Topics: Update on Political Crisis in Burundi; and Afro-Cuban Experience through the Eyes of Filmmaker Gloria Rolando.  Africa Now! begins with an update of the political crisis in Burundi.  This past Sunday, May 31, leaders of the East Africa Community urged President Pierre Nkurunziza to postpone the presidential election scheduled for June 26 for at least six weeks.  This followed the killing of an opposition leader Zedi Feruzi on May 24.  Earlier on May 13 there was an attempted coup d’état.  Since late April Burundi has witnessed protests following the April 25 announcement that two-term President Nkurunziza will seek a third term in the June 26 election which demonstrators say violates the constitution.  But on May 5, Burundi’s constitutional court approved the incumbent to participate in the election process.  Over four hundred people have been wounded in the clashes between protesters and the police and there have been 20 deaths; and according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees more than 70,000 have fled Burundi to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Tanzania.  Joining Africa Now! to discuss the political crisis in Burundi is Mr. John Manirakiza.  As Africa Now! commemorates Caribbean-American Heritage Month, we want to spotlight award-winning Afro-Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando. 

Gloria Rolando

Guests: Mr. John Manirakiza, Member of Burundian Diaspora & Independent International Development Consultant.  For over 35 years Ms. Gloria Rolando has documented the African experience in Cuba at the same time connecting it with the rest of the Caribbean and the Americas with films such as: Oggun: An Eternal Present; My Footsteps in Baraguá, a film about the history in Cuba of the Caribbean community from Jamaica, Barbados, and other parts; Eyes of the Rainbow, a film on Assata Shakur; 1912: Breaking the Silence Chapters 1-3, a documentary series of the 1912 massacre of over 6,000 members of the Independents of Color, the first black political party outside of Haiti; and Reshipment, the story of the forced repatriation of Haitian immigrants in the early 20th century who came to work in the sugarcane fields.  Africa Now! Executive Producer James Pope and Host Mwiza Munthali had a conversation with the renowned Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando when she visited Sankofa Video, Books & Café, in Washington, DC. 

Originally broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM, Washington, DC.  Tune into Africa Now! live on WPFW 89.3 FM in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area or visit www.wpfwfm.org on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00PM (Eastern).