Herzlich willkommen an diesem verregneten Samstagnachmittag bei einer ganz besonderen Ausgabe der Senderei Wassermeyer sucht den Notausgang wiederum aus einem ganz besonderen Raum, nämlich dem Raum Splace, der Galerieräumlichkeit der Kunstuniversität Linz. Ja, in diesen Räumlichkeiten, in denen wir uns jetzt ausnahmsweise befinden, fand in den vergangenen zwei Tagen die internationale Konferenz von DorfTV in Kooperation mit der Kunstuniversität Linz statt, die sich der wichtigen Diskussion zur Zukunft des nicht kommerziellen Fernsehens widmete. Dabei sind eine ganze Menge spannender Debatten entstanden. Auch die Ausstellung hier, die hier noch bis Ende nächster Woche, 7. April, zu sehen ist, ist sehr stark getragen auch von den Gästen, die zu Gast waren, die hier eingeladen wurden. Und ein ganz besonderer Gast sitzt jetzt neben mir im Rahmen der kommenden 50 Minuten meiner Gespräche zu Politik und Kultur in Krisenzeiten, nämlich Sissi Nalomansi. Sissi Nalomansi ist aus Kampala, der Hauptstadt Ugandas, nach Linz gekommen und ich darf sie, bevor wir gleich ins Gespräch einsteigen, kurz vorstellen. Ich habe alle Gäste gebeten, vorab auch zur Konferenz Kurzbiografien zu schicken. Sissi hat eine derart entzückende Kurzbiografie von sich selbst mir übermittelt, dass ich das gerne auch direkt so gleich wiedergeben möchte in der deutschen Übersetzung. Sie beschreibt sich nämlich selbst als eine multidisziplinäre, passionierte Geschichtenerzählerin mit einer ganz besonderen Liebe eben zum Erzählen in der Form von Drehbuchschreiben und Regie. Dieses wiederum ist geprägt vom Verlangen, authentische und schön geformte afrikanische Geschichten aus einer afrikanischen Perspektive zu erzählen. Und genau das ist jetzt auch das Thema, das ich mir in den Mittelpunkt stellen möchte, denn es ist noch immer so, dass viele Menschen Afrika als eine Terra incognita ansehen, vielfach auch mit großer Gleichgültigkeit begegnen. Umso wichtiger ist es, auch mal über Afrika nachzudenken, die Bedeutung des Kontinents, die vielen Fragen, die sich etwa in postkolonialen Zusammenhängen damit stellen. Und kaum jemand ist so berufen, mit mir darüber zu diskutieren wie Sissi Nalomanci. Sissi, it's great to have you here again. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I already introduced you to our audience. That was all me? No, it's just your biograph that you sent me. I introduced you as a filmmaker and storyteller with African backgrounds. Africa is a lot. Africa, I already mentioned that Africa is often seen, considered just one country. Yes, yes. It's for a lot of people a terra incognita. We all actually don't know anything about it. So you are working, your profession is making films. And if you look into the entire world, normally women, the female perspective in film, in movie making is underrepresented. Yes. What does it mean to you to be a female filmmaker? Wow. First of all, thank you for having me here. It's an honour. This is my very first time in Austria. And I am so glad that you get to hear my side of the story, to experience what it means to me to be a filmmaker, to be a filmmaker before a female filmmaker. First of all, when you are a female filmmaker, you have the opportunity to create, and that makes you a god in a way, because when we are making films, we are in a way creating life. We give lives to our characters. We give lives to, we take lives. We can decide that this character should die now in this film and then let this one be born. So being able to tell a story that resonates with people and then you have the power to create something and to kill something and to speak to people's minds and to bring them to make calls to action, that is powerful. That is a power to be reckoned with. And I'm so glad that being a filmmaker gives me a platform to be able to do that. But being a female filmmaker is another opportunity because then I get to get a platform to represent the female perspective of things. I have the power to talk about the females and get the world to listen. So that is super, super important to me as a female filmmaker. But anyway, making films is like being an influencer. Influencer is a term very closely connected to social media applications. We all know Instagram. There are a lot of influencers being very successful, but actually also are influencing people regarding your films and you can directly get into their mind, into their heart, how they feel. That brings up actually a lot of responsibility. How do you deal with this responsibility? Okay. Filmmaking is an emotions business. We are in the business of selling emotions. When you watch a film, you are brought to a certain emotion, either sadness, either happiness, or joy, or anger, any emotion you have. We are very intentional on inciting certain emotions, on evoking emotions that we want people to do with the message that we are passing on to them. And so the moment we are able to be successful at passing these emotions, then we are in business. And so being an emotions business, you don't want to end up passing the wrong, suggesting people into the wrong direction of emotions. You want them to do what you want. It's like manipulation altogether. You are manipulating people to do something about what the message that you're passing. And I think the history of film is where people were using it to