“Magodonga’s greatest achievement — that she has given the women of Zimbabwe each other. That she has given people who long for peace and justice each other. That she has given them a voice they can only have collectively-and a strength that they can only have together. They are a force to be reckoned with.”
President Obama at Presentation of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
Bobby Kennedy once said, “All great questions must be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people — speaking out — in prose, or painting or poetry or music; speaking out — in homes and halls, streets and farms, courts and cafes — let that voice speak and the stillness you hear will be the gratitude of mankind.”
The full speech of Obama at the Human Rights Award is here.
Khulu Radebe is on the Hillside Digital board of trustees and a member of the council of elders in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. Khulu is a retired MK (ANC military wing) soldier. He was jailed during the Apartheid era on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela.
While in exile during Apartheid, Khulu; a jazz drummer, played in New York and Geneva. He played with some of the best jazz musicians of the day. Here he is explaining the meaning of the word “ubuntu” to founder of Hillside Digital, Danny Lurie.
Thanks to Tess Martin-Fox, in Chicago, for her courage in sharing her journey battling cancer, and for her passion for this project, that like a fire has spread to many folks there. To my dear Rushay, Port Elizabeth, for his “ubuntu” photo, that started all of this, he has become such a wonderful brother to me and to my best friend Angela in Miami, who helped create this u tube video of the podcast : she is in hospital today with major surgery and our thoughts are with her.
This interview was created in response to the #tatforanangel project started as a result of community across the world responding to a desire to raise a voice for the people of Alexandra via the work of Hillsidedigital.
This week Danny Lurie and his team will start training of selected individuals in the Alexandra Township. Several individuals will be trained in citizen journalism film production. Their voices and stories will be shared with their local community groups as well as the international online media. Their needs will hopefully be enabled to access appropriate funds.
This work is overseen by the Council of Elders, for whom Khulu Radebe speaks. For the project to be sustained international & local support for Hillside Digital online Ecommerce platform must begin.
We are all so grateful for the many individuals across nations particularly on twitter and facebook who have already given their support. The Tattoo of Ubuntu that myself and Tess will get is a creative a solidarity for that. Across the world we see the need for people to grasp that we are “One Humanity” and together we can make a difference to the lives of others less fortunate. That is the spirit of Ubuntu
Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~ Marrianne Williamson
This was Sent to me yesterday via twitter through my friend Tess, who I have just got to know in last couple of weeks http://twitter.com/girlzoo .
She has been so encouraging to me particularly through the music she sends me every so often via http://blip.fm/girlzoo and also her support of Hillsidedigital, which I am now working for in online support. Hillside Digital is a foundation that creates citizen journalist digital film production units in impoverished and marginalized communities around the world, about to launch shortly in South Africa.
In fact she is so inspired by all that is happening at Hillsidedigital she has even got a South African Twibbon on her avatar though living in the US!
Although neither of us are particularly big fans of tattoos, we both understand the concept of Ubuntu…a traditional African Philosophy, that is at the heart of our thinking ~ a view also endorsed by Nelson Mandela, Bono, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Clinton amongst others.
After being inspired by a photo taken by http://www.rushay.org, shown in the post below, sent to me on facebook this week, we have both decided to get an Ubuntu “Tattoo“!!
This will be to raise awareness & funds for the work that is launching very soon at http://hillsidedigital.com in Alexandra Township South Africa.
Approximately $700000 is needed to launch the media & online e commerce platforms for people in marginalized areas to have a voice.
Others online have started to join us in designing a custom made calender of the #ubuntugirls! Thanks to Justine Warrington , a Canadian actress and singer, now based in LA & Kathryn Jennex, a Canadian Film Director and social media expert supporting so far …more welcome!!!)
We are also so grateful to Steve Brogan (my hero) (Chris Brogan’s Dad..a little name drop there! lol), who will start a Fundraiser for us in his hometown and heywho, who has helped with branding/calendar ideas!
Today Tess sent me a video of her photos taken whilst undergoing chemotherapy for Breast Cancer. It was sent in response to my telling her she was so brave to get a Tattoo! Its the second time she has ever sent this video out…so its not something she shares easily. I feel so priviledged and was quite simply in tears
The video really hit home to me that LIFE IS SHORT and people like this who have been through the valley really know that ~
It makes you truly think…
What would I do today ? ..if I were brave…
This is why#tatforanangel will be that…not some sort of gimmick, but will really to show a visual statement on our skin that is shown through what we mean is the spirit of Ubuntu.
A sign that we are all in this together ~ I am I because of you
She has already decided to have hers this design but hot pink & black!! http://twitpic.com/o3×1w
Danny Lurie & @heywho have also committed to getting Tattoos done!! Though I believe Danny will be behind the camera for mine in SA for a live broadcast!! ouch ouch! The pain … I can feel it already!
We are very grateful to those who have started to volunteer to come over to South Africa to give time & support. Already 3 three folks in Canada, one in Italy, Denmark, another in Germany as well as myself . Those in SAfrica are also committing time. Rushay, who lives in Port Elsizabeth has offered to travel to Cape Town for one month to support training, along with Francois Verster a South African filmmaker who I met in June 09 at the Guth Gafa festival Ireland.
We are so blessed.
I need to thank one of my very first online friends who I met via lastfm, Jennifer, for her introduction to Rushay ~ without whom the #tatforanangel project would never have started! Apart from Francois Verster I have not met any of the people that have offered to help. This is social media community and this is what we also hope to do through Hillside Digital. We want to enable the voices of people in impoverished communities be heard by teaching online skills and also basic TV production skills that enable them to access both their own community as well as the international community for support. All of this happened with in the course of this week. The journey has just begun… anything is possible.
The sharing and exchanging of ideas, being open and available as all of the volunteers have been so far, and mostly strangers too, is what is the meaning of Ubuntu. Its a bond between people that makes us feel part of a whole. Its what will empower and what will ultimately be the difference.
A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars….”
50 of the world’s most inspiring and iconic figures over the age of 65 share their words of wisdom. Wisdom is a multimedia exhibition that features extraordinary large-format portraits and documentary footage of interviews created by award-winning photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman.
“If we as creators redefine cinema as its complete whole — if we take back what has always been ours — cinema will no longer be the same art form it was 100 years ago, nor will we have the same film industry that we do today. Yet, to think forward, we have to look backwards and recognize cinema for what it truly is and stop naming a part of it as the whole.
• Cinema is not just the narrative component.
• Cinema is the entire process;
• it is the dialogue that goes on between the audience and the content.
• It is the experience that resonates long after the lights have been turned on.” ~ Ted Hope
In key note speech to POWER TO THE PIXEL: London Film Festival Take Back What Has Always Been Yours
on 10/14/09
