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The”New Breed” of African Leaders: US Backed War and Mayhem in the Heart Africa

Friends of the Congo in collaboration with the People’s Forum, Black Star News and the African Great Lakes Action Network invite you to an evening of film screening and discussion about the United States role in supporting authoritarian leaders in East and Central Africa.

ny screening dec 13 ABG

The evening will begin with a screening of “A Brilliant Genocide” By Ebony Butler. The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the following panelists and moderator: Register here for free
Helen Epstein, Author of Another Fine Mess, America, Uganda and the War on Terror
Judi Rever, Author, In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
Milton Allimadi, Publisher Black Star News
Claude Gatebuke, Director, African Great Lakes Action Network
Kambale Musavuli, Spokesperson, Friends of the Congo

Moderator: Professor Tiffany Wheatland-Disu – Teaches African history in the Africana Studies Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)

For more information, please call 202-584-6512 or send email to info@friendsofthecongo.org.

Co-sponsors: Africa in Harlem, Safaru Yangu, Pan African Unity Dialogue, Africa News in Brief, Tabilulu Productions and Amnesty International Bronx Chapter

DATE AND TIME

Thu, December 13, 2018

6:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST

Add to Calendar

 

LOCATION

TRYP HOTEL NYC TIMES SQUARE SOUTH

345 W 35th St

New York, NY 10001

United States

View Map

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Yesterday ‘A Brilliant Genocide’ was screened for the 5th time in just one month. The event was held in New York at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, hosted by Mr. Disu and Professor Tiffany Wheatland, including a post screening Q & A with Milton Allimadi.

Thank you to the American universities, colleges and film festivals who are getting behind our important documentary and larger justice campaign.

Would you like to host a screening for your school, workplace or community?

Get in touch and help end the silence around the untold genocide and crimes against humanity in Uganda.

Blog Post by Sammy Disu Nov 14, 2017

Many of you have heard about #JosephKony and #LordResistanceArmy whose campaign of terror in Central Africa has caused much suffering.

But, that is just one side of a larger story of American taxpayer-facilitated crimes against humanity under Dictator Yoweri Museveni. The dictator continues to be the darling of the West and we must learn of our complicity in this human tragedy of the #Acholi peoples as Prof. Milton Allimadi explained. Prof. Allimadi is featured in this film and explains how the documentary came to be after one woman visited Uganda on the trail of Joseph Kony and found a bigger problem many of us helped to create. Thank you so much for this critical work of love and sacrifice Ebony Atlanta Butler!

Prof. Tiffany Wheatland and I chose to host a screening of A Brilliant Genocide as our first collaboration for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice community yesterday.

Sign Prof. Allimadi’s petition here: https://www.change.org/p/realdonaldtrump-no-to-u-s-weapons-to-mass-killer-gen-yoweri-museveni-kagutamuseveni

Ebony and Milton Allimadi of Black Star News
A Brilliant Genocide Director Ebony Butler with collaborator, journalist and Black Star News Publisher Milton Allimadi 

#abrilliantgenocide  

Make your voice count.

Please sign or share the petition at www.bit.ly/STOPM7

#endthesilence 

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A Brilliant Genocide director Ebony Butler and her London based collaborator Belinda Atim spoke with Joseph Ochieno on Talking Africa (Resonance 104.4fm) yesterday afternoon about our documentary, the conspiracy of silence around the war in Uganda and the largely untold story of state sponsored atrocities in the north and east of the country. Belinda starts off the interview discussing the recent news of Uganda and the U.S stopping the six year man hunt for rebel leader and supposed most wanted man in Africa, and top 10 most wanted in the world, Joseph Kony. The question of whether or not A Brilliant Genocide had anything to do with the decision did come up, as many people seem to believe our film was a cause for the unexpected change of heart regarding the massive man hunt for Joseph Kony which has to date cost close to if not over one billion US dollars. I bet the US taxpayers aren’t aware of that – nor that the money was largely looted and used for other purposes, oppression, invasions and to help build one of the strongest armies in East Africa…. to essentially help entrench the dictator in power for longer. (31 years years is a long time in power, but it seems Museveni can’t get enough)

One other thing that was stressed in the interview was the importance of the petition that is attached to our documentary, primarily calling for US to stop funding and military support to the Ugandan regime. You can help end the silence by signing and sharing the petition here: www.bit.ly/STOPM7  Thank you!