manipulate the people to think a certain way. And that was in the World War I. And they wanted people to feel at home when people were in the war dying. And they were like, no, we are winning. That's how Hollywood came about. And we're like, our men our police officers our security our army officers are winning yet they were losing the war so it is all about changing the perspective changing the the minds of people and if you get to do that then you are successful at telling the story that you are telling probably we can approach Uganda as an important African country, but actually we don't know that much about it. Probably we can approach via this filmmaking perspective. How can you describe conditions for filmmaking in Uganda? In an economic term, even in a social term and cultural term. Okay. Uganda is found in the East African part of Africa, just for your information, for those that didn't know. We are an uprising filmmaking industry. We are just at the foothills of rising. filmmaking industry. We are just at the foothills of rising. We are following in the steps of the people that came before us and told amazing stories that inspired us to also take that route. Being that we are young, we are facing the challenges of a young industry, like there's limited to no funding opportunities. And so if you are out there trying to tell your story you gotta be aggressive enough to know when where to get the funding opportunity because there are not so many avenues for you to get these opportunities but nonetheless being that the story is king and you are in a way called to tell this story you find ways you it is like water you can't stop water from flowing it It will either break through the wall, but it will find its way. So that is what it is, that it's the passion that has made us to really stick onto this very young industry when we should be probably joining the industries that have already made it. So economically, that is the situation we are in. Socially, we are excited that we get to represent our culture and I personally am very very interested and intentional in telling stories from the African perspective just trying to export the culture out to people that don't know it to people that think Africa is a country I'm telling you we are a continent not a country to people that don't know the ways of our lives, there's a story that I had from a friend that he came to Europe to study. And they said, but how did you get here? And they thought, he said, yeah, I jumped from one tree to another like a monkey. But he was joking. But the idea that people do not think that in Africa or in Uganda, we have airports where you just take a plane and move from one direction to another is the reason why we need to export our culture and our way of life more to people to get to know us. That way they will not think the worst of us just because they do not know us. So socially, it's exciting, but also being able to tell stories is another way for us to debunk the notions that have been there existing during and after the post-colonial rule, where people do not know us socially. So we are under the shadow of the colonialists. So being able to tell the stories is finding a way to break through that and identifying ourselves away from the masters that were, the ones that came and colonized us and created a hut around us and defined the way that we are supposed to live. So that is what it means. Okay. So we know each other, I guess, since three days. And I learned that there is such a lot in your mind. You remind me like a creative production machine in your brain. But anyway, you are supposed to select ideas approaching to your slots you are coming up with for the movies. And that brings me to the question, how do you choose your topics, actually? What are the main questions coming up in your mind? So I would like to rephrase that instead of the me choosing my topics the topics choose me okay and i can't i can't run away from it i over time i've realized that most of the stories that i tell are women empowerment stories i do not wake up in the morning and i'm like i'm gonna go and tell women empowerment stories. No, I just start writing and then, okay, what story do I want to tell? And many times I am found in spaces where I'm telling women empowerment stories. And so that is a calling to me. I can't do anything else. So it is the same thing like when you're creating a conflict for your character, when you're telling a story in film. And if your character can walk away from that conflict, then there's no story. But if they are in a situation whereby even when they try to run away from the conflict, the conflict finds them where they are, then that is a good story. Then they have to address the conflict in front of their eyes. So it's the same thing with me. The stories that choose me are like a conflict that I can't run away from. And I realized that I am more attracted to women empowerment stories and underdog stories, trying to uplift the spirit of the people to whom I'm sending the message and telling them you can do this. You can break through the barriers. You are empowered you have the brains you have whatever it takes to make it and you do not need anybody else to tell you otherwise so those are the kinds of stories that i find myself chosen to tell yeah during the conference