Movie Night-Resilient Africa

The director essentially gives us a dual view into the young women's world. We watch as she begins parts of her Iife in Rural Somali setting living a typical herdsman's existence. Soon she begins to deal with the challenges of growing up and maturing in a world that is hostile towards her as a young woman and that is strictly speaking supposed to protect her. When she is confronted with some of the negative parts of her culture she does what anyone in distress has to do to survive. She flees into the barren and unforgiving landscape for better pastures. She is not searching for better grazing land for her sheep, instead she has become the lamb than has no shepherd. The landscape has character and is as hostile as it is protective. As long as she can keep walking she has hope of fining solace in a city or in the hands of a distant relative. Soon the ruggedness of the land leaves a mark on her delicate feet and it is this battle between human and nature that will shape her into the fighter she will need to be in defense of her rights. 

She manages to find relief in a truck...one of the many eighteen wheelers that snake their way across the few well made roads that scar the untouched landscape of Somalia. She is safe for a while until a human snake attempts to relieve itself with this untouched prepubescent. Presence of mind saves her and she makes use of some large rocks to quickly dispatch this miserable creature into the next world where doubtless unquenchable fires will serve to heal him from his lustful drives. 

As fate would have it she makes it into the city where she pounces on a plate of food in an unsuspecting household. Mercy prevails and she is given a chance to work in service of an older wealthier woman. 

You move back and forth from past to present with modern occurrences in London being used to shed some light on her thinking and her challenges in current age. 

She is in a modern shop and latches onto a young woman who happens to work in the trendy urban space. The two then find themselves drawn together in a complex multiracial community where they must depend on each other for sustenance although the ignorance of one is used to mask her hidden drive and spirit. Nurtured in part by the experiences she has gone through in rural Africa. What features next is a dance of sorts between two protagonists and those who will prove of benefit to both of them as time progresses. 

A chance encounter in a coffee shop presents the young Somali lady with an opportunity that will change her life or at least give her an opportunity to chart her own path. A friendship blossoms between her an her reluctant host as they build upon a strange and troubled union knit together by loose linguistic links and in another sense gender. 

The conservative Muslim girl then begins to engage with her English companion-liberal as can be and expressive in a big city which cares little what and who she entertains in the privacy of her dwelling. 

Again we see the young lady dealing with a hostile environment (except this time the hostility is of an different nature. Plenty of friction drawn from a variability of experiences foreign to hers but just as abrasive). She might as well be in a desert-of experiences and people. Hungry and thirsty and yet unable to draw water or eat in a place so isolating and unfriendly. All this except for the young stranger who allows her to spend one night in her single room apartment and who along with other are willing to break the rules on behalf of needy stranger. 

We could say a lot more but then you would probably accuse us of ruining the movie. 

RAN Lab

Uganda has several different types of innovative spaces. I have written before about the types of competition from the Demo African to Pivot East which strictly speaking are international events that have been hosted by local spaces. To understand the local innovation/incubation setting you need to split them into three parts. The first is Hive Colab, it is possibly the oldest space in the country and initially focused on space for the young people in Kampala as well as creativity in mobile solutions with an emphasis on very specific competencies such as in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Python, HTML, CSS and many others. The space was started by Jon Gosier and is currently located in Kanjokya. The Hive Colab space has run now for quite a while and has gone on to produce known personalities such as Barbara Birunji who now runs and mentors other young women. This is the first category of innovation and incubation space and found its support from creative business people and companies. In addition to this the space benefited greatly from previous associations with Universities that were located in its vicinity (Nakawa Area).

The Second is OutboxHub which is located on Lumumba Avenue, this space was created by a different set of people with a thrust toward some of the same interests that drive the others except there was a greater emphasis (at least in the ealier days on Mentorship). The group created linkages with ICT groups in government. The idea was to give entrepreneurs a place where they could be equipped with the whole gamut of skills that are necessary for effectiveness in the technology space.    

The third type of space in my view is where the RAN lab comes in. It is located in several countries in the African Region and makes full use of its links with the University to create systems and applications that deal with challenges that are identified by professionals in the Education Space.

The offices are located in Kololo where there are the standard services including wifi, space and mentorship in business practice.