Documentaries Tagged “africa”
Apartheid Did Not Die
Apartheid Did Not Die
Apartheid based on race is outlawed now, but the system always went far deeper than that. The cruelty and injustice were underwritten by an economic apartheid, which regarded people as no more than cheap expendable labor. It was backed by great business corporations in South Africa, Britain, the rest of Europe, and the United States. A...
The Diamond Empire
The Diamond Empire
What we think about diamonds, is in fact, a myth. At the center of that myth is an illusion, that diamonds are valuable because they are rare. When writer Edward Epstein set out to investigate the diamond trade, he discovered that diamonds aren’t rare at all. Second only to Christmas, Valentine’s Day is the holiday when diamonds are mo...
The Devil Came On Horseback
The Devil Came On Horseback
The Devil Came on Horseback presents a first-person account of the genocide in Darfur. Former Marine Captain Brian Steidle joined the African Union in 2004 to help monitor the cease-fire in Sudan. As he puts it, All I had was a camera, a pen, and paper. I was totally unprepared for what I’d see.
An unarmed military civilian, he desc...
Blood Coltan
Blood Coltan
The mobile phone is a remarkable piece of engineering. But look inside. There’s blood in this machine. There’s blood in this device because your mobile contains tiny electronic circuits, and they couldn’t work without mineral called COLTAN. It’s mined in the eastern Congo. There is blood here, the blood of Congolese who are dying in a ...
Diamonds of War: Africa's Blood Diamond
Diamonds of War: Africa's Blood Diamond
Diamonds are symbols of wealth, elegance and love around the world. But in several African nations, they have been a means to power, a reason to terrorize millions of innocent civilians, and may have even helped finance some of the world’s most brutal terrorists. The human cost of the illicit global diamond trade is examined in the pro...
Louis Theroux’s African Hunting Holiday
Louis Theroux’s African Hunting Holiday
Louis Theroux journeys to the centre of the controversial South African hunting industry. It’s big business, attracting thousands of holiday hunters annually. Keeping wild animals fenced in on farms has made it cheaper and easier to hunt than ever before, but Louis discovers that this industry, instead of endangering species, has actua...