we were also discussing the question how can we all come up with narratives? We need, we do need narratives, stories that we can organize ourselves in our daily life, to frame ourselves, to find our goals, where we want to go. That's very important. And I recognize that you are able to speak and to talk to people in a lot of metaphors, in pictures. And that we're coming back, a couple of European, white European, Austrian guys, and then we're coming back, a couple of European, white European, Austrian guys, and then we're asking ourselves, wow, where did you learn it? And how can, where and how can we get these skills? What can you tell us about that? Being so narrative, so it's a storytelling skill. It's some sort of a cultural media competence. Wow. It is one of those times when you don't know that you know something until somebody tells you that you are good at that something. I think that is the experience I'm having right now. I didn't know I could stand in front of people and deliver the message. But at the end of the day, this is like when we are telling a story, when we are shooting or filming or writing a script, you make the story the king. You make the message the king. Everything else has to bow down to the message. What made me stand in front of the people and talk is because I had the message. I wanted them to learn something that they didn't know. And so that is the calling that pushes you, that shapes you into a vessel. I am a vessel, a vessel that is going to pass the message. And so always a message chooses a vessel. So when you have the message and that message needs to be heard, you are going to be picked as a vessel. And you won't know how passionate you are until you have that message. And it's going to push you onto platforms where you need people to understand that message. And until they get the message, you cannot rest. So that is where the storytelling comes in you are formatted to fit the message that you want to pass on and that is how people get to perceive the message yeah cc i guess it's your first time in europe and let us participate at your experiences when you were arriving here in Austria, now in Linz. What were your first impressions? Apart from the difference in the weather, because in Africa, I won't say in Africa, but in Uganda, we do not have four seasons. We just have rain and sun. And then I came here and winter just stopped. And so we are in freezing moments. And I've been telling you that Austria is a very large fridge and we are working in the fridge. We are inside the fridge and it's super cold. But I also appreciated that weather I've never been to such coldness but it's beautiful it's in its way but the most thing that stood out for me that was different is in Africa we are very conversational I meet someone on the street in the taxi our taxis are usually big they carry around people. So you sit with the person in the taxi and you start to converse out of the blues. You talk about politics, you talk about social life and the society, and then you become friends and the person becomes your best friend and they come to your wedding or they come to your child's party. how the society connects. But I came here and I went to sit in a park somewhere just to get lost in the city. I was just looking, but nobody was talking to me. And then nobody cared. Everyone was watching their phone or they were engaged in their cigarettes or they were talking on phone or looking like, please do not bother me, I'm here for my, yeah. So that was the kind of energy that I received. And I realized in a way that it's a bit sad that I am in a country, I am here for the first time, but nobody, people don't even know. They are not concerned about their neighbors in a way they are mindful of their lives and whatever they have to go and that is the difference that i found here compared to uganda whereby if they see you they're like hi who how are you i like your dress i like this and then they they are conversational in a way and you become friends and family it's it's you who has been smiling at me and Gabi and the people that invited me here. But other than that, the people that don't know me have not met or been introduced to anyone. Yeah. I was coming up with this question because I would like to ask you another question and both are very closely linked to what we call intercultural learnings you know i want to know at your point of view yeah even as an artist yes what should the northern world we are here in this in this white white noses world i always call them white noses world what should we, what should we learn about the southern hemisphere? That's a very good question. Thank you for asking it. The first thing that I want everyone to know, and I can't stress this a lot, I can't stop stretching this. Africa is not a country. There are very many countries in Africa. If you find me in Europe, do not ask me, where are you from? And I say, I'm from Uganda. And you say, oh, I have my friend in Ghana. Do you know her? It is crazy because these are different countries, just like Europe is made up of many, many countries. Take your time to get to know other people out of your circle, and that will open up your mind in a way. What I want you to know about Africa is whatever you see on social media or on Google is not the entire truth. We have rich