Beat the Drum

Beat the drum is a movie took place in KwaZulu Natal region, South Africa and it was filmed in 2003. The movie follow Musa journey from his village to Johannesburg. Musa was living in a village stroked by mystery disease killing the village people including his parents. Musa the recent orphaned kid leaves his village to look for his uncle and get money to buy a cow for his grandmother.

This journey has changed Musa's life forever; there were several twist and turns in this journey. First turn in Musa's journey was meeting Nobe the trucker who was convinced to take Musa with him to Johannesburg. Second turn was discovering that the AIDS was the mystery disease was killing his village people. Third turn in Musa's Journey was when he called to live in a foster care where he can get education and time to enjoying his childhood.

Musa was shock by what Johannesburg has of streets, buildings and cars once he got there. He found himself among homeless kids forming a gang living on robbery. He tried to make his own living by washing cars. Dealing everyday life taught him so much about the life including what is ADIS.

South Africa currently is confronting the most severe ADIS epidemic in the world. Data from avert.org saying there are five and a half million people living with HIV in South Africa, and almost 1,000 AIDS deaths occurring every day. Although, AIDS is attacking all society sectors however, it's sometimes seen as disease of the poor.

From the movie point view, there are two aspects are responsible for spreading of the disease. First aspect, people silence and ignorance, people are ignoring the wide spread disease and pretending there is nothing happening among them. Thought this killer is walking in their neighborhoods and entering their houses taking their beloved once. This ignorance made worse and contribute to the increment of HIV infected. In addition, feeling stigma and people refusing to talk about it prevent them to get a proper treatment. Second aspect, sexual behavior especially prostitution, the movie is depicting that the prostitution is number one responsible for HIV diffusion among the people. In the movie prostitutes were everywhere on highways, main streets, back streets. See this video for more information about prostitution in South Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I44mN810aiU

The way that Musa name was used, spelled and pronounced in the movie is exactly the same way that Arabic speakers are using. Musa is a popular Arabic name for the Jewish prophet – Moses in Hebrew and Moshe as standard. This made me think there was a connection between the main character (Musa) either to Islam or Arabic language. According to the official website of the movie, the movie took place in KwaZulu Natal region. Data from www.southafirca.info says KwaZulu Natal people are speaking isiZulu, followed by English and Afrikaans and none of these languages is closed to Arabic. At the same time, it was obvious from movie that the villages were not Muslims. So, the connection between the character and his name has not cleared yet.

The movie is a massage or an invitation for people to fight this extreme epidemic. The movie suggesting that the first step to fight this epidemic is by spreading awareness among the people and this is what the movie title comes from. In many cultures, the drum has been used to call people attention or for announcing. So, beating the drum figuratively means making announcement or calling people attention.