“Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas” to be screened tonight in DC
By Engidu Woldie
ESAT News (March 8, 2018)
“Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas,” a documentary film on land grab in Ethiopia will be screened for the second time in Washington, DC tonight.
The investigative documentary particularly focuses on land grabbing in the fertile Gambella region of Ethiopia and how communities were evicted from their ancestral land as a result.
Rich companies have targeted fertile lands in poor countries in their rush to own what is now dubbed the “green gold.” Nowhere this phenomenon is more evident than in Ethiopia where an unpopular government has leased millions of hectares of land to rich companies displacing communities .
A study conducted in 2011 show the country has slated well over 5 million hectares of land for lease for dirt cheap prices.
In Gambella region, a Saudi tycoon, Mohammed Hussien Al-Amoudi, has leased land the size of Belgium.
In this documentary, the Swedish film director Joakim Demmer, trail around with an Ethiopian environmental journalist, Argaw Ashine, in his quest to report the truth on the plight of his people as a result of land grab by rich companies that colluded with a government that couldn’t care less for its own people.
The film also exposes the roles played by the EU, the World Bank and DFID, which provide billions of dollars in “development money” but in reality is used to displace indigenous people from their land. Land that their lives entirely depend on.
The film will be screened at 8:00 PM at the Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, DC 20015.
The audience is encouraged to take part in a discussions which comes after the screening of the film. Dr. Anurada Mittal, Executive Director of Oakland Institute, and Sasha Chavkin, a reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) will speak at the event, moderated by Dr. Ararya Amsalu, President of Ethiopian Advocacy Network (EAN).
(EW)