All language subtitles for Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006)

-Who are you?
-I'm Zegue Bamba.

-Are you a witness?
- Yes.

Bei!

Would the court usher...

ask the gentleman to remove his hat?

Tell him it's not his turn yet.
He'll get his chance to speak.

He can wait in the courtroom.

Words are something...

They can seize you in your heart.

It's bad if you keep them inside.

You can say what you have
in your heart when the time comes.

Since he hasn't asked you to speak,

stop now and sit down.

It doesn't matter...

He says he understands.

The goat has its ideas
but so does the hen.

When you come for something,

you have to do it.

You must know
why you're here.

But coming and leaving
without speaking...

Tell him to speak to the court.

You haven't been asked to speak.

Go and sit down.
Your chance will come.

They're just asking you
to wait.

I'll give him back his word.

My words won't remain within me.

All right. Thank you.

Chaka...

Ina has atemperature.

Mum...

I'm fine.

I'm okay.

Yes, everything's fine.

I just have a cold.

She's asleep.

I'm coming back to Dakar.

The railway brought Africa
its emancipation.

That's the role
of labour regulations in Africa.

It awoke political awareness.

The World Bank is throwing
all that out with the trash.

Our identity, your identity,
our history, your history.

What are your feelings
when you witness this disaster?

I don't care...

You complicate things too.

Here, take this.

The hearing has resumed,
please sit down.

Ifyou go in, you're not filming!
No one films here.

Bei!

I'm singing late tonight.

- Hello, Boire, how are you?
- Hello.

It is stated that the share
of our states' budgets

devoted to social services
and to the repayment of the debt

is set as follows
between 1992 and 1997.

We have examined afew countries.

I shall use those examples.

In Kenya, when the national budget
allocated 12.6%

to the basic social services,
health, education

and infrastructure,

40% of that same budget was devoted
to repayment of foreign debt.

In Zambia, when 6.7%

was spent on basic social services,

40% was again used
to pay off the debt.

In Cameroon, it's even worse.

4% of the budget was spent
on basic social services

while 36% was used
to pay off the debt.

To take a concrete example,

of the 200 billion CFA francs
in Cameroon's budget,

only 8 billion was spent
on basic social services

while, at the same time, 72 billion
left the country to pay off the debt.

Howdo you feel about these figures

that are particularly disastrous
for African peoples?

See that policeman there?

He's not a good man.

I'm a criminologist, see.

You work for the police?

I just take photos for them.

When there are crimes,
murders or accidents,

I take photos.

Does this mean, in these
Burkina Faso peasants' words,

that Africa at last accepts
globalization

and simply asks that the rules

be fair, transparent
and valid for all?

The relationship is governed
by lies, hypocrisy and cynicism.

Everything is done to make sure

Africans are unaware
of the system's rapacity.

That is what I denounce when I say

the impetus is northern
but the theft is local,

done with our complicity.

I make a little money that way,

Iike with weddings.

There's another market now:.

funerals.

There's money in that.

The faces of people who talk
don't interest me.

There's no truth in them.

I prefer the dead.

They're truer.

Firstly, I strongly oppose the idea

that Africa's key characteristic
is her poverty.

She is the victim of her riches.

I would rather we talk
about pauperization

than poverty.

In talking of pauperization,
you pinpoint the mechanisms

and Bush is at the heart of them.

Bush is the conductor.

Therefore, I don't see...

why he is complaining.

I say that the West has created
and imposed two fears on itself:

terrorism and immigration.

Let's stay calm.

We must stop presenting

the problems' causes
as the solution.

Everything can be sold or bought.

Today, a sick woman in a village
risks dying

because the nurse
who has the medicine

won't treat her
because she can't pay.

That is what it has come to,
what we've learned from the system.

In other words, pay or die.
That's the West's lesson

that we inflict on ourselves.

And, personally, I think

that what Africa needs to do now

is to make an effort
to pull herselftogether.

Along with the West,
we are caught up

in striving for a society
that we can't attain.

Our public services
have been sold off.

We could have developed a control
system for the administrators,

brought the necessary pressure
to bear,

and denounced the profiteers.

We have accepted it at times.
If you had awell-placed relative,

you were happy
to profit from the system with him.

How can we take back our assets?
That's a major political issue.

Death is good.

Nothing's better than death.

Your suggestion
is that you pull yourself together.

That's afine idea,
awide-ranging and abstract idea,

but it isn't a programme.

After this first remark,
I would like

to take two examples
that will provide striking proof

that your ideas...

