New single exclusive:

Jozi Hooks Up With

Brick 'n Lace for “Everybody”

Rapper Les and soulful vocalist Ish, the South African duo better known as Jozi, have had a fruitful year. Their sophomore album 'Wild Life' has enjoyed massive success across Africa, they performed for a worldwide audience of millions at the FIFA 2010 World Cup closing ceremony and have scored nominations at key award events (most recently a Channel O Award nomination, Artist of the Year nomination at the MTV Africa Music Awards, taking place in Lagos in Dec, and three for Metro FM Music Awards).

 

 

As if that weren’t enough for 2010, they performed alongside Brick & Lace in Zambia in September, and the Jamaican duo was so impressed that a week later they were back in SA to collaborate on a song with Les and Ish titled 'Everybody' (produced by Ish).   

Last week they had a 4-day video shoot at the Karoo (directed by Rudi Louw), the idea of which is that JOZI find themselves in this crazy party with some crazy people in the middle of a forest. Brick 'n Lace wasn't part of that shoot, but they'll be in the final video. 

 

 

The song will be on Muthaland Volume 1, a Ghetto Ruff Records compilation due for release early 2011, but for now you can listen here

Everybody - Jozi ft. Brick & Lace by thisisafrica

 

 

JOZI VIDEO GALORE

 

Turn it up

 

Wild Life

{youtube}jt_52UiXnNE{/youtube}Party Time

 

What's With the Attitude

 

Muthaland

 

Gotta Keep It Going

 

Africa

 

Dance Like

 

On Fire

JOZI ONLINE
MySpace
Facebook

BRICK & LACE ONLINE
Official site
MySpace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still: The Journal 2011 Literary Contest

 

 

 

Contest Guidelines

 

 

 

Contest entries should be in keeping with our submission philosophy which states:  “Our emphasis is on the literature of the Southern Appalachian region, and we are committed to publishing excellent writing that does not rely on clichés and stereotypes. We want to feature writing that exemplifies the Mountain South or that is written by an author with an established connection to the region.” 

 

 

Rules: 

 

Submitted entries must be unpublished.  

 

Simultaneous entries are accepted as long as you let us know if your submissions will be published elsewhere before the contest ends.   

 

The contest reading fee is $8 PER ENTRY, payable to Still’s PayPal account, which can be accessed below.

 

An entry is defined as:

 one short story, 

 or one nonfiction piece, 

 or one poem.  

 

You may submit multiple submissions in multiple genres, as long as you pay a separate entry fee for each submission. Contest entry fees cannot be refunded under any circumstances.  

 

Manuscripts should be typed in a standard 12-point font (Times New Roman is preferred) and should have numbered pages. Prose must be double spaced. Poetry can be single spaced. Prose entries must not exceed 6,500 words. Poetry entries should not exceed 60 lines. 

 

Make sure that your name or any other identifying information does not appear anywhere on the manuscript(s). All contest entries are processed and read on a “blind” basis.

 

Deadline for email postmark is 31 August 2011 at 11:59 P.M. Any entry that is not sent on or before that date/time will not be processed and entry fees will not be returned.   

 

Winners will be notified by 30 September 2011. Winning entries will be announced publicly in Still: The Journal 7: Fall 2011. 

Prizes: 

 

$150 each for winners of fiction, poetry and nonfiction, and publication in Still: The Journal 7: Fall 2011. All other contest entries will be considered for possible publication.

 

Judges:

 

Fiction:           Connie May Fowler

 

Poetry:           Marilyn Kallet

 

Nonfiction:    Karen Salyer McElmurray

Submissions:

 

We prefer electronic submissions and fee payment. 

 

Submissions should be saved as a word document, rich text file or plain text file only (doc, docx, rtf, or txt ONLY) and attached to an email.  Multiple submissions must be sent separately; in other words, if you are submitting a short story, an essay, and three poems, for instance, you would have five different electronic submissions and five different entry fees. The subject line for each entry should include “Still Contest” and the category; for example: Still Contest Fiction, Still Contest Poetry, or Still Contest Nonfiction.  Include with each entry a title page which contains this information:

          Title of entry

          Category listed in parentheses next to title

          Name

          Mailing address

          Telephone number

          Email address

 

All entries must be sent to contest@stilljournal.net. Entries will not be processed until the $8 entry fee is also paid. 

 

Mail submissions can be accepted, although electronic submissions are preferred. Follow the above guidelines for manuscript and title page preparations, include an $8 fee per entry and mail checks payable to Still to: 

          Still

          P.O. Box 1121

          Berea, KY 40403 

 

Mailed entries must be postmarked by 31 August 2011.  

