Posted by: ninasaada on: October 12, 2011
I haven’t written on here for far too long, but seeing a report on the BBC last night acted as a stark reminder that Uganda is still struggling with the horrendous practise of child sacrifice. Struggling, that is, to do anything about it. The short report gave an insight into how the problem, that raised its ugly head around 3 years ago, is looking now. It’s doesn’t make for easy viewing. I am torn between feeling extremely glad that this is being highlighted in the western media again and feeling deeply saddened that there seems to have been such a lack of progression in the country since I produced a documentary on this exact subject 2 and a half years ago. Watch BBC report by Chris Rogers
If you have read any of this blog you’ll know that I covered this issue in 2009, I then went back a year later and screened my documentary to a large and influential audience. The Chief of the Ugandan police force was there, so was the head of the ‘human sacrifice task force’ (a body set up especially to deal with the influx of sacrificial killings). They were very receptive and positive, and I must admit that their fighting talk was impressive. But, as with any government, actions speak a lot louder than words. The latest figures from the Jubilee Campaign report says that over 900 children have fallen victim to sacrifice in the country, so the question has to be asked – exactly what kind of action is being taken here and with what kind of force?
Without going back to Uganda myself, it is difficult to pass judgement on whether there really has been any progress in tackling this horrible crime or not. Certainly this latest BBC report, my contacts on the ground in Uganda and my gut feeling, suggest that there has not.
Posted by: ninasaada on: September 25, 2010
Posted by: ninasaada on: June 18, 2010
It has been a long time since I have updated this and to say much has happened since my last post would be an understatement! Last month I found myself back in beautiful Uganda (courtesy of Brussels Arlines…thank you!) to attend the screening of my very own documentary. It was a humbling experience to see so many people turn out to watch my film, around 150 came to the 1st screening. The event was spectacularly organised by Farah Benis of the Libra Foundation and Pascal Bogaert – a man who has featured regularly throughout this blog and who has done so much for me and for his on-going campaign against child sacrifice. A welcome reception, live music and drinks on the rooftop bar above Kampala’s Garden City complex set the scene for the evening before the guests headed to the cinema to watch the premier of my film Sacrificed.
In attendance was Uganda’s Chief of Police Kale Kayihura, a man so important that you can rarely pin him down, I tried to numerous times during the filming of my doco and failed! Mr Kayihura’s colleague, Moses Binoga, who is the Head of Uganda’s Anti Human Sacrifice Unit also came. The two men made powerful and positive speeches, highlighting that they had seen a noticable decrease in the number of reported cases of child sacrifice within the last year. They promised the audience that they would continue to crack down on anyone found participating in crimes related to ritualistic killings.
The mood was bought down a level however when Santos stepped up to make his speech. Santos Labeja is a father who’s 7 year old son Gideon was killed in a ritualistic murder, he’s been fighting ever since to push for new legislation to bring such killers to justice. Santos makes an emotional appearance in my film, and his speech was no different. As he stood and spoke with his wife and daughter, who had all made the 7 hour journey from their village to Kampala, everyone in the room was clearly moved by his story and his determination to push forward.
Then it was my turn to make a speech… but we won’t talk about that!
The whole experience of screening my film to a large audience was totally overwhelming but also very gratifying. I had lots of great feedback from members of the public, people in power and the press. In fact since returning to the UK my documentary has aired on Ugandan TV News channel WBS and is due to air on East African channel NTV.
Not only that I now also have a re-cut, shorter version of my film on the NBC News website, Uganda page… so check it out: click here!
The great thing about going back to Uganda this time and attending this event, is that so many more people seemed to be aware of the issue of child sacrifice. Pascal’s campaign is in full flight with more and more people getting on board (it’s even reached as far as Belgium where his sister has organised an awareness event and film screening this month!). Santos who has set up the first ever NGO against child sacrifice, is finally getting a platform to speak from where he will be heard by people that matter and can make a difference.
But in this country where ritual Vs reality, there is still a way to go. And despite police figures, the problem has not gone away. Just a week after my leaving a child was found dead and badly mutilated in a nearby township.
However, people are working hard and trying to open eyes and create a level of awareness amongst Ugandans that wasn’t the a year ago. If my film has at all contributed to that effort… well I’m pretty pleased with that!
That’s all for now
Nina
Posted by: ninasaada on: February 26, 2010
As I am in blogging mode I want to take this opportunity to point you in the direction of one of best friend and colleague Lindsey Cole’s blog. I strongly suggest you follow this girl and her stories as she embarks on the trip of a lifetime.
