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INSIDE AFRICA
Africa: The Untold Stories
Aired August 11, 2007 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FEMI OKE, HOST: Hello, I'm Femi Oke, and this is INSIDE AFRICA, your weekly look at life and issues on the continent. This week, we're traveling far and wide to get a view of African life not usually seen -- whether unusual, extraordinary or endangered. These people's lives rarely make the news, and yet their stories are really worth telling.
We begin in the Central African Republic, where Aka Pigmies have wandered the forests undisturbed for thousands of years. Now, their home threatened by deforestation, the Pygmies are forced to move. But as Nick Patton Walsh reports, they're finding very little welcome or support in the outside world.
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NICK PATTON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the sweltering heat of Central Africa, the forest is disappearing and taking its people with it. Its bounty has sustained life for centuries, but logging is changing that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello!
WALSH: These are the Aka Pygmies, indigenous to this forest, but today forgotten, blighted by malaria, eye infections, even leprosy. Children's stomach swollen because of worms, they live on the edge of society.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The forest is their natural environment, their habitat, but now, with the deforestation, the forest is not offering them (inaudible). They're pushing to the villages, closer to the villages, and this means that the contact (ph) with village people, it's almost (inaudible) very difficult.
WALSH: As we visit their group of huts, a new settlement carved into the forest, it's not hard to work out why these full-grown men could face discrimination.
These Aka Pygmies used to live deeper inside the forest, but deforestation has meant they had to move to this new community. Traditionally, 10 or 12 people would live in a house of this size, but because the forest around them is shrinking fast, there's less and less space for them to live.
The village chief complains they're treated a bit like slave labor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The people of the village use us to work in the fields. They don't give us the pay they owe us, so we can't go to the market to get what we need.
WALSH: As we're filming, this man arrives. He seems to think he somehow owns the pygmies, as he found them in the forest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If they work for people, they get paid, but I don't pay them. If they ask, I give them cigarettes or drink.
NICK PATON WALSH: But logging means their lives could get still worse. A report said a third of this region's forest is marked for logging, and only a tenth protected. Wood -- yet another resource being fought over in Africa.
The unique culture of the Aka Pygmies under threat, this industry cut into the habitat, the United Nations thinks there are 60,000 of them in this region, four times the tally the government give. Their future, perhaps one in which they risk becoming a shadow on the landscape.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: That was Nick Patton Walsh reporting from the Central African Republic.
We head west now to Burkina Faso, for a look at another traditional African society. During the Middle Ages, the Mossi Kingdom was one of the most powerful kingdoms in the whole of Africa. Today, the Mossi still represent the largest of Burkina Faso's ethnic groups. I went to find out what life is like for the Mossi in the 21st century. And I discovered that, unlike the Aka Pygmies, Mossi culture is still thriving.
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OKE: In the 16th century, fearsome warriors rode in on horses from the north, and conquered the people of Burkina Faso. Now, their descendants ride bicycles, but the Mossi society they created five centuries ago remains virtually unchanged.
GREGOIRE KIMETORE, STUDENT: And it's because the Mossi people is a warrior people.
OKE: Gregoire Kimetore is a student and my cultural guide for the day. The best way to find out about the Mossi, he suggests, is to visit his family village in Toeghin.
Sitting in his uncle's compound, Gregoire tells me what it means for him to be part of the most powerful tribe in Burkina Faso.
KIMETORE: Because I'm (inaudible), we are, you know, consider us the most important people.
OKE (on camera): The other people? Do they like you?
KIMETORE: Of course.
OKE: Who aren't Mossi?
KIMETORE: There is no problem. There is no problem.
OKE: Yes, because you're Mossi.
(voice over): While we chat, Uncle Simon (ph) returns home. As the oldest male in the family, he's greeted with great respect.
KIMETORE: I have my uncle, he's the head of the family. Even my father is under his power, if I can say so. So, all the other persons, his little brothers and his children and his wife and other persons, are submitted to him.
OKE: Hwati (ph) is Simon's second wife. His first and third wife have passed away. So Hwati juggles baby Benedict (ph), a house full of children, and doing chores. The work earns her little respect. Children and women are at the bottom of Mossi society.
KIMETORE: Women have no power in our society. His wife, she's considered like (inaudible) to children. The husband is a kind of a king and she's a kind of slave, a little bit.
OKE: By the time Raymond (ph) sits down to entertain us with a story, I've just about worked out who is who. Raymond, Benedict, Fron (ph) and Pendo (ph) are all Hwati's children. Herbert (ph) is a cousin. Seline (ph), in a blue and yellow dress, is the daughter of Simon's third wife. But, really, it does not matter. Everybody is family.
This is Gregoire's uncle's compound, and (inaudible) close together. Simon, who is the elder, he lives (ph) here, right in the center. The first wife's house is just here, and the next site is the second wife's house. And as the third wife -- I hope you're keeping up with me -- is the niece of the first wife, they have a slightly bigger house and they used to live here together.