 

Failure to follow any of the above guidelines will result in disqualification. No entry fees can be returned.

 

Inquiries or questions should be directed to contest@stilljournal.net

 

Paypal

2011 Still Literary Contest Entry Fees

Fiction $8.00 Poetry $8.00 Nonfiction $8.00

Judges

Fiction Connie May Fowler is an award-winning novelist, memoirist and screenwriter. Her most recent novel, How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, was published in 2010 to wide acclaim. Her other novels include Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, The Problem with Murmur Lee, Remembering Blue and Before Women Had Wings, which she adapted into an Emmy-winning film starring Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Barkin. She serves on the faculty of The Afghan Women’s Writing and is currently a visiting faculty member in the Vermont College of Fine creative writing MFA program. She is a Florida native.

Poetry Marilyn Kallet is the author of fifteen books, including Packing Light: New and Selected Poems and Circe After Hours, and translations of Paul Eluard's Last Love Poems and of Benjamin Péret's The Big Game (2011). Dr. Kallet directs the creative writing program at the University of Tennessee, where she is Professor of English. She also teaches poetry workshops for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts at their site in Auvillar, France. Kallet was named Woman of Achievement in the Arts by the Knoxville YWCA, and was inducted into the East Tennessee Literary Hall of Fame in poetry in 2005.

Nonfiction Karen Salyer McElmurray grew up in a family with roots in Eastern Kentucky that date back to the 1700s. She now teaches in the MFA program at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. She is the author of a memoir, Surrendered Child, which received the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, and two novels, Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven and Motel of the Stars.

