By Tanja Bergen
I am a student at UBC, working on a student-run, research-based advocacy project (www.acacdrcongo.org), so I thought I’d get your take on this gem: Sienna Miller’s Heart-Wrenching Documentary on Congo Women, “8 minutes” available at: http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/10/14/watch-sienna-millers-heart-wrenching-documentary-on-congo-women/
Why I bring this to your attention:
1. Grammar: Sienna Miller’s Heart-Wrenching Documentary on Congo Women (Congolese Women? Congo’s Women?)
2. Statement one: when women are raped it is important to know that it is sometimes not only by men but by objects ranging from .. knives, broken bottles (whoa, who knew? In the DRC guns and knives can rape women all on their own!), to the butts of very large rifles (cuz had they been the butts of small rifles.. lame-o)
3. So I am now one minute in (hey its only an 8 minute movie) and I have seen/heard:
a. 1 super pretty and sad blonde lady sharing the stories of african women
b. 1 adequately maimed Congolese women with a subtly horrific scar
c. the super pretty white woman now tells me that that they are all afraid and that they prey that someone, someday, will come
and help them. Re-inforced stereotype of helpless victim – check.
and help them. Re-inforced stereotype of helpless victim – check.
4. armed groups fight for control of these raw minerals … ummm please see IPIS: Mapping Conflict Motives: Eastern DRC – many groups raise their funds by taxing supply routes and by using rape as a weapon to terrorize villages into the militarized control of their land. there hasn’t been a lot of fighting between armed groups for control of these lands over the last year…
5. “RAPE in Eastern Congo is described as the worst in the world” I haven’t heard that one before. I’ve heard it called the worst place in the world to be a woman or a girl – and yes that is because rape and sexual torture is common place relative to many other areas in the world .. but does anyone else find it problematic to rank rapes? Like, oh… you were raped in Rwanda/Darfur/the US etc. well you weren’t raped in the Congo so whats your problem?
6. Time out: Dr. Denis Mukwege (shown on video) and Dr. Jo Lusi (not shown on video but equally awesome) of Panzi Hospital and Heal Africa respectively are probably some of the top 10 awesomest human beings alive. So bask in his awesomeness while he is on.
7. Bah. talking about women as victims? What about as survivors (back to the helpless victim stereotype)
8. Lots of talk about Rwandans.. context given as to genocide? Nada.
3 replies on “Sienna Miller in the DRC – 8 minutes. its good. real good.”
I should mention that Rwanda and the DR Congo have an incredibly complex history that dates back to before the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Also this movie focuses on “Interhamwe” and “Rwandans” raping when in fact there are credible reports (see Human Rights Watch: Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone) that a huge proportion of rape perpetrators are within the DR Congo army. I feel like this movie gives you a Rwanda bad DRC good dichotomy when the issues are wayyyyy more complex.
selfless celebrities saving the world one country at a time
One thing missing from the critique: criticism of capitalism, one of the causes of the Rwandan genocide, since it was war profiteering from France, that entailed the massacre from the beginning. Also, hierarchy was the other cause, since the Tutsi and Hutu were divided into classes by the white colonial governments in place. Lastly, fascism, which is capitalism without restraint and enables racial superiority. As Malcolm X once said, you can’t have capitalism without racism. Oh and the problems of patriarchy as well, if we want to add more meat to this intersection critique to further the problems facing not just Africa, but the global south, from world systems stance, in the anarchist sense. Down with the state!