- Can you get to the point?
- Right away.

For instance, I have heard
Maitre Tall provide figures

and you have approved them.
What figures?

My esteemed colleague,
you said earlier,

"We are given 54 billion

"and, in actual fact,
we have to pay back 436 billion."

Do you know, madame,

that, for Mali, we plan to give up

the sum of 1.42 billion CFA francs

that represents 60% of the debt?

Are you aware of that fact?

I'm aware
of that act of deception and...

Madame Traore,
please address the court.

It was decided at Gleneagles,
during the G8 summit,

as part of a so-called
cancellation of the debt.

Firstly, we consider,

given the interest rates applied,

that Africa has paid off this debt

and owes nothing more
to these institutions.

Secondly, we say

that the disastrous nature
of economic policies

in which only borrowed money
was invested

without any benefit
to the people of Mali and Africa,

is a moral wrong
that didn't even require

this "good deed" by the G8.

But, above all, I wish to say
that this 1.42 billion

is not fresh money
injected into Mali's economy.

What we need today

is fresh money in order
to create jobs and to invest.

We haven't even
mentioned corruption yet.

I feel that the correct use
of our own resources

could safeguard us today

from this manipulation of opinion

that presents afalse cancellation
as atrue one.

We shall perhaps be able to save
afewbillion each year

as part of the debt
we're paying off.

But this decision has done more

to improve the G8's image
than to actually help Africa.

True, I haven't put forward
a programme

but that isn't my intention.

I would simply like
a critical mass of Africans

to knowmore about the reasons
why we are in this position.

Your Honour,
I agree with the witness.

Writers
don't put forward programmes.

And I also agree that writers

should denounce
what they are able to observe.

They can express their personal
feelings and thoughts.

But you abandoned
that role just now, madame.

You presented yourself,
on this stand, as an expert.

You tackled specific issues,

you spoke about the debt,

you said the debt impoverishes
Africa, a moot point,

and that its cancellation,
as you just said,

is of no consequence.

I am a citizen of this country,

with my feet firmly grounded
in the realities of this country.

Being awriter doesn't mean
I don't have a certain expertise

at dealing with aggressive stances

in an open debate

on issues that I experience
from the inside.

But this money comes with a provison.

It forces the hand of 18 countries

to make them speed up
the structural reforms

that benefit the North.

But I'm not only fighting
for subsidies.

I'm fighting for the possibility
for a country like Mali

to produce cotton if it wishes
or not, but to earn its living.

A living to sell what?

That's why this issue
goes way beyond Africa.

Why should the fate of people depend

on their ability to produce
and sell abroad?

China's expansion
must be integrated into the debate.

Your own countries tremble
before China. What will Mali do?

I believe that cotton production
has had its day.

Besides, with the prices of products

that come from China
and copy our textiles,

there is no major stake for us
in the cotton debate.

"ln an inevitably open world,

"we must civilize globalization

"and give it a meaning."

What do you think of those words?

Can progress be made or not
during the globalization process?

For example,
if the standards enforced

by the ILO were made general,
would that be good or bad?

Or would that merely
oppress the Africans even more?

I strongly oppose your starting
point: "the open world".

We don't live in an open world,
Mr Rappaport.

The words you just read

provide an eloquent answer
to the questions that you ask.

If globalization
needs to be improved and civilized,

that means it "decivilizes"
and dehumanizes.

Today, we see Africans
who opt for emigration,

who are economic refugees,

arrested, handcuffed, deported,
humiliated and sent back home.

How can you claim,
given that terrible situation

that shocks the whole world,
that we live in an open world?

It's clearly open for whites
but not for blacks.

I'm awitness.

Madou Keita isn't on the list.

Step back.

Our countries
are not imploding today

because, on a domestic level,

the women play an important role.

That is why they must refuse
to be imprisoned

within the conventional
interpretation of the situation

that says they are victims
of their culture, society and men.

The men are in trouble,
the women too.

We have to work together.

- Where's the mirror?
- Here it is.

Very pretty.

I'll do you a good price.

You all say that.

Some darker ones.

They're by Gucci,
an Italian designer.

Where's the Gucci logo?

It's top quality.

Where's the logo?

They're by Gucci.

So where's the logo?

Falai...

That's not the same policeman.

The one there before

fell asleep during the break.

He said his gun has vanished.

An officer's investigating.

He suspects me.

Raise your right hand and swear
to tell nothing but the truth.

What does he want?

We were in Morocco together.