people in Uganda, too. We have educated people in Uganda, too. We have educated people in Uganda, too. We, the photos that you see on social media, because I tried to Google Uganda, and I only saw photos of impoverished children who are begging on the streets, who are suffering. There were heaps of garbage everywhere. And then these organizations are fronting this information on the front pages of Google. So everybody who goes to search Uganda, they are shocked by what they see, and they think we are in destitute situations. Of course, we are lacking in many ways, but that is not entirely who we are. We have another side of us that is happy. The people that you see in those huts in northern Uganda, and you feel like they are living a miserable life, some of them are happy. Some of them have lived like that, and they've enjoyed their life like that. Those old elderlies that are in the villages, you might build a house for them in town and they refuse to move into that house. And they tell you, I'm happy in the village. So it's not like everybody's looking up and their standard of success is modernization. So some of them are happy being the way they are in the culture. And then also appreciate the differences in our culture and perspectives. We want democracy, but democracy might be defined differently even for us. That the way you define democracy might be a bit different for us. The way you define richness and success might be a bit different for us. The way you define marriage, the way you define everything else might be different for us. When you tell us your perspective, we shall respect it, but get to know our perspective first. And then this is a message to non-governmental organizations that come to do goodwill work in Africa. Instead of you coming with your predetermined ideas about Africa and what you're willing to do, take some time, come and do some research. Ask the people you find in Africa, I am here, I want to volunteer, I want to do this for you and that for you because I have a beautiful heart, ask them, what do you want? So they can tell you how they need your help. Do not come with sacks of rice, do not come with sacks of posho, do not come with sacks of beans and you think that's exactly what we need. First find out what we need, find out if we really need it before you sort of like give it because you are wasting your time if you're wasting it on the people that won't need the service yet you should be giving it to somewhere else maybe in Haiti or somewhere else where it is really needed we appreciate the cultural differences we love you but we want to we want you to take some time to know us before you make up your mind about who we really are. That is the message. We are often proud of living in a so-called globalized world, but whenever we get a bit deeper into realities, we are facing contradictions. we are facing ambivalences. We were talking about it also in the conference that it's incredible. We have no problems to talk to each other with a distance of, I don't know, 5,000, 6,000 kilometers because we use digital, easily accessible communication technologies. But it's very complicated to physically bring you here into Austria, into Europe, because Europe because we have a lot of very restrictive, repressive immigration laws. And that's something which brings a lot of doubts up into my mind if we are really globalized. What do you think? What is to be done to really get global? Now that you talk about the immigration laws. And more than that, that's ambivalences. Because normally we recognize a lot of differences, cultural differences. But if you have the possibility, if you have the technological opportunity to share a lot of cultural artwork, I don't know, whatever, ideas, it becomes a world of exchanges. Yes. And which also has the consequence that more than before, cultural goods, cultural upcomings get in common. So we have more in common now probably than generations before due to these international globalized technologies. But it's very difficult to directly get in touch with African people because it's so so restrictive. It's managed and handled so restrictive. Yes, ah. So the thing is I am very appreciative for technology because it's because of technology that I'm here right now. You googled me and then you found me. Imagine if the internet wasn't there. I worry that we've put so many boundaries in between us because of our personal or country benefits, whereby getting a visa is also hard, that the exchange is not happening as it should be happening. But without the exchange of culture, we will never get to know each other really deep. So it is beautiful. And I would recommend it as much as possible to have cultural exchanges where a team of people comes to Africa just to collaborate and get to understand us. And then we are also shipping a few people over here to get to understand who you are. Because knowing each other is not supposed to be based on only you knowing what is in Africa, but also us knowing where you come from. And it's through that that we get to understand how we can help each other. Yeah? Because many times we are not the only ones needing help, but we can also help you somehow. I realize that you have seasons, four seasons, and maybe if you don't want to be in winter, we can make an exchange program. And we said