Category: Culture

Somali filmmaker Khadar Ahmed won the top prize at the FESPACO film festival in Burkina Faso on Saturday for “The Gravedigger’s Wife,” which he wrote and directed.

The 40-year-old was not at the ceremony to receive the Golden Stallion award, but his work bested 16 other African films for the top prize. The films in competition were made by directors from 15 African countries.

This year’s international jury was led by Mauritanian producer Abderrahmane Sissako, who won France’s coveted Cesar in 2015 for “Timbuktu.”

The Golden Stallion, said Sissako, was “for any African filmmaker, the best prize you can have, a source of great pride.”

The festival, first staged in 1969, is held every two years in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou.

The event is closely followed by the U.S. and European movie industries, which scout the event for new films, talent and ideas.

Its top prize is named after the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, a mythical beast in Burkinabe mythology.

The event was originally set for February 27-March 6 but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: Voice of America

GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Botswana is set to emerge this week from an 18-month state of emergency that will remove the president’s emergency powers and end pandemic restrictions on trade and gatherings. While many shops, bars, and restaurants want to get back to normal, some in Botswana’s alcohol industry say it’s too soon to lift restrictions on night spots.

The minister of trade and industry, Kgafela Mmusi, says the end of the edict, set for this Thursday, means businesses can revert to normal trading hours. This includes the reopening of nightspots.

That should be welcome news to Botswana’s alcohol industry, which employs around 50,000 people, including those who work at bars, breweries and distributors.

But Botswana Beverages Association president Peter Noke warns some establishments might not be ready to reopen.

Those that do will likely have restrictions, including a ban on dancing.

He said they have requested that dance floors be converted into seating areas.

“There should be sufficient spacing between the tables and there will be no dancing,” he said. “If one wishes to dance, they can only do so while seated.”

Music promoter Zain Aftermath says the decision to eliminate the dance floor is ill-advised.

“How are you going to open clubs and then say people should not dance? It doesn’t make sense. I wouldn’t leave my house to go to a nightclub, pay and buy alcohol so that I can sit on a chair. It is going to affect attendance in a huge way,” he said.

Workers’ union leader Johannes Tshukudu welcomes the reopening as entertainment industry workers have been mostly out of work since March of last year. But he too, urges caution.

“We don’t expect full capacity at the beginning, we may decide to have half capacity at the venues so that at least so that we use that as an observation element. We don’t want to see this thing [opening of night clubs] as a trap by the government to justify reintroducing the state of emergency,” he said.

Minister Kgafela says the government will keep an eye on nightspots to ensure compliance with the rules.

Source: Voice of America