He's the one we need for now.

You can sit down.

He says that he left Mali

to go to Spain.

He crossed Niger.

He left Niger and went to Algeria.

From there, he went to Morocco.

The Moroccans
brought us back to Oujda.

They made us all board atruck

to take us into the Sahara.

From there, we walked to Algeria.

The Algerians refused to let us in.

They helped us the first time,

but this time they didn't.

They opened fire on us
but the bullets didn't hit anyone

and we set off again.

There were around 30 of us.

We walked for seven nights.

We walked for aweek.

Without water or food.

Those who were sick
were soon exhausted.

One man couldn't go any further.

His young brother sat down
next to him

to wait for him.

He said, "Don't wait.

"Go.

"I can't go on,

"I accept death.

"There's no sense
in you waiting with me.

"Go..."

There was a woman with us.

She was from Ghana.

We didn't know she was a woman.

She was disguised as a boy.

She was exhausted.

We went over to her
to help her.

We couldn't do anything.

There were 30 of us at first

but only ten or so
survived without much trouble.

We don't knowwhere the others are.
Are they dead?

Are they wandering in the Sahara?
I don't know.

Madou Keita...

The reason why you left
your country,

was the suffering you felt.

Since your birth, Madou,

have you been to school to learn?

Since your birth, Madou,

has the state given you
the health care you need?

Since your birth, Madou,

has the state taught you atrade?
Has it found you work?

Has it given you money?

It has given me nothing.

Nothing.
The state has given me nothing.

What do you mean?

You're not thinking.

You're being unreasonable.

We can understand him.
Look at yourself and look at him!

You'll never be like them!

Howcan you defend them?

Look at yourself and look at him!

Until your dying day,

you'll never be like them!

Never like them.

You're lost for us!

Madame, please...

Let me speak.
Let me speak to this fool!

Look what he's doing!

Please, madame.

- He's just doing his duty.
- Let's get serious here!

Honestly!

What is this?
You're wearing us out.

Ifwe were alone,
you wouldn't leave unharmed.

I'd accept the consequences.
Enough suffering!

Enough suffering!

Enough manipulation...

The hearing is adjourned.

Saramba, will this do?

Hold it up to see.

That's good.
Rinse it and hang it out to dry.

You knowRaymond is dead?

Which Raymond?

The same one.

What was wrong with him?

Nothing.

- 140/120... That's good.
- It's good?

Thank you.

What are you looking for here,
by this streetlight's glow?

Have you lost something?

Yes, I've lost my wallet.

Are you sure you lost it here?

And now, tonight's film.

I'll be here tomorrow
for our news bulletin.

Good night.

Some technical problems

but everything will be settled
shortly.

I'm lost here.

Knowwhere the square is?

They don't need two teachers.

Spare the kids.

Guys...

I fired at one

and I got two!

What's up, guys?

Have you seen my soap-dish?

No, I haven't.

Mamou!

Take this.

Let's do the blue ones.

Do a sky blue one like this.

I'm off to Dakar on Sunday.

But without lna.

Tell me, what's going on
between Mele and you?

Nothing.

What do you mean, nothing?

You don't talk to her anymore.

She's the one not talking to me.

Nor to Mariam, either.

Ifyou want to sort it all out,
talk to your wife,

not to me.

All rise.

As social realities demand,

we shall take a short break.

Aren't there people with money
in Mali?

People who've enriched themselves?

People who are rich enough

and who can now create jobs

by founding a company
and keeping it in Mali

simply don't exist.

We have heard awitness, a mutual
insurance manager, Mr Aouitara.

Is that his name? Ouatara.

Mr Ouataratold us

that part of the money
provided by international aid

wasn't spent.
He didn't say it was embezzled.

He said it was there
and that it wasn't being used.

Money is provided but not used

even though it is vital.
Why is that?

I can't say anything
about Mr Ouatara's statement.

It's his opinion.
My viewis different.

It's not a matter of opinion...

Maitre Rappaport,
let the witness answer.

Yes, Your Honour.

Mr Keita,
actually, Maitre Rappapov...

Ra-ppa-port.

...is saying our disbursement
capacities are poor.

Very poor!

Maitre Rappaport,

Iet's consider
the most social fields today

and that are also considered
fundamental for us.

Education.

Has anyone ever seen a school built

using what you refer to
as financial means? No.

We can provide figures.

Let's not clutter up this debate.

Maitre Rappaport, he's awitness,
not the opposing party.