during your winter, come to Africa because it's shining. Then in summer, maybe if you can come and we do some collaboration and we can take it to even developmental projects like infrastructure, educational and stuff like that. I worry that because of the limitations of the exchange program, all these things cannot happen. But we can start now. We can come up with ideas. Africa is 70% of the population in Africa are youths and they are under the age of 35. That means they have so many ideas going on in their brains. They are at their best thinking-wise. And so they can come up with great ideas. So we need to take advantage of that. We need to take advantage of the fact that there is so much that we can do to improve how we are thinking like you said years ago it was harder for the collaborations to happen and now it is there is a possibility but then if we emphasize and enforce it to happen more then you can you can be shocked by how far we can go into creating this global village that we won't need the restrictions anymore. It's very interesting because in European societies, people are getting older and older. So that can bring up some sort of a gap because we all have to look into the future to think about future. look into the future, to think about the future and we also have to reflect which sort of technologies, which sort of communication tools we will use in, I don't know, 50 years. And probably European societies then are too old to invent, I don't know what, but that's a huge advantage for African youth of today. Okay, but to come to another question, because a decade ago, I lived for myself in Cameroon. Yes. And one of the first experiences was a crazy one, but it really shocked me a bit. Cameroon is a small African country, but as such it's very huge and there is no cinema. There's even not only one cinema, there is no cinema in whole Cameroon. Okay, I don't ask why, but what I would like to know is, what can you tell us about the visual culture, the media culture in African societies, in Uganda, or even abroad, in terms of, I want to talk to you that you're using such a lot of metaphors. You're talking, you're speaking in images, in pictures. Yeah. What can you tell us about this sort of culture? Okay. So, according to what I've been told before my time, there was a very strong cinema culture in Africa, where people used to go to cinemas and to theaters to watch plays, to watch films. But now the cinema culture in Africa is dying or dead in some countries, just like you experienced in Cameroon. And no one is willing to even construct cinemas, cinema halls for people to go and watch films. And part of why it's dying is the technology that has come in. And part of why it's dying is the technology that has come in. Because now we are moving towards video online streaming on platforms like Netflix, Showmax, and video on demand. People do not feel the need to go into cinemas and make lines and move at night to watch content when all they can do is just download an app on their phones. So that is the transition. That is where we are going right now. And in a way, I know that some countries have already made it there. Being the fact that Africa is a bit slow on getting great internet access, we are moving slower than we should, but that is the direction we are going. So the culture of cinema is indeed going out. For theatres and theatre plays, they are struggling at the moment. They are struggling to stay relevant where people still go to cinemas to watch their content, but still they are also in the process of transitioning into online online streaming but that is why one of the things that I did after I started making films is I established a film production company called Django Rains and the idea was to bring in energies from out of Uganda to bring in talent from out of Uganda, to bring in talent from out of Uganda so we can co-produce and collaborate and in a way keep some of the things that are dying relevant. I realized that the more we collaborate, the broader the reach of the content that we are making. So if I make a film with an Austrian company, then we have targeted two countries at the same time. Uganda will know about this film. Uganda will know about this film and Austria will know about this film. And I feel like it is easier for us to collaborate and market one product that even though the culture in cinema is dying, will have a breakthrough, will have a force that can be reckoned with in making sure people get to know about this project. So at the end of the day, it goes back to how much are you willing to sort of like push your product and be seen even in situations where it feels like we are transitioning and theatre is dying already and nobody will come to watch your film. During the conference we were talking a lot about this dominance of these huge media giants like, I don't know, Google, YouTube and a lot more. And probably DorfTV and you as a filmmaker in Uganda, we have a lot in common because we have to reflect, we have to think about strategies. How can we deal with it? And how can we get visibility? How can we get power? How can we get influence? How can we take part to shape our information society? There are a lot of challenges we have to look at and to deal with. And what can you tell us? How do you deal with it? Because I