By Charles Hallman
Staff Writer
Uprooted shows single mother Noris in the shanties of her refugee camp in Colombia.
-Photo courtesy of Juan Mejia Botero
A film about the terrible plight of Afro-Colombians caught in the middle of the Colombian civil war recently was aired as part of the third season of PBSâ AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange.
âNobody really talks abut some of the greater consequencesâ of the civil war, said filmmaker Juan Mejia Botero, who spoke to the MSR by phone from his home country of Colombia. His film Uprooted examines the civil warâs effect on the day-to-day lives of Afro-Colombians, who make up 20-25 percent of the total population of the South American nation.
The documentary tells the story of Noris, a mother who lives with her family in a refugee shelter on the outskirts of Quibds, a growing city on Colombiaâs Pacific Coast. They were forced to leave their home and relocate there after one of her sons joined the military. That decision put Noris in the middle of the civil war.
However, as Mejia Botero pointed out, Norisâ family also once owned valuable land, and communities of color are âan obstacle for [a particular] project… They need the people off the land in order to carry out their economic plans.â
In Uprooted, which is shown in Spanish with English subtitles, Noris says that her family was like many others whose livelihoods depended on agriculture, gold panning and fishing. Her family once lived on Colombian Pacific âtimber landâ that now has become a new frontier for development. Her land is now inhabited by military forces, and she and her family have been living in âtemporaryâ conditions since 1996.
The film centers on Noris and one of her youngest sons, who wants to attend a soccer academy in BogotĂĄ, the nationâs capital. She sells homemade cheese sticks to support her family. âIt is a very human story of a mother and son,â Mejia Botero said.
As he told their story, Mejia Botero noted, âThe difficulties the mother was having in helping her son…gave it a real nice tension throughout the film.â
The documentary also gives the viewers a more contextual look at the real effect of Colombiaâs civil war. Some foreign governments, especially those currently at war, claim that displacement is just an unfortunate consequence.
âIt is the way the [Colombian] government likes to portray it,â admited Botero. âIt is a much more complex situation where there are very serious and powerful economic interests in the territory that is mainly inhabited by African-Colombian people.â
Mejia Boteroâs film is among AfroPoPâs five-week series on diverse documentaries about people of the African Diaspora in Colombia, Haiti, Jamaica, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the United States. It is produced by the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and co-presented by American Public Television (APT).
Uprooted was aired on PBSâ World channel on February 2.
If it wasnât for NBPC, Mejia Boteroâs documentary probably would not have been shown on U.S. television, believes Botero, who was born in BogotĂĄ and has worked with the Association de Afrocolombianos Desplazados (AFRODES), a grassroots organization dedicated to improving life for Afro-Colombians.
âThere is very little space for stories about Africa, the African Diaspora or any people of color on public television,â he said. âWithout organizations like [the NBPC], it would be very difficult to get these stories out.â
He is currently in Colombia working on a feature documentary, The Battle for Land, that deals more deeply with the forced displacement of Afro-Colombians. It is expected to be out later this year.
âWe want to address much more deeply the political and economic conflict about displacement, and really take the mask off the official version on displacement,â says Mejia Botero. âDisplacement all over the world really affects people of color, and it is not a coincidence.â
To see Uprooted and the other six films featured in the series, filmmakersâ interviews and other information on the documentaries, go to the NBPC official website: www.blackpublicmedia.org.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokes man-recorder.com.
Reach the MSR staff at msrnewsonline@spokesman-recorder.com.