Occasionally, through twinning
or another form of cooperation,

it can come about.

As part of the process
of decentralization,

we have made a superhuman effort

to ease our suffering.

And, in these conditions,

all we can do
is come to terms with ourselves.

And break away from this system.

Have you read Lao-Tse?

Confucius.

I haven't read all of it.

I win a point. He says,

"He who is excessive
is insignificant."

We would gain in all matters
if we avoid being excessive.

Listening to you,

our African nations

were calm states or countries,

without problems, prosperous...

Then came the World Bank
and the lMF,

and we became poor

and we have become poorer
and poorer. Is that right?

These countries have known
100 years or more of colonization

and, with colonization over,

are struggling to ensure
the conditions for their development.

And what do they find themselves
facing?

An international diktat,
institutions

that more or less regulate
world relations.

I don't see howyou can describe
those countries as you just did.

I did inform you, professor,
that I'm no expert in this field.

But you've just said...

Our countries were characterized

more or less
like in Aime Cesaire's poem,

"The Prayer of a Negro Child".

The very same thing.
We've known nothing but misfortune.

And it's getting worse.

Is it absurd to imagine...

that this increased poverty

could have a cause other than
the World Bank and the lMF?

Well before colonization,

there was a country,

awealthy and stable country
where life was good.

But colonization came along
and set up what?

It took everything:

men, riches, everything.

A leading gold-producing country
where the people are poor.

As you can see, our women

don't even wear gold jewellery.

Can we imagine aworld without
the lMF or the World Bank?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

When someone dies in Africa,

at that person's funeral,

one of the questions asked

is whether he owes money

or if there is anyone
in his local community

who owes him money.

In Africa, we remind people

that death is better than shame.

The African states owe money.

Is it normal

that these people
should claim their due

and that you, as an expert,

should advise these Africans
not to pay off their debt?

Chaka...

What are you reading?

Falai...

Is there an lsraeli embassy here?

No.

One day there will be.

Yes, that's possible.

The guard will be me.

You're going to choke.

I'm sorry.

The question we are asking now

after around 45 years
of cooperation,

with these states and institutions,

is where are we exactly?

And we've had to wait 45 years
to realize

that, despite having
everything needed to achieve it,

the economy has never taken off
or developed over time

but that we're bogged down
in anti-development.

Malnutrition, undernourishment,

chronic illiteracy,
chronic unemployment

and even the total lack
of decent living conditions.

As we can see, promiscuity reigns.

It's impossible to describe.

What does this lead to?

The total degeneration
of the foundations

that represented
our society's key values.

To that, we need to add

this flood of information we receive
that only flows one way.

At times,
it cancels out all our efforts

to try to live as we really are.

Because even within
our imaginations, we are raped.

They don't just take
our resources, our work,

and our money,
they take our minds too.

We have reached the last threshold
of the human heartbeat.

And now, in atotally biased manner,

they come to observe this failure.

And, on observing it,
they say, "No.

"You must maintain libertarianism

"as the development mode
for your countries."

In other words, prevent us
from creating a payments deficit.

That presupposes that all the money
we receive must be used

to restore and maintain our solvency
in relation

to our creditors

and cannot be used
within the national economy.

Today, we pay out much more
than the true total of our budgets.

This framework of action
set up by the World Bank,

what effect will it have?

It will smother afire

that will continue to smoulder.

It's simply the fire
of imposed destitution.

It's the fire
of aterrible form of colonialism.

It's the fire of an unspeakable
form of exploitation.

It means some countries
will disappear.

We are barely kept
in this international system

and take part in it
just because we are

good little markets
and a source of money.

Today, we give everything
to North America

and we give everything to Europe!

Through the rape of my imagination
and of the little space

that I could call my own,

they come to tell me
that the Negro is lazy.

He cannot develop independently.

But this Negro
that you are crushing to death

with your economic
and financial machinery

Iaid the foundations
of your economy.

And this Negro
has ensured your development.

Today, in Mali or other countries,

if you fall ill
and you have no money,

you're dead.

Everything here
concerning democracy or elections

is nothing but a show,
a big show.

We occasionally go to vote

but it's as if we were never there.

This external legitimacy of power
remains in place today,

many intellectuals have accepted it,

but I won't judge anyone.

But each one of us
had a moment of clarity

and then made a deliberate choice.

Either I fully support
the true ideals of my people

or I sell them off,

as many of our governments do.

That's their share of responsibility
in this.

I think I should have stayed there.