Lindsey is a talented, newly qualified journalist who has decided to cycle 8,000 miles from Egypt to South Africa in time to make the 2010 Football World cup! She’ll be documenting her progress via her blog, pictures and video articles.
She and her (crazy) team of 3 others, who she found through putting an article in the London Metro, are currently in Sudan. They have a long slog ahead of them so would appreciate all of the support they can get. It’s for a great cause that will raise money to help combat tropical diseases in Africa!
Good luck Lindsey and co!
Posted by: ninasaada on: February 26, 2010
I have known that this might be happening for a few months, but now it is finally official…the dates are in, the plane ticket’s booked and in under 2 months time I am going back to Uganda.
As much as I enjoyed filming and reporting out there, it comes as some relief to say that I will not be taking a camera with me. No, I am in fact re-visiting the beautiful country to screen my documentary to a Ugandan audience. I can’t quite get my head around it all, but due to some hard work and promotion from my good friend, host and main contact in Uganda – Pascal Bogaert- Uganda’s biggest cinema in the city of Kampala have agreed to have a screening night for my documentary.
Pascal, who actively campaigns against child sacrifice in Uganda has been working non-stop to get this sorted. He’s also worked some kind of magic with some very generous people to get me a fully funded plane ticket. He updates me everyday on how they are busy promoting my doco out there, inviting members of the public and high profile people to come and watch.
My responsibility is to simply go there and show my work and hope it lives up to it’s promotion! I do have to knuckle down however as I will be re-cutting the original version for this occasion. I have decided to keep the narrative the same. I think it works and it seems to make an impact on those who’ve viewed it. I am going to extend it slightly with some additional interviews with people that will make much more sense to a Ugandan audience than they would have done Western one. I have an interview with a pretty important politician, and some footage with some Uganda rap-stars that will definitely go in. I have a few other elements that I couldn’t include in my original piece because of my 20 minute time constraint, but I now have the opportunity to put them in. Luckily, throughout my gruelling editing process I saved various sequences as I went along so have a nice long version that I can work on rather than having to start from scratch!
In other news…my employer and the big American broadcaster, NBC News have accepted a pitch to feature a cut down version of my documentary on their website. This is very exciting stuff! It does mean though that I have to seriously pull my finger out. NBC want a shorter version, Uganda need a longer version, all of this needs to be done in a pretty short space of time, by me, on my laptop… using Avid which I haven’t touched properly for about 5 months! Oh and also at the same time as I try to juggle full time work. Hmmm… stressed? Me? Not at all!
Anyway, good things on the horizon so feeling pretty positive. Just hope the reception of my documentary goes down well in Uganda!
Watch this space!
Nina
Posted by: ninasaada on: October 23, 2009
I finished editing a couple of weeks ago and thought it’s about time that I put the evidence up on here! So here it is, my news documentary. It’s called Sacrificed, it runs at 20minutes and it was bloody hard work to do… but I’m pretty pleased with the result (unfortunately I wasn’t clever enough to embed the video on my blog so please follow the link at the bottom of this post).
A great big thanks to everyone who stuck by me and helped and supported me both in person and of course via this blog, throughout my time in Uganda and throughout the stressful post production stage too! Couldn’t have done it without you.
The video is password protected (I’m not ready to unleash it on the world yet). So if you want to take a look please email me nina_saada@hotmail .co.uk and I can let you know the password.
I am very keen to hear views and opinions… after all you are the viewer and who really counts here!
Don’t forget to: 1) ask me for the password to view it. 2) Watch it on a full screen with speakers if you can for better quality and 3) Leave feedback!!!!
Click here to view Sacrificed: a news documentary by Nina Saada
Posted by: ninasaada on: July 9, 2009
Sorry that this update is a little late, I’ve been back on home soil for over a week now but just haven’t had the chance to blog, so here it goes.
I’m still trying to get my head around the progress we made in Uganda, I knew we had some solid contacts but I never imagined we would get so many people to be vocal about such a controversial subject, and I certainly didn’t think we’d gain access to a prison. For me, it doesn’t really matter what becomes of my footage or how successful this documentary is or isn’t, I feel a massive personal achievement in what we’ve done and I’ve enjoyed every minute.
