The Empire in Africa

There are many negative comments about the facts of this film. I watched it and I decided that what has transpired in Sierra Leone is almost typical the every wealthy former Colony.

The price of Independence for many countries in what we mockingly call "The Third World" has been corruption and tyranny. These nations may have their Independence, but the Colonial power's organisations have retained all of the rights to the most valuable property which they initially stole from the people.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's position of power reminds me somewhat of General Pinoche in Chile, The Shah in Iran, Marcos in the Phillipines and Saddam Hussein as leaders kept in power to serve foreign business interests.

The History of the last 200 years has told us that when poverty reaches a certain level, worker's Revolutions occur using Marxist ideologies to fuel the uprising. In the 80's these movements, such as the Sardinistas, where labelled as Communists and systematically reviled and suppressed by the Free Market Economies. Tyrants where kept in power to protect foreign businesses from Nationalisation.

Now in the face of uprising, all that can be agreed on is to hold Elections. If the Revolutionary party wins the election, the International Community will simply not recognise the government and label them a "Terrorist Organisation" (eg Hamas).

Free elections are pointless exercises.

I point to the 1953 Iranian coup d'état to illustrate my point. Here, a Democratically Elected government was removed from power by a US/UK backed coup when they revealed plans to nationalise the Iranian Oil Company (Better known as BP). The International Community then endorsed a Dictatorship which was in turn crushed in 1979 by a Shia Muslim Revolution.

This is a very familiar old story told in Africa instead of South America or The Middle East.

"The Empire in Africa" is a courageous examination of a tragic and complex topic, the civil war in Sierra Leone, its propaganda-driven portrayal in the international media, the global commercial interests at stake, the regional and international contribution to the continued violence and the effects on the civilian population of war and poverty in a country that is extremely wealthy in natural resources. (See, I said it was complex.) The events, the various parties and issues could easily have become hopelessly confused to a viewer --so much of the film's success is that its many interviews with people from all sides and a remarkable collection of footage from various sources, is edited so that it that manages to tell the story in a clear way. It is guaranteed to arouse the viewer's indignation at the role of the rest of the world (including other African countries as well as Western states such as the UK, France and the USA, exercising political and economic influence through bilateral relations and through the United Nations) in prolonging the war in this small country. It is also an indictment of the international news media for accepting the easy answers and official stories and not digging deeper for the truth.

Warning: The film has some very gory images; however I don't feel it was gratuitous but necessary to tell the truth of a story that has been much misrepresented. Some of the most disturbing footage was of violence by regional troops aligned with the government, which Director/Producer Phillipe Diaz revealed (during the Q & A after the screening at Slamdance Film Festival) had been given to him by a Sierra Leonian government official who wanted the truth revealed, although it clearly meant he had to flee his country forever. M. Diaz, who has faced a good deal of pressure not to show this film, and who himself cannot return to Sierra Leone or to Nigeria, had to disguise the true focus of the film he was making from the authorities as long as possible, finally handing over a set of 'dummy' tapes and smuggling the real ones out of the country.

I worked in Sierra Leone. The filmmaker presents a dishonest view, defending the RUF rebels and blaming just about everyone but the RUF. I agree with ijapa's review based on my experience.

Some specific inaccuracies:

President Valentine Strasser, who accidentally came to power in a coup in 1992, made the decision to hold elections in 1996. At the last minute, Strasser decided to retain power, was deposed, and the elections carried out by the Sierra Leone cabinet under General Bio. The UN did not impose them. The UN is represented as an evil outside force throughout the film.

The elections were judged fair by observers. The RUF tried to prevent them and did not participate. Their campaign of terror against voters by cutting off voters' hands and feet made the elections much more difficult and costly because many voters were refugees.

The rebel leader Foday Sankoh was put in the cabinet by the Lome Accords in which the Clinton administration, burned by the Somalia experience (Black Hawk Down), was willing to agree to anything that it thought would stop the rebels without US troops. The decision in no way validated Sankoh as a legitimate leader as proposed in the film. In fact he used the position to further the war and was eventually arrested. After he was arrested, his detailed records of 2000 diamonds he was attempting to illegally sell in Antwerp were discovered. He died in prison of old age awaiting trial for crimes against humanity, at 65 well beyond the average life expectancy of Sierra Leonians.

Nigeria has a strong friendly relationship with Sierra Leone because many Nigerians attended Fourah Bay College in Freetown. Nigeria is the strongest member of ECOMOG, the West African NATO. It was appropriate for ECOMOG to intervene in Sierra Leone as requested by the Sierra Leone government.

Nigeria's soldiers are among the most professional in Africa. Did ECOMOG kill civilians in the RUF attack on Freetown, the capital, in the rebels' "operation no living thing" attack? Probably, but not on the scale proposed by the rebel spokesman. Keep in mind that many rebels were easily identifiable by their RUF tattoos.

