NOTE #17 A WALL OF TREES

I recently read about the African Union's initiative to green the Sahel-Sahara region with acacia trees in order to combat land degradation and desertification. The buffer zone of forest stretching from east to west is also intended to restore the microclimate so that plants can grow in the shade of the trees to feed the local population. The Great Green Wall is the largest human-planned project on Earth and a symbol of hope. Millions of trees have been planted so far and many jobs have been created. And yet there is still a long way to go.

Such a wonderful project, which was started more than a decade ago, and I knew absolutely nothing about it. None of my friends had ever heard of the Great Green Wall either. I realise that my life, all our lives, are practically dominated by negative news. A never-ending downward spiral in which there is no room for optimism. But sometimes really positive things happen too.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about walls, and even made a film about them. For my documentary ‘Separated’, I travelled to the most remote places on earth. These were always dividing walls, whose purpose was to lock certain minorities or entire peoples in and out under the pretext of self-protection. For me, a wall symbolises social injustice, exclusion and totalitarianism and is the concrete embodiment of political and social failure.

The Iron Curtain, which is linked to my childhood memories, was also such a wall. For us children, the world ceased to exist behind this invisible border of dense forests and, as they said, mines. But just as everything that was forbidden always fascinated me, the Iron Curtain also made me infinitely curious about the world behind it. A few years later, I got to know and love this world behind the curtain in Berlin, Prague and Moscow.

Over time, I also came to understand that the only thing that matters is which side of the wall you happen to be born on and which piece of paper, called a passport, you can call your own. These two details so often determine the difference between prosperity and poverty, sometimes even between life and death.
 
I was born with the right piece of paper, which allows me to travel the world as a filmmaker. But it doesn't make me a better person. I could just as easily have been born on the other side of the Iron Curtain or somewhere in Africa. Then I might now be on my way north, through the desert, desperately searching for a better life. I would have had to leave my children behind, perhaps never to see them again. And if I had actually made it this far, I would now be a second-class citizen to many. Let's not kid ourselves. Behind my black skin, however, would be the same life-loving, adventurous and loving person that I am. Few people would give me the chance to see myself that way.

That's why news stories like the one about the construction of the ‘Great Green Wall’ impress me. They give me hope that my daydreams might end differently someday.