Amandla Review

Watching the documentary Amandla a lot of unexpected emotions were evoked from me, I was surprised because, i had studied history in high school and I had seen a lot of documentaries covering the same issues that Amandla does, so immediately I thought I had come to term with them.

The documentary of Amandla focuses on black in the 1970,s throughout the struggle. Black people were oppressed and segregated and placed beneath the white man. In the movie a women an d her son were waiting for a bus for hours on end, and when one eventually came they couldn't go on , because it was only for white people. Busses weren't the only thing that were used for segregation purposes, housing, beaches, schools, benches, malls and other things.

Africans made songs to express their spirituality, their pain and put their points across including their political views. At many times they couldn't put their points across or share their stories, because they were not allowed to go to court or even be near white people unless they were working, so it was easier for them to sing about they issues. Their voices were used as their weapon to fight off being oppressed. The white people happened to enjoy music produced by africans and many started making a living and a career out of singing instead of having the usual jobs assigned for African people. Whenever a song was started by someone during a time of hardship the rest would join and they would back each other up. Many revolutionist songs were made at this time including "Nkosi sikeleli Africa" our national anthem, which is more of a soothing anthem, and in the 1980's- 1990's "Senzani nah" became very popular across south Africa, they said that this song brought up their spirits and encouraged them to fight. Many resistant songs were made for the younger generations so that they didn't resent the fact that they were black but instead be proud of being black and that black is beautiful and strong.

Children at that time hated school as the couldn't learn in their own language, the songs didn't only express their emotions, but also their political views. They joined a lot of movements like the mkMkonto wesizwe in 1976 and they gained energy and got enthusiastic just from listening to their songs.

A lot of peopler died and were incriminated just for their skin color,1964 Nelson Mandela was sentenced to prison and finally on the 11th of February 1990 3pm Mandela was released from prison and 4 years later the ANC won by 64.5%. From there on we still struggle to fight off oppression and promote equality.

This movie for me was highly educational, and is a reminder for us all not to repeat history, but to try move forward and better and secure our future. The way it was documented was very good, it was intense and kept me interested and it bought a sense of realness, it touched me not only because I'm black but because im African and it made me appreciate my history and heritage even more.