There is no mention of Charles Taylor, the Liberian warlord and finally president. Taylor created the RUF as we know it, extending his Liberian tactics of total terror and child soldiers to Sierra Leone. Taylor financed the rebels and provided weapons in exchange for Sierra Leone diamonds mined by the RUF. The RUF diamonds were used by Al Qaeda to hide assets in advance of the Nairobi US Embassy bombing and 9/11. For details check the Washington Post.

Taylor was arrested in the US for embezzlement but escaped from jail. Soon after he underwent guerrilla training under Muammar Qaddafi in Liberia as did Sankoh in the mid 1980's. He is now awaiting trial in at the International Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity for his role with the RUF.

The filmmaker uses footage from the film "Cry Freetown". www.cryfreetown.org That filmmaker's website does not support the statements advanced by "Empire in Africa". There is a first person account on the website of the capture of a small boy shown in the film.

Should you see the film?

It contains many statements, including in the narration, which are not true. The average viewer without country knowledge will have difficulty determining what is true and what is not. It is in no way balanced and does not add to an understanding of what happened.

The film contains numerous shots of corpses, body parts and on camera killing. For that reason it is unrated in the US. The gore adds nothing to understanding what happened.

Do I recommend it? No.

I followed the situation in west Africa throughout the mid to late 90's and into the early 2000's. This film is an absolute tragedy of propaganda and revisionist history on the part of the RUF. The film consistently paints the UN and Ecowas in a negative light in contradiction to what is being shown on the screen. RUF commanders repeatedly contradict themselves sometimes denying the atrocities committed in their lust for mineral wealth out right. Charles Taylor is not once mentioned in the film. It's been categorically proved that a large part of the rebel activity was funded, planned and supported logistically by Taylor's government in a bid to siphon mineral exports from the country illegally. The film also makes no mention of the final British intervention that ended the war in May 2000. As someone who has followed the situation closely for some time it's unthinkable why this film was made.

Like most pieces of propaganda this movie weaves a convincing narrative filled with statements and images designed to elicit a knee jerk moral reaction. Unfortunately anyone without an understanding of the situation will probably be drawn in to the lies.

I lived in Sierra Leone for over two years; leaving the country about 18 months prior to the conflict. I lived in the town where the rebels (the Revolutionary United Front or RUF) established it's base for the duration of the war. I'm well familiar with the political background to the war and followed the war in detail, albeit from abroad, through a wide range of sources (including personal contacts).

The film 'Empire in Africa' makes the point that all of the various armed factions involved in the conflict committed human rights abuses. This is absolutely correct. However, the large majority of human rights abuses, particularly those committed against civilians, were committed by the RUF and their allies, the Armed Forces Revoluntionary Council (AFRC). I recommend that interested persons read the online reports at Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. To suggest that all factions were equally responsible for the atrocities committed against civilian Sierra Leonians, as the film does, is simply dishonest.

The film uses purchased footage of atrocities being committed out of context, suggesting that groups other than the RUF/AFRC were responsible. In one scene, an unarmed man is executed while the narrator discusses abuses committed by UN forces. However, the soundtrack from the original footage is audible in the background with the perpetrators clearly speaking Krio (the national language of Sierra Leone). The UN peace-keeping forces were drawn from other West African countries where Krio is not spoken.

The film depicts, through narration and interviews, the RUF as devoted to purging the country of foreign corporate interests and corrupt politicians in order that the proceeds of the country's mineral wealth benefit all Sierra Leonians. Make no mistake, the RUF was a criminal organization that sought to control the country for the sole purpose of enriching themselves and their own foreign benefactors (primarily Charles Taylor in Liberia). The truth is that there was very little foreign investment in Sierra Leone prior to the war. The country was simply too poor, too corrupt and too unstable to attract investment. The most lucrative sector of Sierra Leone's economy is diamonds. The diamond trade was (and still is) controlled by government parastatals, local chiefs and, primarily, by the Sierra Leonian-Lebonese business cartel. These were not corporate actors nor foreigners.

The film also examines the role of foreign peace-keeping forces in the country and argues that the conflict was exacerbated by international power politics. In fact, the 1990's were a period of utter indifference to the problems of Sub-Saharan Africa by Western nations. The West turned its back on Rwanda, Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Liberia and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The film pointedly blames Nigeria for interfering in the conflict. But, the truth is that Nigeria acted because no one else would. It was only through the actions of Nigeria and the UN that this "low intensity Rwanda" was stopped.

I could go on like this for several more pages, but I'll spare you. In short, please do not subject yourself to scenes of graphic brutality and confusing political analysis just to give the apologists for one of the most brutal regimes in the history of the world a chance to make their case!