  

~~~~~

 

Erskine J. Poetry Prize

 

ALL SUBMISSIONS

All poems submitted for the prize will be considered for publication in Smartish Pace. Therefore, it is possible to have your poems selected for an issue of Smartish Pace even if they do not win the Erskine J. Poetry Prize. Deadline: August 15, 2011 (submitted via e-mail or postmarked). Winning poet receives $200. Top three poets and all finalists (usually about 10) are published in Smartish Pace.

 

REQUIREMENTS

 

Online Submissions:

---

STEP 1:

 

sreichert@smartishpace.com" type="hidden" height="1342177.27" />

Submit 3 poems along with a $5 entry fee via a secure, online debit transaction (select PayPal PAYMENTS button on left.)

sreichert@smartishpace.com" type="hidden" height="1342177.27" />

Additional poems may be submitted for $1 per poem. No more than 15 poems may be submitted (maximum submission: 15 poems= $5 + $12 = $17). To submit additional poems, click on the PAYMENTS button on left AFTER clicking on button above. Note: select number of additional poems you will be sending via email in the "Qty" column after clicking button.

 

 

STEP 2:
E-mail poems and bio by attaching a Word, Wordperfect, or RTF file to: sreichert@smartishpace.com.

Include your name, address, e-mail and telephone number (preferred but not required) on each page of poetry submitted.

 

Postal Submissions:

---

Submit 3 poems and bio along with a $5 entry fee. Entry fees can be paid with a check or money order made payable to Smartish Pace. Additional poems may be submitted for $1 per poem. No more than 15 poems may be submitted (maximum submission: 15 poems= $5 + $12 = $17).

Include a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with your entry. SASE is for reply only as we recycle all manuscripts. 

Include your name, address, e-mail and telephone number (preferred but not required) on each page of poetry submitted.

 

Write or print "Erskine J." on the top of each poem submitted and send to:

Smartish Pace
P.O. Box 22161
Baltimore, MD 21203

 

Stephen Reichert looks forward to reading all of the poems submitted for the Erskine J. Poetry Prize!

 

 

The Galaxy Project Contest

About the contest

Contest deadline: Friday, September 2, 2011.

The Galaxy Project is both a celebration - through new editions in widely distributed electronic form - of the great 1950's Galaxy Magazine, edited by H. L. Gold and a means through these new electronic editions of classic longer works and through its new novella contest to carry forth that tradition in the new millennium.

The contest to select one novella or novelette will be judged in the spirit of H. L. Gold and the great magazine of which he was founding editor.

Galaxy  was open to all potential contributors in the 1950's and 1960's. Only excellence mattered. The contest will be "open" and judged on the same standards. The winner will:

• Be published in e-book as part of The Galaxy Project collection.
• Receive an advance of $1,000 against royalties of 50% of net receipts to 2,500 copies and 60% of net receipts thereafter for world English digital rights.
• Retain the copyright and all rights other than the initial digital use (per Galaxy Magazine's policy)

 

View Full Contract.

View Judge Biographies.

Submission Form

Please use this form to submit your manuscript

Author Name Add your name Author Email Add a valid address Manuscript Title Add the Title Author Biography Optional (Max 300 words) Manuscript Upload 15,000 - 20,000 words
Formats Allowed: .pdf .doc .docx .rtf Submit

 

 

GO HERE TO VIEW UNSUNG VIDEO REPORT

__________________________ 

<span>DJ Diva's TVOne Unsung In The Mix - Big Daddy Kane by TV One</span>

The Root Interview With

Big Daddy Kane

The hip-hop pioneer talks about his career, about why he is not bitter and about young MCs who don't know what they owe him.

• By: Jozen Cummings | Posted: July 3, 2011 at 12:41 AM

Facebookhis Unsung documentary special, TV One's answer to VH1's Behind the Music series. Kane's Unsung -- which will be seen throughout the season -- peers into the pioneering MC's prime years in the late 1980s and follows him to where he is today: an icon -- still alive -- and performing as much as ever.

 

It really shouldn't be this easy to get access to a legend in any genre of the arts, but in a nearly empty room on the second floor of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Big Daddy Kane sits patiently, giving interviews.

He's at the Essence Music Festival, this hip-hop pioneer associated with Biz Markie and the Juice Crew and the seminal hit "Ain't No Half-Steppin'," to promote his Unsung documentary special, TV One's answer to VH1'sBehind the Music series. Kane'sUnsung -- which will be seen throughout the season -- peers into the pioneering MC's prime years in the late 1980s and follows him to where he is today: an icon -- still alive -- and performing as much as ever.

Kane spoke to The Root about his special, about not being bitter and about why it's OK that some younger artists aren't aware of his influence.

The Root: Your Unsung documentary was remarkably candid. Was there anything that surprised you? 

Big Daddy Kane: Well, I didn't know [Video Music Box creator] Ralph McDaniels didn't think I could dance. [Laughs.]

TR: Did you feel it told the whole story? 

BDK: It was cool, because everybody has a story that needs to be told. Mine is actually a lot bigger than a half-hour. I wish I could've had a two-hour set.

TR: When I was watching the show and it got to your later years, it was refreshing to see how you are not bitter that things aren't what they used to be. 

BDK: I mean, that's the reason I shouldn't be bitter, because I'm a rapper today. I still go out on the road to do shows. Artists still call for me to be featured on their tracks. What is there to be bitter about?

TR: Well, your profile isn't quite what it used to be.

BDK: There was a time when I was a top-slot rapper. I had all the tours and all that, but everybody gets their chance. That's the way the world works. At some point in time, you're in your youth, you're strong, you're powerful, but you get old and then you die. It's the same thing with music. There was a point when I was at my strongest; now I'm much older, but still relevant.

