Profits And Planet Destruction
Saworoide, a
Yoruba film by Tunde Kelani obliterates the fallacy that economic development
or urbanisation leads to a better life.
It does, for a few rich people who buy shares on credit, so
that a company can go to Africa, Australia or Brazil to dig up gold, diamonds,
platinum or suck up oil from the bottom of the sea. Modern day African politicians are also in
the game because they regularly promise to bring development after elections.
In the movie, loggers bribe the king and chiefs but are
still not satisfied because they cannot cut down trees in the sacred forest. The king also gave them the licence on
condition that they plant trees after the logging. Loggers complain that such restrictions cut
down their profit.Saworoide is like an octopus. It has many tentacles. The most important one is the symbiotic relationship between humans and the land. One of the characters tells the king that logging has hurt his honey business because bees are gone.
Humans and animals, be it
wild life or sea creatures complement one other. Women in Africa do not cut
down trees. They collect branches that
nature has released from active duty.
Active trees provide shade, playground for kids and lovers who sit on the
thick roots, a thousand years old.
Local people who lived
around one forest in South Africa were mad when it was made a no-go area so
that tourists could come and take pictures of beautiful birds. This is testament to what locals had done for
centuries, left wildlife in peace. They
only went to the woods to collect firewood, water, honey and herbs.The umbilical cord between humans and the land is the reason why Europe called Africa backwards. Nature provided everything, materials to build homes, furniture, utensils, toys for kids, teaching material for kids and recycling methods.
Economic development,
financed by banks on credit, cut those ties engineered by nature, the one and
only scientist. The film Saworoide clearly shows that profits do
not recycle, they abstract from nature. Tractors, blasting equipment, oil rigs
are crash and burn. Local people clean
up when capitalists leave because oil or diamond production is no longer
‘economically viable.’
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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