The king, the cow, and the banana tree (1994)

Overview

Mweze Ngangura takes us to his native region, Ngweshe, one of he six Bushi kingdoms in the province of Kivu, in Eastern Zaïre. In this region of the Great Lakes, wealth is mesured in heads of cows and in length and breadth of banana plantations. Intermixed with commentaries of the director, are those of the King, Mwami Pierre Ndatabaye Weza III, divulging the daily realities of this traditional African kingdom as it confronts the modern world. The third narrator, Makura, is a storyteller. This guardian of traditional knowledge and collective memory teaches the children the proverbs, customs and mythologies of the region. « The King, the Cow and the Banana Tree » sheds light on the dramatic events unfolding in neighbouring Rwanda, particularly in a prophetic sequence where a seer predicts calamities that will take place in the countries surrounding Ngweshe.

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