HIS first full feature Maangamizi
(The Ancient One) is a 2001 American/
Tanzanian drama film. Co-directed by
Martin Mhando and Ron Mulvihill, the
film premiered at the Pan African Film
Festival and has played in over 55 Film
Festivals worldwide ever since and won
various prestigious prizes. The intriguing story tells about Dr Asira who is
faced with the contrast between Western
medicine and traditional East African
spirituality when a woman, Samehe,
who is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, claims to be under the power of
Maangamizi, a mysterious ancestor…
I guess it’s safe to say Martin Mhando is a
natural optimist. He uses his popularity to
connect local people to the silver screen by
not being a glamorous star. Sure, he wears
a traditional white kanzu under a stylishly
cut western jacket plus Italian leather shoes
on the opening gala evening – and delivers
vivid, firm hand gestures while he talks to me
– what makes him and ZIFF a distinguished
assembly, though, I believe, is the dynamic
strength like a quietly soaring tower that
breathes the past, the present and the future.
“
Africa needs and
has always needed
technology for its
development.
I think nothing is wrong
with that.
”
Chairman Mao, soap
opera and China
Martin Mhando is China’s old friend.
Martin: “China and Tanzania have
enjoyed a long and friendly relationship
during the past decades. One notable
highpoint is the 1800-kilometer-long
Tanzania-to-Zambia Railway, which
was built with the help of China. Africa
needs and has always needed technology for its development. I think nothing
is wrong with that. In many ways, my
personal career path has echoed [an]
African call for openness for opportunities in both cultural and business aspects.
China is ready to provide all that. The
close ties between the two countries are
rooted in history. My very first visit to
your homeland was in the year when
Chairman Mao died. In 1986, I went to
Beijing and visited China’s capital and
paid homage to that giant of ideas. I felt
I had a real connection to this place; I
even wrote a poem about my first China
adventure (laughs). I wrote something
like:
Today the sky fell and I along with it
When a large tree falls, its branches reach
afar
And I cried along on the death of a fallen
giant!
Back then, socialist China was trying hard to re-enter the UN. In 1971,
China was finally readmitted to the UN.
Among the African countries that supported this motion, Tanzania played an
active role.”
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