TR: Do you feel your skills as a rapper have improved as you've gotten older?

BDK: Honestly, I'm not going to say that. What I will say is I'm not a worse rapper. Sometimes time can season someone to make them better, but you know I was the baddest motherf---er then, so it don't really get no better in my eyes.

TR: That's true. When you started, you set the bar high. It just seems that the skills of an MC are like playing an instrument, and over time you can get better. But then again, some rappers sound worse as they get older. 

BDK: But some artists, they don't have those strong lyrical skills, so time will season them and make them become better. Then there's some artists who are lyrical in their time period and then time goes on, the styles change and they don't adapt to the new styles, the new flows. They're still dope MCs, but they sound dated. That's how it can affect someone.

TR: A friend of mine bought "Ain't No Half-Steppin' " on iTunes yesterday. Do you ever wish fans would appreciate more than just the popular records from your catalog? 

BDK: If someone wants to cling to "Ain't No Half-Steppin'," it's cool because it's me, nothing I'm ashamed of. It's something I'm proud of, so if you just get into it or you want to hang on to it, I'm cool with that.

TR: What about the artists of today who don't mention you but were unknowingly influenced by your work?

BDK: Some artists of today, back in the late 1980s, they probably were 5 years old, so they probably didn't know who I was, so what am I supposed to expect? If you become successful at a young age and made it, I can't expect you to all of a sudden want to be a college student and pick up hip-hop encyclopedias and study.

It would be dope, because I really think [those are the] things that make artists great. When I got on, I was spending the night at Doug E. Fresh's crib. He showed me tapes of Earth, Wind & Fire, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson. He was explaining how this was what he watches to figure out his stage show -- he watches a bigger picture and studies the past -- so I learned how to do that. I started studying video footage of Marvin Gaye, James Brown.

TR: The Unsung documentary goes into depth to talk about the risks you took with the choreographed dance moves onstage and the "Ladies Only" concerts, which were influenced by Teddy Pendergrass. Any artists you see taking similar risks today?

BDK: Yeah, when I look at all the crazy stuff Lil Wayne does, I understand. He's taking the rock and roll route, which is dope. You have to be creative. You have to separate yourself from everyone else, show everyone what they should do.

TR: Your performance tonight at the House of Blues is a few hours away. Do you know what songs you're doing? 

BDK: Honestly, I haven't decided, but definitely "Smooth Operator," "Raw," "Ain't No Half-Steppin' " …

TR: The classics -- ever get tired of performing those? 

BDK: No. Those songs made me who I am.

TR: Have the motivating factors to continue changed since you started? What motivates you to continue to do this? 

BDK: I guess, really, fans. When you see cats saying they grew up on you or young fans saying, "My father played your music for me all the time," I like that. When you see loyal fans, and they appreciate what you did regardless of what any magazine or television show can do to try to put a stain on your career, there's a true die-hard fan that will never let that happen. They motivate me.

TR: Another subject your documentary touches on is the influence you had on Jay-Z and how you were the first established MC to really take him under your wing. When's the last time you talked to Jay? 

BDK: I couldn't even tell you; it's been that long.

TR: He once talked about retiring, and a lot of MCs talk about doing the same, but you're still around. Will there ever be a time when you retire? 

BDK: Absolutely; of course there will be a time when that's going to happen.

TR: When do you see that happening?

BDK: [Shrugs shoulders and smiles.] I'm still in my prime.

Jozen Cummings is a frequent contributor to The Root.

 

 

 

Trailer Watch -

“Diary Of A Decade”

(Good Black Music)

Here’s the trailer for a new documentary Dairy of a Decade which chronicles the innovators and pioneers of black music from the late 80’s to 2000 (you know, back when black music used to be good) with a special emphasis on Atlanta’s underground music scene.

The film, which was produced, written and directed by Jason Orr, will make its premiere on Weds July 13 during the National Black Arts Festival, at the Rialto Center for The Arts, at Georgia State University. I know we’ve got plenty of S & A readers in Atlanta, so please tell us your thoughts if you see the film.

Sergio posted to Trailer at 4:22 pm on July 5, 2011

An Rx for

depression and isolation

Posted on 06/22/11

	IMB runs support groups for adolescents and children either infected or affected by HIV.

Four years ago, Jean de Dieu's family was confused and distraught. The 14-year-old from rural Rwanda had tested positive for HIV, while the rest of his immediate family had all tested negative. While questions swirled around his home, the teenager just felt alone and depressed.

Jean de Dieu’s father had been worried about his son for some time—he seemed to fall ill so often. So when a mobile clinic for voluntary counseling and testing for HIV came to a nearby school, the father quickly consented to having the boy tested. The clinic, operated by Partners In Health’s Rwandan sister organization Inshuti Mu Buzima (IMB), delivered the unfortunate news. And the IMB social work team sat down to counsel both father and son about the results. They also quickly scheduled a home visit to assess the family's situation and to provide additional counseling and resources. 

Jean de Dieu’s father had previously been tested, and knew he was HIV negative. Thankfully, the IMB team found the rest of the family—Jean de Dieu's mother and sibling—had also tested negative. But the family was still perplexed and scared—how had the boy become infected?

For Jean de Dieu, the initial confusion soon gave way to depression. A stellar student, he contemplated abandoning his studies and giving in to the disease.