Down to the nitty gritty then; the prison. It was an experience and a half, the prison guards were so accommodating and friendly, they gave us a free reign to walk around and film, that would never happen in this country! The interview with the convict was tough, I’d say it was the most challenging interview I’ve ever done. Francis had been in there on death row for 11 years and had A LOT to say, I guess he just wanted to get things off his chest and get his story out there in the open. Francis has been sentenced to death for killing a young boy, a charge that he denies. He spent a long time telling me his story and protesting his innocence, but he also repeatedly said how sorry he was to the mother of the dead child, the community, the country and the president. He explained how he’d been young and impressionable and had got roped into something by a witchdoctor but had not committed murder.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about Francis’ case or his personality, hopefully the footage will speak for itself. What I will say is that it was bloody hard work talking to and co-operating with him, but I am so grateful that he agreed to speak as I think his input was intrgral to giving the ‘other side’ of the the documentary. So Francis, if you read this… thank you!
I’m now faced with the massive task of piecing all of this together. I’ve managed to acquire over 20 tapes worth of footage which I’m sure is way too much but seemed so right at the time, I just couldn’t stop filming! I’ve got a lot of editorial decisions to make too, like how much imagery of the little boy who was mutilated should I include? Is it right to show his scars? Is it right to show his face? If I protect his identity or don’t show what’s happened to him then how will people realise the actual extent of child sacrifice? That’s just one question, I’ve got thousands more about what I should and shouldn’t include… I’m open to lots of advice and suggestions so feel free to put any forward… you guys have been awesome with your comments so far, I’ve really appreciated all the support!
So before I head back to the edit suit… where I actually live now. I just want to say that going to Uganda was such an eye-opener, self-shooting was hard but at the same time it was the most fantastic experience and I’d go to Africa again in an instant.
There’ll be more blog updates so watch this space.
Nina
Posted by: ninasaada on: June 24, 2009
Ok my internet is timing out but just had to blog about this one… Today we had a major breakthrough. Don’t want to go into too much detail until it’s all done and dusted but bascially we have gained access to Uganda’s Max security prison. On Friday I’ll be interviewing a man on death row for a murder… a ritualistic child murder!
Posted by: ninasaada on: June 24, 2009
Loads has been going on over the last week, there’s been lots of organising and running around setting things up… so I’ll put it in a nutshell and just talk about the highlights.
We went back to see Mukisa, the little boy who had his private parts cut off by a witchdoctor, we wanted to go back because we left in a hurry last time due to some pushy locals getting on our case. We hung out and played with him for a bit (such a happy boy) and took him a pair of sunglasses because he’d liked mine so much. He broke them within about 10 minutes…typical boy!
On Friday we we to a local school called the Divine Mission Juniour school, it’s been set up by a man calle Godfrey who had very little money but wanted somewhere for kids to go and get an education even if their parents couldn’t afford to pay. He set it up a year ago and it now has 300 pupils and is growing. It’s incredible how happy the children are to be in school, smiles everywhere you look even though this place, compared to Western schools, is so so basic… think woodens huts for classrooms. They have nothing but are so grateful to be learning, I think some British kids should go and spend a week in a real African school! The children put on a show for us and did an awesome African song and dance, it was brilliant to see. The headteacher told us how he was afraid for his kids because of the recent cases of child sacrifice.
We tried to get access to a spritual site on Thursday and Friday but had some problems as the people there didn’t want us to film or take photos. We had to get written permission from their boss who just happens to be a man who’s currently on remand for child sacrifice, it’s a very high profile case and the man in question also has preperty in London. We had a bad feeling about the place in the end and decided not to persue it… some things are just better left alone.
Spent Saturday night with the craziest witchdoctor imaginable. This guy, Samuel, was completely drunk when we turned up.’Never interview drunk people, children or animals’ sprung to mind… well he was like all 3 rolled into one. He was quite good fun though and showed us how he summoned the spirits in his special chant. I think I’ll have some interesting footage from this one. He talked us through all of his potions and spears and told us he happily sacrificed cows, goats and chickens but not humans. He also let me… actually made me… wear his cape. Won’t forget that interview in a hurry.
Posted by: ninasaada on: June 24, 2009
Apologies for the lack of blogging. The luxury of using the internet at Pascal’s school has come to end as all the kids and teachers have broken up for the summer… so now I’m using good old internet cafes and slow isn’t even the word! Remember dial up connections all those years ago? Well time that by about 10 and you’ve got Uganda. So I might have to blog in retrospect quite a bit. Thanks for all your comments