#EndTheSilence 

How to Tune in Next Time:

If you have the internet  you can tune in live from anywhere in the world on Resonance 104.4FM in London – but best to come back the same time next week (Thursday, pm-2pm GMT) for the Talking Africa program… I’m sure we will be back for a few more shows as there is so much to cover and we only scratched the very tip pf the iceberg yesterday!

‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ 

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LIVE WEB AND WORLDWIDE CANBLE TV  BROADCAST OF A BRILLIANT GENOCIDE TODAY AND THIS WEEKEND ONLY with RT News / Russia Today 

Watch it online here if you don’t have Foxtel or cable TV:

https://www.rt.com/on-air

Please check www.rt.com/schedule for updates over the weekend to confirm our airing times.  All times are in GMT! You can watch live from the website or phone app, or on Cable / Foxtel on the RT (Russia Today Global News Channel).
Todays Screening on RT – March 3:
10:30am GMT  – Part Two
9.30pm Australia (AEST)
12:30am Uganda
6:30am – New York
3:30pm GMT (Part One – Fingers Crossed!)
2:30am – Australia – AEST
6:30pm Uganda
11:30am – New York
5:30pm GMT  (Part Two – Fingers Crossed!)
04:30am – Australia AEST
08:30pm Uganda
1:30pm – New York
March 4 Broadcast Times in GMT 
(times are likely to change slightly so please check www.rt.com/schedule tomorrow)
01:30am (Aus 12:30pm) Part 1 (we hope)
06:30am (Aus 5:30pm) Part 2 (we hope)
08:30am (Aus7:30pm)
9:30am (Aus 8:30pm)
14:30pm (Aus 01:30am)
19:30pm (Aus 08:30am)

NOTE: GMT Times (+11 hours AEST – Melbourne etc; Uganda is +3 hours; LA -7 hours; NY is -4 hours )

(more…)

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A Brilliant Genocide screens for a second & final time tonight at the Beloit International Film Festival in Wisconsin (March 1st, 7pm sharp)

If you’re within reach of Beloit we would love to see you! (2 hrs drive ex Chicago)

See: www.bit.ly/ABGBeloit
#EndTheSilence

BELOIT File 25-1-17, 4 39 30 pm.png

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Sean Stone interviews journalist Milton Allimadi about the hidden genocide taking place in Uganda and Ebony Butler’s feature documentary, A Brilliant Genocide’.

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Contextualising genocide is difficult. The millions (billions?) of words written on the Holocaust attest to the challenge. A Brilliant Genocide manages to successfully tell the story of the most neglected humanitarian crisis since the formation of the United Nations. The salient facts are brought to the fore to create a cohesive narrative of the Acholi genocide that does not shy away from any of the guilty parties, be they government or rebel. Both Museveni and Kony face documentary reckoning.

geoff-naismith-burnt-hut-bush

This is a brave film, not least because it faces the very real possibility of getting people killed. That is not a criticism. There is no other way to tell the truth without risk. I do not want to recount here what happened in Northern Uganda over the past three decades, Ebony Butler does a better job of that than I could, I want people to see the film for themselves. A Brilliant Genocide allows the survivors, politicians, academics, and soldiers to speak for themselves, to tell their own stories. In doing so, the war is humanised in a way that is not possible through any other medium. The visceral emotion of men and women discussing the atrocities they endured is not lost as it may be if they are just read about. Their accounts are supplemented by archive footage and Hieronymus Bosch-like depictions of torture and violence. All this is done in an unobtrusive style, understanding that no rhetorical device can match simple truth telling.

“TO REITERATE: FIND A WAY OF WATCHING THIS FILM”

Butler must be especially commended (I can think of no other word) for securing interviews with male survivors of rape. A taboo subject everywhere, but particularly in Uganda. It is not known for LGBT rights and homophobic attacks are commonplace. All of the survivors who appear in the film speak with dignity and measure. At no point does it descend into calls for retribution, no matter how tempting that must have been sometimes. I honestly do not know what more I can say about this documentary. It frankly should not have needed to be made. The Acholi genocide should be ranked alongside the killing fields and Rwanda in the worst excesses of the past century. That so few are knowledgeable is tragic.

