Henry Rollins: Uncut from South Africa

I have been traveling to Africa with fair frequency for ten years now. No matter what part of the continent I have visited, I always come away with a mixture of feelings from great amazement to great sorrow. During the time of apartheid, Nelson Mandela's incarceration, the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings, I tried to learn what I could to get my head around what had been happening there. I was raised in a racist atmosphere and like many, have not only a low tolerance for it but a curiosity as to what causes it and why it just can't stop dead in its tracks and vanish.

As well, my travels in Africa opened my eyes to a kind of poverty I had never seen before which overwhelmed me. What I saw made me think differently about food, water, life, existence, America, pretty much everything. IFC gave me a budget which allowed me to go to South Africa with a camera crew and ask some questions to people there. As with the other times I have been to Africa, the experience was eye opening and much more than I am able to describe. Hopefully you will be able to check out the footage we shot and see the people we encountered. They are some of the most courageous, resilient and inspiring people I have ever met. There is no place I have ever been that makes me feel so connected, for better or for worse, to the human experience than Africa and this trip was perhaps the most poignant of them all.

Comments

[Sean Jacobs - Huffpost Blogger]

Saved the program on Tivo. Just saw it. Very good.

[amorvincitomnia]

I've got to applaud Henry Rollins for being a voice for those whose voices are all too often left unheard. I hope he inspires others who do not realize the power of what they can contribute even with a simple, small gesture like logging on to Mr Rollins film or developing an interest about these issues so that these voices will be heard. Thanks Hank!

[canadagirl76]

You are a very inteligent man, Henry. Thanks for the insight. An odd coincidence: the friend who indroduced me to your music is currently living in South Africa... small world.

[ploopy]

seen. heard. henry. legacy, baby. xoxoxo

[YellowPanties]

Nice one, Henry. This makes up for "Jack Frost."

[marymansour]

I saw your documentary and thought it very good. Loved Africa - the man.

[papapj]

Nice doc, Henry.
I really liked the way you connecd with the aptly named Africa.

Unike most Westerners who seem to conduct interviews with Natives as if they were holding a used snot-rag at arms length, you really seemed to connect with these guys...

[Pdubya]

Fists up Henry, thank you.

[andvoodoo2]

Henry, I recently saw your documentary on New Orleans 3 years after the levee failures and I wanted to say thank you for it. I live in NOLA. I'm from here and as long as NOLA is here, I'll be here. I appreciate your efforts to keep my beautiful city in the public eye.

[anonimost]

When you are a South African growing up during apartheid, you are born into a system that is a caste system. This is what people don't understand. South Africa has several different tribes. Just because you are black, another black was not considered equal to you. One black tribe thought themselves above another black tribe. The whites thought themselves above the black tribes. The Indians thought themselves above the black tribes. The blacks thought they were above the Indians.

To say this is just racist is a simplification of a complex system. To make a comparison: In US. a kid from Beverly Hills is considered sophisticated and classy over a so-called white t rash of some small Southern town. I think the term "trailer rash' or "white t rash" is as bad as any racist term.

Those of us who actually grew up in South Africa during apartheid know it was far more than the color of one's skin. If history is studied, the appalling violence and hatred was not just white versus black, but largely black versus black.

It is a very complex and interesting country with a phenomenal resilience but a profound understanding of its unique melting pot that visitors and outsiders don't have the experience to grasp.

[11907281]

I appreciate the story but still think racism might have been bigger than you let on. Were you black in South Africa or white?

[vicious gnus]

I hope we will be able to see it up here in the Great White (as in snow, not people) North.

[Patriot68]

Isn't it sad though that american policy towards africa is the blind eye kind. I mean if ever there were a place that needed help and might actually want it africa would be it. Instead we waste american lives, money and time in the middle east where just about everyone there does not even want us around.

[go]

Thanks H, keep fightin the good fight and learning. The way things are going you may soon be able to walk down the street to get the ambiance of Africa just in a paler shade.

[kingflapjack]

I have a vision of Henry making old Apartheid government officials drop and give him twenty push-ups.

[rockyersocksoff]

Long Live Henry Rollins.