Bamako (2006) - full transcript

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

laid 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 a witness?

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 a while.

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 grew vegetables 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."

"How do you know?"

"I saw a 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 show you have
a few ideas and some information

about the reasons
for the railway's collapse.

Maitre Bourdon, please.

I'm not seeking your approval,

I'm trying to draw your 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 know we 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 how it 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 law says 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?

How did 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 know that 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 IMF
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 how things are.
We know it and we know why

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 know full well that in the West,
large companies,

Total and oil,

Thales and arms policy,

are caught up
in the cycle of corruption.

But allow me 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 now the polar icecap is melting.

And the water will flood out.

What will remain of the icecap
in a few decades?

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 know anything.

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 few days

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 Africa to 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 draw up 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 Africa to 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 low wages
paid to civil servants.

It has brought Africa to 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 Africa to her knees,

are now threatening 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 few days 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 Iraq

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
a few weeks 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 a terrifying 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 know nothing about
the complexities of this world!

Since they know nothing,

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 new world
beyond the hills.

This utopia is, in a way,
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 throw Wolfowitz
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 now we?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 a widow
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 a father,
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 sow anymore?

"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 IMF, 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: Lan Burley
Subtitling: CMC