Perhaps it was better for me

than coming to work
for a corrupt Mali administration

that has no responsibilities.

We end up asking ourselves,

"Why do we receive a salary?

"For a job we don't do."

All of a sudden, we regress

in relation to goals that we had

or that we were attaining before.

They've taken everything from us.

I didn't realize that poverty,
albeit imposed poverty,

could change human nature
to this extent.

But today,

I may be allowed to assert that
when I step out into the street,

believe me,
I don't meet other Malians.

I see everything in Mali
but Malians.

A man who is hungry,
a man without health care,

a man who is never educated
and left in total obscurantism,

is a man who will negate himself
and be in denial.

He's a man who will become
alienated, lost and depraved.

You can't come in.

The witness Samba Diakite.

Your full name, please.

Samba Diakite,

born in Dakar, 1953.

Hamdallaye district.

Your profession?

Former schoolteacher.

Former schoolteacher.

You have nothing to say?

Your date and place of birth.

I was born in Bamako. I'm 52.

Do you know
who summoned you as awitness?

Yes, the plaintiff.

Yes, the plaintiff. African society.

Opposite, we have international
financial institutions.

Are you related or subordinate
in any way

to either of the two parties?

In no way at all.

Raise your right hand.

Swear to tell nothing but the truth.

Raise your hand and swear.

I swear.

Samba Diakite...

If you please...

But trees are vital for life.

That's true, but to run a company,
you don't need trees.

Fine...

All right.

When the gun vanished,
were you here?

I was here.

You didn't move?

I didn't move.

But I was told
you went out for awhile.

I went to get a spare part
from Japan Casse.

Did you find the part?

No, I didn't.

Come to my office tomorrow.

When you add it all up...

this money squandered...

these public holdings sold off...

these families ruined...

what is your feeling
about that today?

A feeling of shame,

of anger...

Of anger and compassion.
Compassion for the country.

You see villages

that lived through the railway

and that are now obliged,

after 100 years of existence,

that are now obliged
to move somewhere else

because the train no longer stops.

Life came to those villages
because of the railway.

When those villages
are obliged to move,

when their inhabitants,

in order to buy food,
have to travel by donkey,

by cart or on foot

and when the young people
who grewvegetables can't sell them

because they used to sell
to the train's passengers,

you witness the start of an exodus.

And when they are turned back,

the situation is distressing.

And when you wrote
on November 4, 2002,

to the Ministry of Transport,

you made a serious accusation.

In reference to the railway,
you wrote,

"It's the victim of a conspiracy."

This accusation of conspiracy,

I presume you have proof of it?

What elements do you have
to back up this serious accusation

of conspiracy against the...

Be quiet!

Maitre Rappaport, I have to...

Don't oblige me to...

The witness never spoke of
a conspiracy!

The witness spoke of a conspiracy.

Let's refer to the statement...

I did indeed speak of a conspiracy.

In fact,

a letter was received,

addressed to the authorities,

saying that if we refused
to privatize the transport system,

the World Bank would withdraw
subsidies

for health and education in Mali.

It was a confidential letter.

You can't just come before a court
and say, "There's a conspiracy."

"Howdo you know?"

"l sawa letter."

Where's the proof of
this conspiracy?

For example,
is the World Bank to blame

when a manager buys ballpoint pens

and pays 1,500 CFA francs
when he can get them for 500?

Do we truly believe the World Bank
steps in at that level

or does the World Bank
make the manager plant trees...

I've finished.

Are you asking questions
or putting your case?

Your Honour, the other side...

You can plead your case later.

The other side
pretends to ask questions,

develops lines of argument...

We're being discreet,
we hardly make any interventions...

We nonetheless have the right to say

that the serious accusations
brought before you

must be backed up
by evidence.

One should be attacking
those responsible.

Your Honour,
you asked questions earlier

that showyou have
afewideas and some information

about the reasons
for the railway's collapse.

Maitre Bourdon, please.

I'm not seeking your approval,

I'm trying to drawyour attention
to some simple points.

Why would the World Bank
want Mali

to be deprived
of a means of communication

and why would it want her inhabitants
to be unable to travel?

A country

without a means of communication,

without energy, without transport,

cannot really be called
a sovereign nation.

And those are precisely the areas

that the multinational companies
wish to take from us.

That's the case

and we must not let it happen.

It's hard...

but I'm more optimistic than hell.

I knowwe can do it.
We just need to get organized.

Fode!

Turn it off.

Your Honour, in relation...

to this witness, may I petition...

