Filmmaker Ken Fero on Deaths in Police Custody

Joy Gardner

There's a reason why everyone in my neighbourhood in South London knows who Trayvon Martin was.

A few months ago, a local public meeting was held. The posters all featured a photo of Trayvon. No caption, no explanation. But everyone in this area knows that similar things happen here.

I know Trayvon was not killed by the police, but his killing was sanctioned by the courts.

BFI London South Bank recently held a day on deaths in police custody, as part of the African Odysseys ongoing film series.

Filmmaker Ken Fero, director of numerous documentaries including the multi-award-winning Injustice, spoke in the morning and screened clips from his films. In the afternoon, two of those films were screened.

Injustice chronicles the fight for justice of seven families whose members died in police custody. None of the police officers involved in these killings have been prosecuted or disciplined. Six of the families are Black (African Caribbean), the seventh is Irish. An Irishman was gunned down as he walked through Brixton carrying a wooden table leg. The police stated they thought he was armed with a gun.

All of these families are still continuing to fight for justice.

Injustice has never been shown on UK television. When it was first released in 2001, every time it was due to be shown in cinemas, the police would phone the cinema about 15 minutes before the screening was due to start, threatening legal action. They claimed the film “might be libellous”.

Ken Fero, filmmaker

However, as Fero explained at the BFI, the audience inevitably contained someone who owned a business or ran a community centre or another venue. So the audience would decamp down the street, and the film would be screened.

Like a lot of people, I was very keen to see the film, and I saw it in a barbershop in South London. All I can say is, if you haven't seen Injustice, you need to see it.

Fero has made many other films about human rights abuses committed in Britain and other European countries, notably Germany and France. It was, frankly, disturbing to hear him say how many times he has filmed some of the same families. For example, the family of Joy Gardner, a Jamaican citizen who died in police custody in 1993.

Joy Gardner suffocated whilst in police restraints. The press labelled her an illegal immigrant and, as Fero pointed out, ignored the fact that other labels could equally be applied to her. Like “student” and “mother”.

He also said that, between 2001 and 2011, another 1,000 people died in police custody. This is an escalation, as more than 1,000 deaths in police custody had occurred in the previous 30 years.

Fero said he makes these films in order to inspire people and educate them about how to take action. He told me that he doesn't want to continue to make these films but, as I am sure he would agree, it is vital that he does.

And while we are collectively mourning Michael Brown, Eric Garner and all the others, we are aware that these things also happen here.

Please join us for the International Summit on Nonviolence today.

See also: Deaths in Police Custody.

Mugabe: Villain or Hero?

The documentary Mugabe: Villain or Hero? was shown recently as part of the African Odysseys strand at BFI London South Bank.

Mugabe: Villain or Hero? examines the current situation in Zimbabwe. If you have heard or read about Robert Mugabe in the Western media, you may be very surprised at what you learn from this film.

The film documents the history of Zimbabwe from independence to the present day. The making of the film is a story within the story.

The director, Ghanaian Roy Agyeman, travelled to Zimbabwe on the promise of being given access to Robert Mugabe within three months. It turned out to be more like three years.

Over the course of that time, Agyeman interviewed Zimbabweans and experienced life in the country during a period of economic instability and hyper-inflation caused by the economic sanctions imposed by the West. At one point, people could only withdraw 5 million per day from the bank, while a taxi journey cost twice that.

Robert Mugabe had been elected on the basis of his promise to redistribute Zimbabwe’s land. As with other former colonies, such as Kenya, white settlers occupy the best, most fertile land in Zimbabwe. Black people – the majority population – struggle to survive on a much smaller percentage of land.

The film also covered aspects of history of which I was not aware:

In 1979, Mugabe was pressured into signing the Lancaster Agreement, which required him to wait 10 years before redistributing the land. He was photographed with world leaders including Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and with celebrities including Princess Diana. He was knighted by the Queen and was suggested as a possible recipient of a Nobel Prize.

Having waited 10 years, Mugabe was then prevailed upon by other African leaders to wait another five years, until after Nelson Mandela had been released from prison.

As part of the agreement, Britain agreed to provide funds to finance the redistribution of the land. But in 1997, the newly-elected New Labour government under Tony Blair reneged on the deal, claiming that as they were a new party, they had nothing to do with the agreement that had been signed.

Mugabe’s government started redistributing the land. The film states that some atrocities were committed. The white landowners whose land was repossessed were still each offered land amounting to100 times the size of Wembley Stadium.

Such was Mugabe’s distrust of Western journalists and news media that it took three years before he finally granted an interview with Agyeman, who had been following him around for much of the time, filming his activities from a distance.

The interview with Robert Mugabe was very refreshing. It was wonderful to hear him state that the redistribution of Zimbabwean land was “right”. At no point has he backed down from that position.

The discussion afterwards and Q & A with the director, Roy Agyeman, was ably led by Henry Bonsu of Colourful Radio. I interviewed Henry in my book Black SuccessStories.

What this film makes clear is that, as people of my generation are aware, the situation in Zimbabwe is about land. It is a land issue. Younger people may not realise this, though, because of the way Mugabe has been demonised by the press.

It was said that one winds up feeling like the lone voice, as if one were mad, if one’s view diverges from the portrait of Mugabe painted by the Western media, and this very much resonated with me.

As with other issues, the facts have often been distorted and misrepresented. As bloggers, we have a responsibility to uncover the truth and to share it.

As the film pointed out, much of the Western media and many Western governments and financial interests do not want to see Zimbabwe become prosperous. They will do anything they can to undermine Zimbabwe and smear Mugabe’s name. This is because land redistribution also needs to happen in other former colonies, such as Kenya and, of course, South Africa, and foreign powers fear losing their influence and their economic dominance.

With its mineral wealth, Zimbabwe can potentially become one of the strongest economies in Africa, and perhaps the world.

Mugabe: Villain or Hero? is an excellent film which sets the record straight, and you really need to see it. Everyone should see it.

For more about African history, see: Naij: A Film History of Nigeria.

For more about the way the media manipulate us by misrepresenting the facts, see this blog about the Niger Delta. 

Plus click here for more Black history resources. 

 

Nigerian Films at the BFI

Phone Swap and Maami are two films showing at the BFI this Saturday, as part of the African Odysseys strand, organised by London Black History Walks in conjunction with the BFI.  You can watch the trailer below.  

See also:  Naij:  A Film History of Nigeria.  

See also:  Film Africa:  Filming Tomorrow