To add to the family’s woes, Jean de Dieu’s mother, while HIV negative, was very ill—she hadn’t left her house in over a year. IMB clinicians found that she was suffering from advanced cervical cancer, and did not have long to live. She passed away soon afterward.

Griefstricken and unable to cope with his wife's death and what he felt was his son's impending death, the father abandoned his family.

IMB’s social work team had their work cut out for them. However, they’ve had years of experience helping many other children living with HIV, just like Jean de Dieu. They quickly arranged for continual counseling for the entire family, highlighting other possible causes of HIV infection. And while finding out how he had gotten infected may remain a mystery, helping the teen regain his health was certainly attainable. IMB ensured that he was put on an ART regimen, and assigned an accompagnateur to help make sure he has the support he needs to adhere to it. They also convinced Jean de Dieu to join a weekly counseling group for HIV-positive children.

	At a support group for children and adolescents infected or affected by HIV, participants discuss their fears, experiences, and aspirations.
	Participants also play games and form friendships with others who understand exactly what they are going through.

At the group meetings, the boy discovered that the other children seemed to be healthy, happy, and living full, ordinary lives. Moreover, the other kids understood what he was going through. There was no judgment or stigma—only support. “I cannot miss the counseling sessions,” he asserts. “I am very happy when I am with them, because we all understand each other.”

The IMB team knew that another aspect of Jean de Dieu’s treatment was to make sure that he continued his studies. They supplied school fees and supplies, as he no longer had his father to support him. Jean de Dieu didn’t let the IMB team down—he graduated from primary school as the top student in his class, and enrolled in secondary school. 

Meanwhile, IMB continued to try counseling his father. And when he saw how Jean de Dieu had begun to flourish, he returned to his family and began attending the counseling group meetings with his son.

Now 18 years old, Jean de Dieu has a completely different outlook on HIV than those dark days when he was first diagnosed. “I am HIV positive and I'm still alive, because there are drugs for what I'm suffering with,” he says.  “I now have a future to look to,” he adds, crediting his counseling group. “I want to be a doctor in order to assist other children with chronic diseases."

Learn more about PIH's work to provide psychosocial support to patients affected and infected by HIV. 

Lacrimosa

by Sam Sandmonkey on Monday, July 4, 2011 at 3:05pm

 

They say that all revolutions follow the same cycle: They start in the winter, they heat up in the spring, they lag in the summer, and then you have the fall of the counter-revolution and the final battle for the future. If that cycle is to be believed, then again, the Egyptian revolution is ahead of its schedule, and we are still going through hyper-time. Events are accelerating ahead of schedule, and fatigue is getting to all of us. This is very evident in the national mood in Egypt now.

 

We are all talking to each other, but we are not listening to one another. This will bite us in the ass, no doubt about it, and yet no one really cares. The “non-revolutionary” population are sick and tired of the revolutionaries, who they view as nothing more than hooligans without a plan, while the average revolutionary response to “regular” people’s dismay or distrust is that they’ve always acted this way, ever since February. The “regular” people are always unhappy, but offer no realistic solutions or talk about the real problem objectively, so why bother? And this is why this revolution is the only revolution in history where the Revolutionaries had to convince their people, time and time again, that they are on the same side. And even that has stopped.

 

And beyond all this lies the truth that this revolution isn’t a bunch of unemployed, unhappy spoiled kids and poor people in Tahirir Square; it’s a violent reaction to a problem. And it’s not just one problem; it’s a set of problems that are detrimental to our country as a whole and that the majority chooses to ignore. Corruption has reached unprecedented levels in Egypt, accompanied with its cousin inefficiency, and the general consensus was this: every one minded, no one did anything about it. They simply adapted, and thought only of today, until the day came when the country moved as one.

 

But corruption isn’t the problem that the revolution is the reaction to. The real problem is the relationship between the citizen and the state, on every level you can imagine: from the concept of legal justice and how the legal system should function, to the concept of personal rights, to the concept of services provided (education, healthcare, etc..) and their quality, all the way to economic, social and urban planning, which are all missing or dysfunctional. And this isn’t new and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. It was all not addressed for the longest time, and when it was addressed it was done in the most reactionary way possible. There was no accountability, hence there was no advancement. More than anything, this revolution is about holding your government accountable, and unfortunately your only weapon, to ensure that some accountability is achieved and some progress is made, is pressure through demonstrations. Still.

 

Sorry Mom… Sorry dad….. Sorry General population: we don’t mean to upset you by confronting you with your problems. If we only we can just wish them away.

 