experience that especially if we got into the information developments in African societies, The whole continent is totally dependent on what has been created in the United States, and China, and TikTok, and whatever you use as apps and communication tools. Is this a discussion even in Uganda? Is that a discussion within the creative scene? Okay, so first of all, to answer the first question that you asked about what to be done for visibility, I think that's a challenge that we are facing everywhere across the globe if you do not have a budget. If you have a budget, it is easy for you to sort of create campaigns that can reach anywhere. But the advantage that we have in Uganda or Africa is one. We are dealing with a niche of people that are interested in content. When you are younger, your attention to visual content is deep. It's much more compared to when you're older. I struggle with my mother to watch TV or my films because she says, yes, I want to watch your film. And then when you are playing the film, she's like, oh my God, nice. And you're like, mom. And she's like, yes, what happened? What happened? And she slept. She didn't intend to sleep, but because of her concentration levels, as she's growing older, she starts to snooze in the moments of your film. So being that we are very many youths in the country, it is easy for us to pass on a visual message and we'll get the reactions that we are looking for. So if you're looking for visibility, and I've seen that happen a lot with people coming in from out of Africa and they are targeting Africa because they know that there's so much potential for them to sell their content and we buy it. And I've also seen how Hollywood is now trying to encroach on African stories by telling our own stories. They told Queen of Katwe in Uganda. They came and told a Ugandan story, which I will reserve my comments about. But imagine all these stories, because now they are looking to tap into this very reserved force of marketing strategy that we haven't, us as the Ugandans, explored. We actually do not even need people out of Uganda to watch our content for it to sell. We just need to create campaigns that make sure that every youth, every adult in Uganda gets a copy of our film. Even if you're selling it at $10. Imagine if you sell selling it at $10. Imagine if you sell your film just $10 to 1 million people. You copy it on DVDs. Yes. Yeah, but DVDs are also dying out. But one person recently invited me to a premiere, a film premiere, and he was selling his copy of his films on a flash disk okay so his marketing strategy was take a take a flash disk i think he did his mathematics really well and accounted for the flash disk as well so he would sell the film to you on this on the flash disk and you would go with the copy everybody was buying a flash disk so he was getting his money back. He had released his film to the audience and he was making his money his way instead of waiting for somebody to come and buy it at a smaller price because the industry in Uganda is still just starting up. So there's not a lot of money. So it is about waking up and thinking, how can I make money out of my project so that I can get money to make another project? So literally, it is the marketing, it is the distribution strategies that you have that are going to make you visible and seen. But also something else that you said, that you mentioned, that I find very interesting is the fact that very many Ugandans and youths are looking up to Hollywood filmmakers for content. Yes, it is true, but I think that is a neocolonial prospect or perspective. In a way, we were nurtured to think in a colonial way. When we were colonized, we were told that our colonial masters are the best. They have the best designs. They have the best things to look at. They made us hurt ourselves. And that's why everyday people, girls in Uganda are struggling to bleach their skin so they can sort of look like their colonial masters. When the cameras were made, they were not made for the Africans. You need extra lighting to put more light on me so that I look camera friendly. Whereas when I position the camera in front of you, I don't need too much light. So there are so many things that we are at a disadvantage of. And that makes people feel like, yeah, because the other ones are better people than we are, therefore I am not comfortable the way I am. I need to bleach a bit to look more presentable, to look lighter, to look lovely, you know. So the reason why we are always looking up to them is that post-colonial attitude that they left in us and I also see it in the education system where they prepare many people for job seeking instead of job creation. And then we have floods of students who graduate every year, but they are looking for jobs. And yet with the potential of the market that is available in Uganda, it is easy for you to create your own job and be successful at it. I refused to be employed. I finished university and I told my mom, you won't see me looking for a job. I will hustle a few years, then I'm going to break through. And that is what has happened. And I run my own productions on my own pace without the day-to-day morning, you wake up and go to work. So there's so much potential. There's so much that we can do. But we need to get the mindset of our colonial masters