Motherland (
) is an 2010 independent documentary film directed and written by
Owen 'Alik ShahadahOwen 'Alik Shahadah is a director, African writer, scholar, photographer and music producer. He is best known for authoring works, which deal with African history, social justice, environmental issues, education and world peace...
. Motherland is the sequel to the multiaward winning film
500 Years Later500 Years Later is the title of an independent documentary film directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah, written by M.K. Asante, Jr. released in 2005...
.
500 Years Later has received praise as well as controversy, both for the genre of the film (creative documentary), and the social-political impact of the film as it relates to race study. Motherland is being produced in the USA,UK, Ethiopia and South Africa.
Synopsis
Motherland is an epic documentary about the African continent from Ancient Kemet to the present. It is an overview of African history and contemporary issues but with the African people at the centre of the story. It is one of the first Pan-African features to be made.
Cast Note
The cast features key figures from the African political world.
- Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
stock footage from visit to Africa
- Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. , is an American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso", a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an...
- Rohan Marley
Rohan Anthony Marley is the son of late reggae artist Bob Marley and Janet Hunt.A 1991 graduate of Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Marley played linebacker for the University of Miami football team. He played pro football in Canada for the now defunct Ottawa Rough Riders.Marley and musician...
, son of Bob MarleyRobert Nesta "Bob" Marley was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands The Wailers and Bob Marley & The Wailers...
and member of the Rastafari MovementThe Rastafari movement is a monotheistic, Abrahamic, new religious movement that accepts Haile Selassie I, the former, and final, Emperor of Ethiopia, as the incarnation of God, called Jah or Jah Rastafari....
- Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka, formerly known as Leroi Jones, is a controversial American writer of poetry, drama, essays, and music criticism.-Early life:...
- Wangari Maathai
Wangari Muta Maathai is a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica College and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya...
, first African woman to win the Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:...
- Maulana Karenga
- Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....
, President of South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
- Frances Cress Welsing
Frances Cress Welsing is an African American psychiatrist practicing in Washington, D.C. She is noted for her "Cress Theory of Color Confrontation", which explores the practice of white supremacy...
- Molefi Kete Asante
Molefi Kete Asante is a contemporary and progressive American scholar in the field of African studies and African American Studies. He is currently Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University, where he founded the first PhD program in African American Studies...
- Kimani Nehusi
- Chen Chimutengwende
Chen Chimutengwende is a Zimbabwean politician and former Minister of various offices in the cabinet of Robert Mugabe. He served as Minister of the Environment and Tourism and as Minister of Information and Publicity.- Film appearance :...
, Minister of Information and Publicity ZimbabweZimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers...
- Omowale Clay
- Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi Asres is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.-Background:Meles Zenawi was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from Adwa, Ethiopia and his mother from Adi Quala, Eritrea, ....
, Prime Minister of Ethiopia
- David Commissiong
- Ali Mazrui
Ali Al'amin Mazrui is an academic and political writer on African and Islamic studies and North-South relations. He is an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton.-Education:Mazrui...
- Mohamed Ibn Chambas
Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas is a lawyer, diplomat, politician and academic from Ghana. In 2002 he became the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States...
, President of the ECOWAS Commission
- Haki R. Madhubuti
Haki R. Madhubuti is a renowned African-American author, educator, and poet. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa, and served in the U.S...
- Hakim Adi
Dr Hakim Adi is Reader in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at Middlesex University, London, UK. He is a founder member of the Black and Asian Studies Association which he chaired for several years...
- Nicole Lee, TransAfrica Forum
TransAfrica Forum is a non-profit, global justice organization focusing on conditions in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The organization sponsors seminars, conferences, public awareness campaigns, and training programs that promote human rights and alternative perspectives on the...
- Tsedenia Gebremarkos
Tsedina Gebremarkos is an Ethiopian artist. She has released songs about HIV/AIDS, and met Brad Pitt when he was visiting the country. She shared the prize for best East African female at the Kora Awards in 2004 for the song "Ewedhalehu", with Achien'g Abura for her song "Toto Wangu."Tsedina has...
- Musa Njoko
- Gamal Nkrumah
Gamal Gorkeh Nkrumah is a Ghanaian journalist, a Pan-Africanist and an editor of Al Ahram weekly newspaper. He is the eldest son of the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah and his Egyptian wife Fathia Nkrumah....
, son of Ghana's first President Kwame NkrumahKwame Nkrumah , was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966.-Early life and education:...
- Jeff Radebe
Jeffrey Thamsanqa Radebe , is currently South Africa's Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development. He was born in Cato Manor, and lived there until 1958 when his family was forcibly removed to KwaMashu.-Education and Personal:...
, ANCANC usually refers to:* African National Congress, a revolutionary movement which became the ruling political party in South Africa in the 1994 election.* African Nations Cup, or African Cup of Nations, an international football tournament...
- Hakim Quick
- Didymus Mutasa
Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and as the Secretary for Administration of ZANU-PF.-Political career:...
, ZANU-PF
- Esther Stanford
- Kwesi Kwaa Prah
Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah is a sociologist and anthropologist. He is currently the Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society in Cape Town, South Africa...
- S'bu Ndebele
Sibusiso Joel "S'bu" Ndebele , is the current Minister of Transport in the Cabinet of South Africa...
- Ali Moussa Iye
- Adama Samassékou
Adama Samassékou from Mali is the current president, with ministerial rank, of the African Academy of Languages. Born in 1946 in Mali, he served between July 2002 and December 2003 as the President of the PrepCom of the Geneva phase of the . Previously, he was Malian Minister of Education and...
- Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. In 1984, Tutu became the second South African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize...
(deleted by directors)
5.1 surround
Motherland is one of the only African documentaries to be mixed in 5.1
Dolby DigitalDolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of data/audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories.- Versions :Dolby Digital includes several similar technologies, which include Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital Surround EX, Dolby...
Surround. A technology which is usually associated with Hollywood big production films.
Triva
The director and producers decided to remove all interviews with
Desmond TutuDesmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. In 1984, Tutu became the second South African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize...
after his negative remarks regarding Zimbabwe and the
ANCANC usually refers to:* African National Congress, a revolutionary movement which became the ruling political party in South Africa in the 1994 election.* African Nations Cup, or African Cup of Nations, an international football tournament...
split. Tutu does appear in one film
Our Story Our VoiceOur Story Our Voice is a 2007 independent political documentary which looks at the social tension in the world today. The film offers a dialogue with the marginalized voices that are rarely heard in mainstream media...
by the same director.
External links