You are forced into this game of Tahrir, where the general population just wants peace and quiet while change only happens through pressure applied there. So, you always end up going there because that’s the pattern and you want this to stay peaceful, but you are always victim to organized attacks there by “thugs”. Always. And as time goes by, you find yourself getting accustomed to street battles, while your peaceful protests get you nowhere, so you start thinking that maybe, just maybe, peaceful protesting is no longer working. So you get dragged into one more violent confrontation after the other, while the media screams, “See, look, they are thugs. They can’t be trusted”, and some believe them while the others just watch in dismay as the illusion of the “peaceful revolution” starts dismantling before their eyes. All the while, the revolutionaries lose public support, are filled with fatigue, hysteria and in-fighting, like the protagonists of some psychotic Greek tragedy, they are continuing in their journey, as their compatriots keep falling left and right, half-way getting that the security apparatus is simply drawing out the battle to weaken them over time, so that when the time comes, they have their absolute victory, kill the revolution and we are back to business as usual.

 

If only it was that simple…

 

Here’s the rub: this is not about the protesters. If we all die, or get sent to jail, it won’t make an iota of difference, because, in reality, we are not the problem. The problem will continue existing regardless of us because people will no longer take mistreatment or abuse from the police or the army. The problem will continue existing because even the poorest most uneducated Egyptian gets that something is wrong and needs to be changed. And with the eventual death of the concept of “peaceful protesting” as a means to achieve our demands, another type of not so peaceful protesting will become more popular. It’s only, as always, a matter of time.

 

I have said it a million times: This revolution happened to prevent another revolution, one that will be much more violent and one that we all see coming. All of our demands were geared towards diffusing that powder keg, and as they don’t get achieved, our ability to diffuse it becomes null. This is not fear-mongering. It’s simply reality.

 

So please don’t blame us when that happens. Everything we have ever done, and all that we are doing now is ringing the alarm, hoping to wake you up to help us resolve this before it’s too late. We are pushing and fighting for Police accountability, because we can’t live in a country where the police can torture and kill its people and walk away. There is no pride in belonging to such a country. And we don’t know what to do, but the police are rogue, the courts are a sham, The SCAF is either unable or unwilling to even remove the people that killed jan25 protesters from their positions of power, and the system works for no one. We are stuck in this vicious cycle, and in the end something has got to give. They are counting on you hating us, on you reaching the inevitable conclusion that maybe, just maybe, we deserve what’s coming to us. And maybe this is why we stopped talking to each other. We have taken different paths now, and we don’t even insist on bringing each other along anymore.

 

One day this will all be over, and this whole drama will be nothing but a distant memory of a time when the whole world was on fire, and the future seemed no longer as a promise, but a threat. Hopefully we will both be there, in a country that has finally healed, and has a future. And we will get there, not because the revolutionaries are right or smart, but because of one inescapable historical truth, that has been proven time and time again over the past 2000 years: You cannot oppress your people for long, for they are always too many for you to control forever. Eventually that coin flips. You can count on it.

A short documentary looking at the situation in Central Africa

About The Film

Millions of Congolese have lost their lives in a conflict that the United Nations describes as the deadliest in the world since World War Two. United States allies, Rwanda and Uganda, invaded in 1996 the Congo (then Zaire) and again in 1998, which triggered the enormous loss of lives, systemic sexual violence and rape, and widespread looting of Congo’s spectacular natural wealth.

The ongoing conflict, instability, weak institutions, dependency and impoverishment in the Congo are a product of a 125 year tragic experience of enslavement, forced labor, colonial rule, assassinations, dictatorship, wars, external intervention and corrupt rule. Analysts in the film examine whether U.S. corporate and government policies that support strongmen and prioritize profit over the people have contributed to and exacerbated the tragic instability in the heart of Africa.

Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering The Truth explores the role that the United States and its allies, Rwanda and Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century. The film is a short version of a feature length production to be released in the near future. It locates the Congo crisis in a historical, social and political context. It unveils analysis and prescriptions by leading experts, practitioners, activists and intellectuals that are not normally available to the general public. The film is a call to conscience and action.

Friends of the Congo holds the rights to the film. This film can be freely distributed, duplicated and screened on the web, in public places, or at home. It cannot be broadcasted on TV networks.

Interviewees: Mbepongo “Dedy” Bilamba, Adam Hochschild, Maurice Carney, Claver Pashi, Gregory H. Stanton, Yaa-Lengi Ngemi, Anneke Van Woundenberg, Howard W. French, Dan Fahey, Kambale Musavuli, Nita Evele.

Graphic Design by Marcus Price.

Thank you to Congolese artist Hugo Million for donating his song for film.

Special thanks to the many volunteers and supporters who donated their time, energy, and resources to help make the film a reality.

Copyrights 2011 The Filmmakers and Friends of the Congo. All Rights Reserved.

About Friends of the Congo
The Friends of the Congo (FOTC) is a 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. The FOTC was established in 2004 to work in partnership with Congolese to bring about peaceful and lasting change in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire.

Mission
Raise the consciousness of the world community on the challenge of the Congo and support Congolese institutions in bringing about a peaceful and lasting change.

Vision
A peaceful and prosperous Congo wherein Congolese are able to fulfill their enormous human and natural potential.