: Farai Maguwu, director of Zimbabwe’s Mutare-based Centre for Research and Development (CRD), languishes under the long arm of Zimbabwe’s law, on alleged charges related to his research on Zimbabwe’s Marange mines.

Filmmakers are key agents in keeping a watchful eye on not just on social and political issues but on environmental abuse that often slips unobtrusively into our daily lives.