OKE: To be part of the Mossi means that you have a specific role and place in life. It's a daunting concept for an outsider, but just before I was leaving, Uncle Simon surprised me with a gesture that made me feel like an old family friend. He presented me with a white chicken as a sign of great friendship.
KIMETORE: He said, this is -- I have nothing to give you -- to give to you. This is my gift to you, this is my present to you. Yeah.
OKE: That's amazing. How do I say thank you in More?
KIMETORE: Baraka (ph).
OKE: Baraka.
KIMETORE: And he say -- you are welcome. You're welcome.
OKE (voice over): It was the best present I've ever had. A beautiful white chicken, from a man who has so little. Now I truly know what it means to be Mossi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: So I know what you're thinking. You're all wondering what I did with the chicken. Well, as I was staying in a Ouagadougou hotel, I can't exactly bring the chicken home with me, so I left it in the village. But next time, I'll bring my portable cooking pot with me.
When we come back, we head to South Africa to see how some families are living with the dead. Details coming up. See you soon.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nigeria's Arik Air has struck a deal with Boeing, in an attempt to boost Nigeria's aviation sector. The company has ordered 15 brand new aircraft at the cost of $1.7 billion. Among the aircraft is Boeing's three Dreamliner luxury aircraft. Boeing will supply the aircraft to Nigeria between 2008 and 2010.
Kenya's government is reporting a 6.3 percent growth for this quarter. Agriculture, manufacturing, hotels, restaurants and the financial sector are among the key sectors of the country's economy. The overall inflation rate also fell from nearly 18 to 7.5 percent, and is expected to continue to decline as food prices and interest rates drop.
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OKE: Good to see you again. You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Today, we're exploring some of the more unusual stories from across the continent.
This next one takes to South Africa. When apartheid ended, one of the biggest challenges was to provide decent housing for millions of black South Africans living in squalor. Thirteen years later, progress has been made, but even the government estimates there are at least 2 million people waiting to be re-housed, and many are living in miserable conditions. I visited one community where the residents are literally living with the dead.
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OKE: It's early morning at Johannesburg's Slovoville cemetery. Yet among the neatly dug graves, signs of life. Preletsi (ph), age 8, and his big brother Moreletsi (ph), who is 12, look smart in their school uniforms. They set out for their one-hour walk to school, carefully dodging the open graves. A little community where they live is just waking up. Water is collected, and the dirt from the graves have been constantly swept away.
LUNGISWA LUMKO, CEMETERY RESIDENT (through translator): We don't have any water facilities, and we actually struggling, because we don't have toilets, running water, or anything that might help us.
OKE: Originally, Slovoville cemetery was a farm, but when the land was sold, the new owner inherited the residents. The residents live on a small section, and the rest is a working cemetery.
The shortage of affordable housing in South Africa means that people must make homes anywhere, including cemeteries.
OKE: Officially, they're known as informal settlements, but the people who live here call them shacks.
Paulinah has just sent her two sons off the school. Somehow she manages to fit the two boys, a 3-year old, an eight-month-old baby and her husband into this shack.
PAULINAH MOKONA, CEMETERY RESIDENT: Everybody is sleeping here.
OKE (on camera): The three boys ...
MOKONA:: Three boys, yeah, three boys.
OKE: Do they fight?
(voice-over): But it's not until I walk down to the outside toilet, that I see the reality of not having running water.
(on camera): I can smell the toilet from here. This is the toilet.
(voice over): After I take in the stench and the flies, I meet Paulinah's landlord. Jan Pretorius owns the Slovoville cemetery.
JAN PRETORIUS, BUSINESSMAN: I know they're living in not good situation. But I didn't ask them to squat here. So they must - we all work together. So far, there was no fights or anything. We're trying to help.
OKE: Mr. Pretorius' help includes not charging rent and try to register his unwelcome guests for council housing. He's also going to court to get the squatters legally moved, so now the council is forced to find the new homes. But for the council, housing people who live in a cemetery is not a priority.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, there are many people in informal settlements, in informal structures that are in far worse conditions than what they find themselves in. And there's a - there's a priority list. (inaudible).
OKE: But back at the cemetery, Mamakiti Kiloti (ph), who's disabled, is desperate to move now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): All that I'm looking for is a house, nothing but a house that a normal person can live in.
OKE: The Soweto Council says that realistically, the cemetery residents are going to have to wait up to two years to be re-housed. For Mamakiti and her neighbors, that's two more years of living with the dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: Just an update on my story. Since I filed it, the Soweto Council has now started to build a wall so the residents will be separated from the graves.
Housing is not the only thing that can present a problem for Soweto citizens. Making a living could be equally challenging. And while roaming through rubbish is clearly not the most healthy way to make a living, some people are doing it. We caught up with Danish author and artist David Udbjoerg. David has photographed rubbish dumps around the world and is currently working on a book about life in dumps across Africa. He talked to us about his work in Soweto.
