by Lansana Gberie, February 15, 2007 

For brief, fleeting moments almost every decade now, the rich world tends to embrace Africa – a continent badly wracked by poverty, wars and related crises – as pet project. Africa as the object of the fantasies of the West is an old pathology, and it is not limited to the entertainment industry – though Hollywood has represented its most crude and egregious form in recent decades. Stalked by the disaster of Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (who, to be fair, cannot by any means be accused of prior indifference to Africa) embraced the old continent with renewed vigour, in 2005 producing “Our Common Interest,” a sprawling, well-meaning document which sets out detailed plans for wiping out African poverty and related crises. Less than two years later, the document is all but forgotten.

Africa, however, has not been, at least by Hollywood. By the end of 2006, Africa became “suddenly hot” to the entertainment industry, to use the appropriately frivolous words of the New York Times. Before the end of the year, the continent somehow managed to attract the interest of big name stars – and therefore big media – beginning with Bono, then Clay Aiken, Jessica Simpson, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, George Clooney and a few others. Even Madonna, not usually associated with high-mindedness, was “suddenly casting an ice-blue eye toward Africa” (this is from the New York Times), that year famously adopting a child from Malawi. Ed Zwick and Leonardo di Caprio and Jennifer Connelly took the pathology a step higher (or lower), coming from nowhere and seeming to adopt a whole country, Sierra Leone. Their ‘Blood Diamond’, a film that purports to recreate the horrors that befell Sierra Leone mainly in 1990s, came out just before Christmas. The producers of this film, which makes the word narcissism inadequate, claims that the intention is to save Sierra Leone (and countries like it) from the predatory degradation of diamond hunters and their wretched native allies who pressgang children into their militia and commit unspeakable atrocities.

HOLLYWOOD, 9 Mar 2006 (African Tribune) - If the late, Ethiopian freedom fighter Dr. Senay Likké could see his daughter now, he would be so proud.

Following in her father’s revolutionary footsteps, Nnegest Likké is fighting a revolution of her own. But there are no guns. This revolution is being fought on the big screen, right in Hollywood's front yard.

For those not in the political know, Dr. Senay Likké was an African martyr who gave his life fighting for peace and social/economic equality in Ethiopia in the late 1970’s. To many Africans, he was a hero.  And like father like daughter, Nnegest is well on her way to becoming the same. So, be on the lookout for Nnegest to bust the doors of Hollywood wide open.

Nnegest's first film, Phat Girlz, a movie which she wrote and directed, is due in theaters nationwide on April 7th. Starring the well-known, plus size (and proud of it) comedienne Mo’Nique (The Parkers, Queens of Comedy), Phat Girlz is the comedic love story between a plus size African American woman struggling with self esteem issues, and a handsome Nigerian doctor who comes from a culture where bigger is so much better and weight is equated with wealth.

“It is rare to see a film that so cleverly bridges the gap between traditional African culture and African American culture,” says Fisiha Likké, Nnegest’s first cousin, a mural artist who immigrated to the U.S. from Addis Ababa in 1994.

"Viva Africa!" Garvin Hood

HOLLYWOOD, 6 Mar 2006 (Donal Brown for News Digest) - When “Tsotsi” won the Oscar for best foreign-language film this week in Hollywood, South Africans took the victory as an occasion for national pride but also as a sign that a story from South Africa can have universal appeal.

In a story in Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg), Benita van Eyssen reports that South African President Thabo Mbeki congratulated “Tsotsi” writer and director Gavin Hood and his cast and crew saying, “It [the film] bears testimony to the abundance of South African talent and symbolizes what South Africans can achieve when we work together towards a common objective.”