out of our attitude, and that way we'll be able to attribute or to approach these opportunities differently, and we will look at our stories and we will love them more. That's interesting because, and I'm very grateful that you are now underlining this important post-colonial context. Currently we are a lot discussing this topic of are we too much exploiting Africa regarding the raw materials. And anyway, even culture, cultural information has to be regarded as a some sort of a virtual or other other form of raw material in our information societies. And you also mentioned the world out of Africa, which is bringing all this content aggressively to you and your surroundings and your countries and even villages, I guess. To get a bit more concrete, what can strategies be? Because I also would like now to invite you to come into our discussions of DorfTV. We are discussing even almost the same questions. How can we get more independent but nevertheless effective to reach audiences, to maximize audiences. What are your strategies to get forward? Okay, I think what is standing in between us as Africans and where we have to go is ourselves. We are standing in our way with our attitude and mindsets. And if we are going to go any farther and be developmental and be independent, then we have to change our mindsets to be independent-minded, away from what the colonial masters sold to us as the ideas years ago, many, many years ago. We need to stop having the inferiority complex because we have it a lot. I saw it in films that I watched when I was in Kenya. I watched so many white films about Africa. And they had this superiority complex. There was one called Out of Africa. I think it was even acted by Meryl Streep. It was Robert Redford, yeah. Yes. So she comes to Africa, the character Karen Blixen comes to Africa, and when she comes to Africa, she comes with medical care, she starts telling people what to do. And when she comes to Africa, she comes with medical care. She starts telling people what to do. Literally, she built them up. She found them and they were lost. And because of her existence, everything worked out. Thank you so much. But what were we living with before? I am affected by the fact that they tell me River Nile was discovered by a white person. Please, we used to fetch water from River Nile. People used to shower from there. Before you came to discover River Nile, we had discovered it because we were born there. You cannot tell me that we didn't know where it was until you came and told us where it was. So that superiority complex that you come with makes many Africans feel inferior. And we feel like we know nothing because somebody else comes and tells us what to do. And they show us that, yeah, we are better at doing this. And so we are like, let's leave it to the masters because, you know, they know better. They can do this better. And so we do not empower ourselves to think that we can handle these situations on our own. So if we want a breakthrough, if we want to go where we have to go, then let's debunk the notion of thinking that we can't do anything on our own unless someone who colonized us years ago says so. Then we will be able to go where we want to go. I don't know, but is it possible that the new, the next, the upcoming generation, the youth of tomorrow will have changed the mind towards the masters, the colonial masters, because they didn't experience a common time with European masters and this colonial brutal regime. Is there a new point of view coming up? Because people from today are growing up more globalized because they are looking youtube videos it's available yeah it's available so that's uh they can get in touch with a lot of ideas really really far out of this colonial thinking so the thing is i don't think we are doing enough as africans isn't even as our african leaders i don't think they're doing enough as Africans, even as our African leaders, I don't think they are doing enough to debunk these notions. For instance, let me tell you, in Kampala, which is the capital city of Uganda, we still have roads named after the colonial. Like we have John's Peak, we have Albert Cook Roads, and you're telling someone, to albert cook road why not name it after sis in all mercy why not name it after people the presidents that we had before us yeah so there are tiny tiny things that we have to first of all it's time probably it soon can be changed when i mean if if these things had to be affected, if we were willing, if we were actively involved in debunking these notions, then we should have done these things a long time ago. These roads still exist. We have Lake Victoria in Uganda. The lake should be named after us. That way we are claiming back our independence, and therefore we are claiming back our independent thinking, yeah? But we are not doing anything. We are still remembering. I don't have a problem with them. I'm pretty sure they did a part in our history and we can't run away from that. But how are we still relying on them? We are relying on their ghosts. Even after they are gone, we are still following their shadows, yeah? And that is keeping us in their shadows. We can't really shine if we are walking within their shadows. So I think if we need to act, and I call upon Africans to stop this mindset, we need to start thinking for