African Take Away
Uru, Tanzania
July 1999
A collaborative performance for camera made with a group of women from the village of Uru in Tanzania in August 1999. The work arose out of conversations with them related to the issue of the ‘third world debt’ as it was then known.
The video shows the hands of three African women giving the contents of their shared bowl to another bowl in a white person’s hands, until the white person grabs their bowl and tips all of its contents into her own before walking away. The soundtrack to the video is of the three women talking about education, healthcare and everyday life in Tanzania, and their feelings and concerns for their situation in relationship to the western world. The transcript of the soundtrack can be viewed here.