Petition in relation to...

Jean-Paul...

I have a dream every night
that bothers me.

What's your dream?

Jean-Paul, I dream...

I'm in the darkness...
the light...

In any case, I'm not at home.

In this dream,

I'm sitting down
and in front of me

there's a big bag.

It's full of the heads

of heads of state.

Each time I dip my hand into it,

I pull the same head out.

And when I put it back,

my dream ends and I wake up.

Is it a black head or not?

I don't know if it's black or white.

In any case, it's the same head.

Don't tell anyone else
about this dream.

Don't talk about it again.

That's not howit works legally.

Maitre Bourdon is giving you lessons
in procedure!

It's a debate, not a lesson.

The witness,

after taking the oath
to tell the truth,

says that she happened
to come across

a letter clearly
not addressed to her,

that she should never have seen,

and so read the said letter.

It's incredibly cynical,

yet typical
of the Bank's general cynicism,

to say,
"Madame, you must be joking.

"That letter can't have existed.

"And if you had it,
you should have copied it

"and sent it to the press."

But she would have risked

years and years of imprisonment,
as you well know.

- It's a risk...
- A huge risk!

She cannot play Antigone
for eternity.

For the moment,
nothing challenges the credibility

of this embarrassing testimony.

Maitre Bourdon,
the lawsays each party

must provide evidence of its claims.

So why are you looking here
and not over there?

Because it's too dark over there.

You can't see anything.

The other day,

you were saying
that the worst after-effect

of structural adjustment

was the destruction
of the social fabric.

This whole part has been erased.

Can you start again?

Howdid that happen?

I must have recorded
the trial over it.

Too many cassettes. I get confused.

No one will listen.

Don't waste your time.

I don't know
if we must share that honour

but, in any case,

it's a great responsibility for us.

We knowthat the audience,

as is only natural,

all the lay-offs and the outcasts
who are here,

who have described their suffering,

wholly support the plaintiff.

And we have clearly perceived
that the court's feelings

are not that far removed
from those of the plaintiff.

And so it's a great responsibility.

You claim
the international institutions,

the World Bank, the lMF
and others you have named,

are deaf and blind.

Deaf and blind

and, if we follow
the reasoning and arguments

that I have heard here,

murderers too.

Murderers even with premeditation...

since we are reproached

with incidents that are real
and that we deplore.

Infant mortality is on the rise

in Africa.

This is an attack
on those who will come after us.

Do you believe,

that for international institutions,

those are the results that we seek?

Do we really want

life expectancy
in regions of Africa

to drop and fall below
the age of 50 years?

People die of diarrhoea in Africa,
people die of malaria

and we're not responsible.
But they die of those things.

Someone has said medicine is in
the North and the sick in the South.

Even if we were guided
by pure self-interest,

we could not possibly
seek such goals.

But that is howthings are.
We knowit and we knowwhy

because we have worked

in partnership with governments

to assess the situation
and to decide

what needs to be...

All the same,
we need to raise an issue

that not only concerns Africa

but that is particularly detrimental
to Africa.

I am talking about corruption.

"Corruption isn't
a natural disaster,

"it is cold
and calculated pillaging."

Far be it from me to claim

that corruption is rife
solely in Africa.

We knowfull well that in the West,
large companies,

Total and oil,

Thales and arms policy,

are caught up
in the cycle of corruption.

But allowme to say
that there is a difference.

What is it?

Corruption in Africa,

given the state
of economic development...

In the West we must fight corruption
and defeat it

but its impact
on economic development

is less serious than in Africa.

This trial's becoming annoying.

When is it going to end?

No one can say.

And nowthe polar icecap is melting.

And the water will flood out.

What will remain of the icecap
in afewdecades?

People have trouble breathing
in some of our big cities.

Aren't those common interests

to be managed together?

We cannot avoid
dealing with these issues.

At the same time,

we are witnessing
the proliferation of weapons.

What will become of us if, one day,

a potentate somewhere

gains access to the atom bomb?
Is that truly impossible?

And there's another danger.

We've all referred to it.

It crosses all continents
and has struck them all.

One of the elements feeding it
is poverty.

Terrorism is a danger not only
for Africa but for all of us.

We want to fight it.

And the fight against terrorism
cannot succeed

without the defeat of poverty

and without giving hope in life

to those who have lost it today.

Thank you, Maitre Rappaport.

But, before going on,

I would like to ask you...

Do you consider this court biased?

Your words seemed to indicate...