ourselves. We need to start claiming our name as Africa and not be in the shadows of what the colonial masters left behind. But okay, I totally agree. So we need to reactivate this sort of independence movement, new form, new idea of independence and freedom. If you look at this movement, where is the place of Sisi Nalumansi in this movement? I am a storyteller. My voice is when I'm telling stories. I will use my stories to influence that change. When I am telling my story, and actually one of the projects that I want to do next is one that is debunking the notion that if you are speaking English, you are intelligent, which is a disease in Uganda. I don't know about other countries, but if you're speaking English and you speak broken English, people laugh at you. Because somehow, if you can't speak English, you can't say anything more intelligent. But we have our elders in the villages, our grandfathers and grandmothers who don't speak english but they are super intelligent and they will teach you life lessons that you can't learn in school in the formal education setup so let us start with what we we are able to do our abilities my ability as a filmmaker i will use it to debunk the notions, and I expect the person who is in the technology, or maybe creating of cameras, to debunk the notion by making cameras that are working well with me, where I do not look unpleasant in front of the camera because I'm not light-skinned. So every single person who is out there in their own sector, in their own department, are capable of contributing towards the change that we are looking for. Why are we decampaining our own just so we can keep on with the movement of the colonial rule? So that is my idea, that all of us are capable of doing something in regard. colonial rule. So that is my idea that all of us are capable of doing something in regard. I love this earring because it's saying Africa. So every person, somebody probably sees my earring, they are reminded that yes. We take it like a statement. Yes, it is a statement. And I have one. I have two, but I decided to wear one because it's one Africa. So simple, simple statements sort of like make a difference and bring back the patriotism that people need. A last question because the end is near. A last question. I would like to invite you just, you can dream, fantasies, whatever. If you look into the future, what would you like to leave behind one day? What would you like to leave behind one day in a sense of the heritage of Cicela Lomanzi? Wow. I'm sorry. Sorry, I would like to leave behind the myopic thinking of that I am not able to do anything. I would like to leave back the colonial educational system that we are working with. I have a bachelor's degree in IT. I was taught 90% theory and no practical. And I know this is happening to many people. That where they do not teach us the skills that we are definitely going to need to run day-to-day lives, but you go on cramming stuff that you can't even apply. The idea that I was taught about Canadian prairies that I have never seen in my entire life. You teach me about Canada, but you can't give me the visa to go and see Canada. So it is the ideology. You're teaching me about the dams in the America, but I can't even go to see the dams that you're teaching me about. We have a system that is teaching us about things that we really don't need in our day-to-day life, and yet the practical skills that we need are not taught. So I would like to leave back the educational system. I would like to leave back the system that tells girls you're not pretty enough because you're not light-skinned. Many of our girls are going to die of cancer 20 years from now, God forbid, but because they are bleaching. They are bleaching to look good in front of a camera, to look more presentable. There was videos I was seeing on social media where girls were outing one producer who could not give them opportunities because they were darker skinned. He said, you don't look presentable on screen because you're not light skinned. And if you tell that message to a younger girl whose dream is to be on TV, you are telling her go and bleach and look like a light skinned person. That way you will have opportunities on TV. Other than that, you have no future. I would like to leave that thinking in the past. I would love to leave behind the thinking that we cannot do anything for ourselves. We have resources. We have good weather. We have good soils. We have so much. amazing waters, amazing climate, amazing wildlife. If we leave behind the thinking that we are not able to do anything with the resources we have, we are going to prosper. Thank you very much, Sissi Nallomanci. It was a great talk. I really appreciate what you're doing during these two, three days because you really had an intense schedule. Thank you very much and wish you all the best for your future, the near future, the far future. Vielen herzlichen Dank auch natürlich den Zuseherinnen und Zusehern von DorfTV, die mit Interesse dabei waren. Eine weitere Ausgabe von der Sendereihe Wassermann ersucht den Nordostkanal ist bereits in Planung. Ich darf mich auf alle Fälle heute verabschieden. Wie immer mit dem Ersuchen, bleiben Sie dem Sender Ihres Vertrauens, nämlich DorfTV, weiterhin gewogen. In diesem Sinne noch einen schönen Tag und auf Wiedersehen.