An open letter to my many Somali friends
2010-11-05
Dear friends,
When Abdi Ismael Jama graduated from film school in Amsterdam his dream was to make a film about his childhood in Somalia in the nineteen eighties. Somalis know this period as one of war, death and tragedy which rankles them because they consider it, rightly, to be a climactic period unknown and uncared about in the West.
I spent a month in Somaliland with committed international feature film-makers Roelof Jan Minneboo and producers Michiel and Guillaume (sorry guys, I remember you well but not your full names) as they used precious Canadian and Dutch film fund money to live out there for three months to make this film “Queleh” with local actors and crew.
http://roelofjanminneboo.blogspot.com
This film would have been seen in the West and told the story of that heroic and incredible time and explained to the West why we are hosts to so many of your Somali diaspora now. You would also have had the satisfaction of knowing that your story had been told from your perspective.
They you, my Somali friends, got greedy. Your Somaliland Minister of Information and National Guidance assigned Mohamed Bashir to the team by the as a Security Consultant who then charged $3,500 for unrequired services. Members of Abdi Ismael Jama's clan threatened to harm the crew and equipment if they didn't pay them 30.000euros and $57.500 for Abdi’s half-brother Ibrahim a.k.a. Fakte because, in part, “this film is for black people”.
Such payments are and never were possible. The crew’s fixer was attacked and the ministry decided filming was not possible “for security reasons”. The film is cancelled, abandoned and your story will not be told. The West will continue to only know of your country as inhabited by pirates, warlords and gangsters – Now it will add greed to that list.
I do not want to think this of so many Somali friends who I know to have integrity and honour. Why, good decent Somalis, do you allow others to treat your friends this way?
Bill Brookman
The Bill Brookman Foundation
I suppose this was the impression Roelof Jan Minneboo and his colleagues worked so hard to create about Somaliland and Africa. Provoking conflicts, disrespecting local people and their values, making false promises, exploiting locals with the possible minimum wage, should I continue? Mr. Bill Brookman what a blind judgement you have forwarded! The most professional thing to do would have been to check both sides of the story before you bottle and label Africa. Your reaction says too much about your sense of judgment and principles.
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