Your Honour,

prior to being magistrates,
you are men and women

and you are clearly sensitive

in particular to the suffering
of your people

whose causes and reasons
you are aware of.

And when you see them,
expressing themselves before you,

your heart suffers
and your thoughts are with them

rather than with us.
I do not consider that

to be an abnormal bias.

Are you Chaka's wife?

Why?

I just have a few questions
to ask you.

If it's about the gun,
I don't knowanything.

It is clearly a great honour
to defend African society.

It is a great honour to defend

millions of women and men of honour

who have been represented superbly
over the last fewdays

and who have come to say
that the world, since its creation,

has always made sure

that the part of the world
that suffers and endures

is kept quiet and remains quiet.

For Africato remain silent
in her suffering,

that requires watchdogs.

It requires prison guards at times.

Watchdogs, in other words
the American empire

and its accomplices
in Europe and elsewhere.

It requires Dr Diafoiruses,
Dr Strangeloves

who drawup prescriptions
that Africans "cannot read"

and "never follow".

Prescriptions
of so-called magic potions

that soon turn out to be poisons
with a remarkable effect,

Chinese poisons... And maybe
the Chinese will start too,

making evil absolute.

As a result,

I believe your court can easily
declare the World Bank guilty,

with its accomplices.

After all,
the situation is terrifying.

The figures are murderous
and the statistics homicidal!

We simply need to look back
at the last 20 years

of structural adjustment.

These plans have caused destruction
and impoverishment.

The figures provide
eloquent information

on the tragedy taking place.

Life expectancy has dropped
to the age of 46.

The Aids crisis is manipulated

to conceal that mortality rates

are on the rise
because of their link

to the important
and significant fall

in average income in Africa.

So the party's over.

The party's over and the
structural adjustment plans

have failed wholesale.

50 million African children

are scheduled to die
over the next five years.

Three million are scheduled to die
of malaria next year.

In the face of such tragic figures,
one will say

that the World Bank and the others
have won.

We cannot say it
and we won't say it.

We shall avoid saying it
because structural adjustment

has clearly placed Africa
in a vicious circle,

an absurd circle

that begins, as we have
clearly seen, with the debt!

The debt is a stone
around Africa's neck,

the slave's sign of
allegiance to his master.

The figures speak for themselves.

$220 billion in 2003.

The latest statistics have shown,

Your Honour,

even though $4
has been paid back per African,

$4 remains to be paid.

It is clear that this debt

has brought Africato her knees

by depriving her
of her financial sovereignty,

by dismantling her civil service.

It has forced her
to sell off her public services

to serve financial predators.

It has razed some of her hospitals
to the ground.

It has privatized her school system

through the lowwages
paid to civil servants.

It has brought Africato her knees,
making her the gloomy mirror

of what the world is becoming:
a privatized world.

And in this privatized world,

the World Bank, in theory humane,
has become inhumane!

The World Bank
has become an inhumane bank

because it is the Trojan horse
of financial capitalism.

Of course, one will say

that the corruption

is shared
by the Africans and the Europeans.

But does the defence dare to assert

that Africans invented corruption?

Is there a chromosome of corruption
in Africa?

Remember the corruptors

come from rich countries,
never from poor ones.

The G8 and the World Bank,
after bringing Africato her knees,

are nowthreatening to suspend
all public aid to Africa

because corruption is rife here.

The circle is complete,
confusing causes and consequences.

Murder thus reveals

its sinister side,
the World Bank's cynicism.

Far be it from us, Your Honour,

to claim that the World Bank
feeds on African children

or that it hates
drinking water and public railways!

The World Bank isn't governed

by murderous instincts.

But the World Bank
is simply the cornerstone,

the centre of gravity of
this unchained form of capitalism,

financial capitalism,
predatory capitalism,

capitalism ignoring general
interests to attain its key goals:

the production of profits
for all eternity!

The World Bank occasionally tries
to appear more humane

and I shall give you an example
of its attempts to be more humane.

A fewdays ago in Paris,
crying crocodile tears, who said?

"Every week, 200,000 sick children
aged under five

"die in developing countries."

Paul Wolfowitz said that.

Paul Wolfowitz,
the man behind the war in lraq

that costs more than
providing water to all Africa

and saving Aids victims
with generic drugs.

He's the man who pretended to weep

at a symposium in Paris
afewweeks ago.

Let's end this hypocritical dance.

Let's end
this cursed predatory dance.

Let's consider
the World Bank's arguments.

There seems to be a curse on Africa.

