The Great Granny Revolution

Press Coverage

A few good grannies

The Great Granny Revolution comes to Winnipeg

JACQUELINE HOGUE STAFF

"Never forget that you're talking about human beings." - Angélique Kidjo

On Sunday, April 22, Stephen Lewis, the United Nations secretary general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, spoke at Crocus Plains High School in Brandon. Lewis spoke about Canadian and South African grandmothers getting together and supporting each other. He also called his audience to action to counter Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic. I attended his lecture not knowing exactly what to expect, but more than a month later his words and dreams were still echoing in my ears. I have never been hugely interested in politics and global affairs, but Lewis' words sparked something in me that evening.

When I read in a local bulletin that Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba was hosting screenings of The Great Granny Revolution, a documentary by Robert and Brenda Rooney, I realized this film was about the same group of women that Stephen Lewis had alluded to in his April 22 speech.

Equipped with my new can-do attitude, I decided the $10 admission fee would be worth my while, so I got in my car and headed to the Park Theatre to learn more about these women. At the theatre I realized I was one of about five people under the age of 25 in attendance. At showtime the ticket-taker informed me that "about 110 tickets [had] been sold . . . 109 to be exact." The grandmothers in Winnipeg were supporting this granny revolution.

As a result of the AIDS pandemic in Africa many children have been left parentless. The resulting unique phenomenon involves many South African grandmothers having to care for their orphaned grandchildren. When grandmothers in Canada started learning about the difficulties of grandmothers in South Africa, they knew they had to support their South African counterparts.

The film opens in Wakefield, Quebec. Norma Geggie, now 81, heads up a group of 12 Wakefield women who decided to support grandmothers in Alexandra, South Africa. Rose Letwaba, who met Geggie in Wakefield, works as a nurse in the health clinic in Alexandra Township on the outer edge of Johannesburg. Nina Minde, a child psychologist who volunteered to run a support group with Letwaba, spoke in Wakefield about the women in South Africa "who had lost their daughters to AIDS and were now left to look after their orphan grandchildren." Geggie was inspired to help these women.

One of the only men I recall seeing in The Great Granny Revolution is Stephen Lewis, who has referred to himself as a feminist. But during the question-and-answer period Rooney said that after showing raw footage of this film in Wakefield she "was almost attacked in the kitchen" with the question, "Where are all the men?" Rooney explained that "there are very few men around in Alex . . . I do not know if you understand that AIDS in women in Africa is a much more virulent disease because of our, as they say, physical set-up; we're more exposed. . . . So the women die sooner, even though it may be the men who are infecting them. And often, when the men understand that their wives are infected, they just leave. We're talking about a society that has come through years of apartheid damage; where families . . . were systematically destroyed."

Rooney said she thinks "it's a really important thing that there's room in this movement for everyone; young, old, men and women." Paradoxically, these senior citizens are sources of inspiration to young people, giving them the energy and drive to work for a better world.

Angélique Kidjo, a successful African singer, says in The Great Granny Revolution, "I am so frustrated and tired of seeing only bad image about my continent. They actually are doing what every grandparent should be doing; taking care of their grandchildren, and the sad part is that they have to bury their own kids." Kidjo goes on, "What I always say to people when people come to me and ask me: 'What can we do to help in Africa?' I say: 'Never forget that you're talking about human beings.'"

So, in a world of ITunes, IPods, and IPhones, are we collectively forgetting about or choosing to ignore the "we?" We the people have the power to connect. If grey-haired old women believe they can impact a change in the world then why can't our generation? Also, as a woman, what Kidjo says inspires me: "I believe that the women of this planet, if they get together, this world would change in a heartbeat because we have the power of changing, we carry babies, we give life to boys and girls and we know how hard it is to have kids and to raise a family and we are going to make it happen!"