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DAVID UDBJOERG, AUTHOR, ARTIST: My main interest is actually the people on the garbage dump. Some people are collecting old cans, and other people are collecting rags. It's a lot of people. I mean, the latest (inaudible) was in Pretoria, and this one is a very huge one. It has like 300 people working there daily.
I don't see anything scary when I'm looking at or walking around on the garbage dump. But when I get home and take a closer look at the photos, I often find some very interesting things. Like I can see that some of the people are actually -- been hiding inside the garbage, and I can the hands sticking out of the garbage.
This trash man is a serious guy, because he is the one who is stealing the trash from the rich and bringing it to the poor. And he's the one who's -- will be helping them all. I see this as a cartoon figure. Of course, it's not a cartoon figure; he's a real figure. But he could be a cartoon figure, just like Superman or Batman, but this is the Trashman.
Many of the people actually have very nice clothing on. I mean, it's not poverty in a dilapidated way.
I hope that people will look at these kind of jobs in a different way. And growing awareness about the -- the money, which is actually a part of the garbage.
It makes me so happy to see that -- that money has absolutely nothing to do with happiness. So that one, I really take that one to my heart, to see that these people, who have a very tough life, are actually having a happy life as well.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: There's more to come on INSIDE AFRICA. Just ahead ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She had a skin that was described later in newspapers as honey and taffy and tawny. And very exuberantly African curly hair. But because her parents were white, she was classified as white.
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OKE: Born black into a white family. During South Africa's Apartheid era, the story of one woman's struggle for identity and freedom. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OKE: Here's a look at some of the headlines on the continent this week: Ethiopia's 3 million-year old female hominid Lucy is setting of for a six-year United States tour. This is the first time the world-famous Lucy has left Ethiopia, apart from a brief scientific trip to the U.S. following her discovery more than 30 years ago. Critics say they are concerned that the delicate fossil is too fragile to travel. Lucy is thought to be the earliest hominid ever discovered.
And Nigerian health officials warned that flooding from last week's heavy rains have created a breeding ground for disease. Rains caused rivers to overflow into the capital, Lagos, sweeping away homes and shops. At least nine people are dead, many others are missing, and thousands have been left homeless.
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BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sierra Leone is making history yet again, but this time by way of its second presidential election since emerging from a bloody civil war. And what's truly remarkable is how thousands who had their hands cut off by rebels in that war are voting this time around, and are doing so with their toes. And what that does is it speaks to the dedication that this country is giving to the political process.
Some 2.6 million people are registered for vote. That's 90 percent of the eligible population. And people are no longer fearful like they were back in 2002 in the election that took place then. Instead, they're pouring into the streets, singing and dancing, holding peaceful political rallies.
But still, though, there's much to be done in this country. Poverty is at an all-time high. In fact, Sierra Leone is the world's second poorest country. Unemployment is at 70 percent. There's a lot of things that still need to be fixed in this country, and critics will argue that some of the problems that fueled the civil war still exist today.
But until those can be addressed, the people of Sierra Leone are truly excited about this election. They are ready to go to the polls. And what they want to do is show the world that they're moving past that bloody past, and they're really focusing on the future.
Betty Nguyen, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: Hello again. Sandra Laing was born a black child to white parents by what was said to be an unusual act of nature. It was a reality that, during South Africa's apartheid era, that would haunt and change a life of an entire family. We caught up with author Judith Stone, who told Sandra's extraordinary story in the book "When She Was White."
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JUDITH STONE, AUTHOR: Sandra as a child was a symbol of the cruelty and lunacy and arbitrariness of apartheid.
Sandra herself looked like a mixed-race person, what was called "colored" in those days, but because her parents were white, she was classified as white.
When she was 10, the police appeared at school, and she was asked to go with them, and her parents were told that she was no longer white, that she had been officially reclassified as a colored person.
The two key criteria for determining race were appearance and acceptance. Her nostrils might be measured, she might be subjected to what was called the pencil test. The person would have a pencil stuck in his or her hair. If the pencil stuck, the person was declared to be black. If the pencil slipped forward, the person was declared to be colored.
But when she was 15, she eloped with a black man, and her life changed dramatically yet again. Her father threatened to kill her and that man she eloped with, and himself. She never saw him again. The family disowned her. She was welcomed into her black common-law husband's family, and her mother-in-law became a real source of love and support.
In the year 2000, Sandra was reunited with her white mother after a 27-year estrangement.
Sandra wanted really three things from life. She wanted a happy family. She wanted a home that was her own, a safe home that was her own, and she wanted a garden. Under apartheid, those simple things were not available to her. But she has fought to get those things, and she has them now. Sandra got a chance to tell her story as she saw it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: Thank you for watching. I can't believe the show's over so soon. That's it for this week, but I hope you'll join us again for another edition of INSIDE AFRICA next weekend. Please let INSIDE AFRICA be your window to the continent.
I'm Femi Oke. Take care.
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