[vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/9832933 w=500&h=281]

Once you get pass Julius Malema’s ramblings or the fact that whites play the victim card so well, it is easy to forget who the real victims of the new South Africa are.  Land is one way to find out. As political scientist Allison Drew recently reported in an analysis of political developments in South Africa: “… Despite the enormous scale of land dispossession – more than 80 per cent of the land was taken by whites compared to some 50 per cent in neighboring Zimbabwe – the government’s aim that 30 per cent of agricultural land be redistributed by 2014 is nowhere near being met: by March 2009 some 5 per cent of such land had been transferred.”

Director Yoruba Richen’s film “Promised Land” (that’s the trailer above) follows two black communities in South Africa “… that are trying to get land back from which their ancestors were removed. Through their stories, the epic battle over land and race is played out with very real consequences for all sides”

Promised Land will premiere on the PBS program POV on July 6th.

* The film will also be screened at a sneak preview on April 20, 2010 at the 115th Street Branch library in Harlem at 6:00 p.m., where Yoruba Richen will be available for a community discussion following the screening.  There are two other screenings at libraries in New York City before it will be shown on PBS.  I am hoping to interview Richen once I’ve seen the film.  So watch this space.