Europe holds up aterrifying mirror
to Africa

that pollutes people's minds
and stifles crucial awareness.

Is Africa doomed?

Is poverty as natural
as tropical genocide,

slavery and neo-colonialism?

You also find this fatality
in the idea

of an ignorant Africa.

What did we hear the other day?

When Madame Souko had the nerve

to say she could read a balance
sheet, they called her an upstart!

The Africans knownothing about
the complexities of this world!

Since they knownothing,

all criticism is considered
unfounded.

Yet we have heard it
bravely expressed here.

So, yes!

You will declare the World Bank
guilty of abusing the African people.

You'll declare the World Bank guilty

of failure to render assistance.

You'll declare the World Bank guilty

of not respecting its mandate
to serve mankind.

In doing that,

you'll open the path to the utopia

that each one of us has in mind

and allows us to imagine a newworld
beyond the hills.

This utopia is, in away,
the African ram

that comes to rub against
and rip the pants

of reasons of state and the market!

Utopia, tomorrow, to avoid
what is under way in the suburbs

of Accra, Abidjan and Cairo

where children drunk on deprivation

could turn into balls of fire
tomorrow.

You'll declare the World Bank guilty

and force it to become more humane.

You'll declare it guilty

of the crimes of inhumanity
and cynicism

committed over 20 years.

The only sentence possible

is the most modest sentence,

the most clement one.

We can't throwWolfowitz
in the Niger.

The caimans wouldn't want him.

The sentence
that we request of you...

Community service for mankind
for all eternity.

I am honoured to appear
before this court

and to lend my robes to defend
a noble and fair cause,

but above all to lend my voice
to Africa's silent majority

that has been subject for 25 years
to the iron law of adjustment,

the law of the strongest
that has never been the best.

Yes, Your Honour,
adjustment is an evil,

an organized and structured evil

administered and inoculated
to our people.

This evil, Your Honour,
is the cynicism of the debt,

the vicious circle of the debt.

This debt that has ruined
our economies

and that has sapped our energy
before we have finished paying it.

What must we do,
faced with the debt's violence?

I hear the Latin Americans.

They told us, Your Honour...

"The debt can't be paid."

Yes, it cannot be paid
because it is illegitimate.

Because it is violent.

It cannot be paid
simply because it is untenable.

On top of the debt's violence,
we witness

the selling off
of our public services,

our basic social services...
Privatization!

The health service
has been privatized

but between June and September 2005,

42,000 people died of cholera,
a mediaeval disease

that was thought
to have been eradicated here.

We don't need to look far.

Here, in this room,
a patient lies suffering.

Do you hear his moans?

I've heard them.
And we're privatizing health!

And that's not all!
We're privatizing education,

a universal right.

The acquisition of knowledge
should be the same for all

but two thirds of our children
are illiterate

and nowwe're being asked to pay
to acquire knowledge!

That's not all! Our public services
have been sold off.

Water has been privatized.

The Joliba, Senegal,
Zambezi, Limpopo!

Our rivers privatized!

With our stories,
legends and traditions

buried in the current,
rivers and lakes!

That's inadmissible.

This people is awidow
mourning the death of a husband

buried under the ruins
of adjustment.

This people is an orphan
crying for a mother

who died in childbirth.

All it asks for is its due:
basic health care.

This people is afather,
made redundant by the railway,

these men you have heard,

these women who have pleaded
on your stand.

The father who has seen
his authority,

who has seen his influence
and his dignity

weakened and swept away
by an unfair redundancy.

This people, Your Honour,
is Zegue Bamba.

Have you heard, Your Honour,
Zegue Bamba's lament?

This peasant who asks,
"Why don't I sowanymore?

"When I sow, why don't I reap?

"Why don't I eat when I reap?"

This Africa, Your Honour,

is asking you with dignity,
humility and modesty,

but with legitimacy, for justice.

You must do justice to Africa.

You must not do this
by condemning the World Bank.

You will achieve it, Your Honour,

by forcing the World Bank,
the lMF, the WTO and the G8,

along with their accomplices,

to respect their mandate

that they should never
have forgotten, with man

as the goal of all humane action.

It's your responsibility, sir,

since your pen
will be signing the ruling.

It's mine too,
through the robes I wear.

And we're all responsible
because it's our duty as a generation

to bring about the advent
of that day

for the balance of the world
and of man's future is at stake.

"My ear to the ground,

"I heard tomorrow pass by"

Subtitles: Ian Burley
Subtitling: CMC