24.08.2010
A Man from the Congo River gets it's TV premiere in September
Jouko Aaltonen's documentary film A Man from the Congo River will be premiered in YLE TV2 Documentary project on Wednesday, September 22.
The film studies the little known story of Nordic machinists working on the river boats on the Congo River. Professionals were hired on lucrative salaries from Finland and Sweden and they had to give an oath of fidelity to the King of Belgium. Sailors from the North met a new reality in the heart of the Black Africa where the colonial economy was based on slavery and compelled work. In private letters home we can follow how the men from equalitarian North gradually change adapting into the racist system. A concrete personal tool and symbol of the regime was a whip made of the skin of hippopotamus. First terrified by the brutality of the white oppressors, Nordic sailors learned soon to use whip themselves. The film adds an interesting chapter into the history of colonialism in Africa. It is important to tell this unknown colonial story with a common content of the moral choices of an individual.