A Brilliant Genocide is a stunning exemplar of what film is capable of. I hope that a wider release can be secured through streaming services or even just free on Youtube. It needs to be watched. The survivors need to be heard. I do not know if the film can find justice for the Acholi or even the peace they deserve. However, I do know that the more people that are aware of the genocide, the more uncomfortable it will be for the perpetrators. The spotlight will take away their hiding spaces. To reiterate: find a way of watching this film. If you cannot then please try and read about the war. It has taken 100 years for the Armenian genocide to be fully recognised and acknowledged. The Acholi do not have that long.

Julius L. Geertz (The Panoptic UK)

https://thepanoptic.co.uk/2016/10/01/a-brilliant-genocide/

Upcoming Film Festival Screenings:

21st October at the Document Human Rights Film Festival in Glasgow

22nd and 23rd October at the 36th Cambridge International Film Festival

9th of November at the We The People’s Film Festival in London

10th November at the Lone Star Film Festival, Sundance Square Fort Worth

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A documentary accusing President Museveni and the Uganda army of genocide against the Acholi people in the north is being used to lobby for an end to US aid to Uganda.

By Daniel Nelson

A Brilliant Genocide argues that Museveni exploited atrocities by a rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), as a cover for his own “reign of terror” against the Acholis.

The film’s website carries a petition asking the US President to cut arms supplies and non-humanitarian aid, to ensure Museveni and others face justice, and to use sanctions and diplomacy to force the Uganda government to compensate victims of army violence.

After a film festival screening in London last Friday, Olara Otunnu, a Uganda politician, diplomat and former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, insisted that Acholi culture and civilisation faced “existential annihilation.

“We must address how to resuscitate [this culture] gather the pieces – a Marshall Plan is not big enough for Acholiland today,” he said.

The crisis had been written about and been the subject of reports, but all had been “studiously ignored and brushed under the carpet”.

Director Ebony Butler has said that she started making a film about Joseph Kony, the LRA and the use of child soldiers in 2009 but “along our six-year journey we found some completely untold ‘hidden’ stories that we felt were even more important to bring to light …”

Those responsible for these massive human rights abuses were still in office today, she has written, and continue to enjoy “complete impunity for their crimes”.

Why the title? As an interviewee in the film says: “No food, no hydration, sexual violence from the soldiers who were meant to protect them. That’s why this was a ‘brilliant genocide’ – a silent genocide: perfect crime.”

http://oneworld.org/2016/10/03/uganda-government-accused-of-the-perfect-crime/

Sign the petition here: www.bit.ly/STOPM7

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ABG POSTER 1b black LIFF2016 NEW 02 sat 11 june.jpg

We are honoured to be included in the year’s official selection at the Lighthouse International Film Festival, on Longbeach Island, New Jersey.

This will be the last screening until late August in Moscow. Don’t miss out.

We also have an expert panel joining us after the screening to answer any questions and to offer their expert views.

PANELISTS INCLUDE:

Milton Allimadi
Allimadi who is also featured in ‘A Brilliant Genocide’ is the Ugandan born editor of www.blackstarnews.com and www.burkinastyle.com and also writes a column for www.huffingtonpost.com His late father was a Ugandan politician and his family fled from Idi Amin’s and then Yoweri Museveni’s reigns of terror.

Kiwanuka Lawrence Nsereko
Nsereko is a Ugandan journalist, political activist, freedom fighter and now U.S.-based professor. He was incarcerated and tortured by the Yoweri Museveni dictatorship before escaping the country.
Helen Epstein
Epstein’s articles on human rights and public health in Uganda and other African countries have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Lancet and other publications. She is the author of The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight against AIDS in Africa (Picador 2008) and has conducted research for Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and other organizations. She teaches at Bard College in Annandale, New York.

 

Info and tickets at : http://liff.festivalgenius.com/2016/films/abrilliantgenocide0_ebonybutler_LIFF2016

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“Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn’t seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude skyrocketing, and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the 19th-century scramble for colonization. Already, the United States imports more of its oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia, and China, too, looks to the continent for its energy security.”

Can the United States restrain Chinese influence on the resource rich continent? 

GB Times – The Third Angle