| Written by Sicelo Mpala Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:55 | |
| Is the BBC4 Zimbabwe’s forgotten children documentary exploitation? |
 zimbabwe's forgotten Children: BBC4 image
Yesterday on Monday BBC 4 aired a disturbing documentary “Zimbabwe’s forgotten children” by film-maker Xoliswa Sithole who like many South Africans was raised and Educated in Zimbabwe in the past while fleeing apartheid. In the documentary Ms Sithole highlighted the fact that Just a generation ago Zimbabwe had world-class levels of education, healthcare and productivity, but she soon finds that life for the present generation of Forgotten Children is a constant struggle for day-to-day survival.
She followed the life of three children, whose mother had been struck by HIV/AIDS and was struggling to raise her three children after having lost her husband to the epidemic.
While I find it important for these issues to be highlighted to the world, I failed to see the purpose or objective of the documentary, taking into consideration that nothing seemed to be done to help those that were suffering in the case of the mother and the children.
The film crew who were clearly being fed, and obviously being sheltered watched and filmed a 9 year old girl named Esther crying for help because she was in a lot of pain and was hungry.
They watched and filmed her mother who was clearly unwell, not bathed, sitting in her own faeces for days and did not attempt to help her, until a Church group that had come down from the city helped out while being filmed by the same crew who had been there for days.
The questions about the filming of the whole documentary is what did the film crew, director and Xoliswa Sithole do to help those people they were filming while they were there? The film did not show them offering them any help. Was the whole purpose of the film to highlight the problems being faced by the forgotten children of Zimbabwe at the expense of those lives? What difference did Xoliswa Sithole and her film crew make in the lives of the children they filmed before they left them? Did they leave them in the same state they found them, for the benefit of their film?
Did they film the mother of those children until she died for the benefit of their film?
I personally think it is important for such problems to be highlighted to the world, but in a ethical manner. No help was given to those families as they were being filmed suffering just for the benefit of the documentary, which in my view is some form of exploitation.
If you missed the documentary you can still watch the DISTURBING documentary on the BBC website.
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