make a real impact on climate change improve the quality of the 3 the food we eat and do to retrain we can feed info for our children to pizza benefit to thanks to you can see things we screw for instance and we get to. this day w news and these are our top stories the us city of minneapolis has agreed to pay the family of george floyd $27000000.00 to settle a civil lawsuit over his death floyd was killed while in police custody last may former police officer derek shogun is currently on trial for his murder with jury

selection under way. myanmar's latest pro-democracy protests have been met with more harsh responses from security forces police fired rubber bullets and tear gas during demonstrations in the country's 2 largest cities the un's human rights investigator has accused the military regime of committing crimes against humanity. authorities in one theory and say gunmen have kidnapped dozens of students from a school in the northwestern state of could do enough security forces were able to rescue 180 pupils and staff but nearly 40 students are still missing it's the 4th mass kidnapping from a nigerian school since december. this is d.w. news from berlin you can follow us on instagram and twitter at news or visit our website w dot com. it

sounds like an actor's worst nightmare going on stage to perform a play with no preparation no idea even with the plays about and yet the play white rabbit red rabbit has been performed thousands of times in dozens of languages talk to the playwright coming up. the cool tale of. a little known opera that could snag a grammy this weekend those stories coming up but 1st a possible game changer for the art market just half a year ago the artist beatle had never sold a work but on thursday christie's auction off a digital collage by the artist for over $69000000.00 the 3rd highest auction price

ever for a living artist it's also the highest price ever for a purely digital artwork the piece containing images the artists have been posting online daily since 2007 sold as an n f t a non fungible token a form of encrypted data that can't be replicated the artist whose real name is mike winkleman says it's a new day for digital arts. there are thousands of artists and that is something that you know i sort of really hope concert from that and i'm going to be pushing or is sort of going back actually and looking at the history of digital art over the last 20 years digital artists design websites they describe apps they desire to offer you know t.v. shows how t.v. shows they design how characters look at movies and you know. that's all digital art so they have a huge huge impact on that visual language of the moral and so i think it now be on

the black i meant look at them as you know real art and i'm super super excited about the euro vision song contest as told bellerose to change its tune or get out they say the song bellerose submitted breaks the contest rules against political entries it features the lyrics i'll teach you to toe the line words that feller's opposition figures say support the regime of strongman leader alexander because shane crow and mocked widespread protests in the country following last year's elections. more music news and a piece that still very much in the running for this weekend's grammy awards a recording of but the war by austrian composer unexpanded at some minsky is competing for best opera recording sung by the daughter berlin it's a chance for the world to get to know an opera that is rarely performs.

it's the 18th century and the spanish royal court is celebrating the birthday of the king's daughter one gift in particular is causing a sensation it's a human being a dwarf a gift from a sultan the man doesn't know he's a little person because he's never seen himself in a mirror. 6 the one act opera was written in 1982 inspired by oscar wilde story the birthday of the infanta director to be as cuts a has brought the tale into the present day he sees it as less a drama about an individual artist and more of a description of the state of society when. you can read it as a very individual story regardless of age or size that's what i found to be the crucial issue of all the characters in the piece not just the dwarf have that great discrepancy between their self image and their public image how they want to be perceived and how they think they are perceived and how the others really see them

. the dwarf's attempt to win the heart of the princess with a love song only appears to succeed. i have a tragic story takes its course as the dwarf ends up seeing himself through the unloving eyes of his beloved. how do we see ourselves how do others see us and how do we deal with being different director cuts or does without makeup and elaborate costumes simply casting 2 people in the main role. i decided to bring the conflict of interior images the conflict between the self image and the external image of the character onto the stage through 2 characters and a cast the title role with a tenor and with an actor who corresponds to the image one already has when reading

the libretto mainly of an actor of small stature for me that was the way to really make the inner conflict theatrical. and this approach to casting works thanks to the excellent performance by mick morris may not an actor with dwarfism and the extraordinary singing by american tenor david but philip. was. the stage production has already been celebrated by audiences in berlin if the video production wins a grammy award this weekend that would certainly help bring it to the attention of an international audience. was. also this

weekend actors in over 120 places from tokyo to new york el salvador to mumbai are performing the same play and none of them knows what it's about with no one her soles and no director the work white rabbit red rabbit by iranian playwright nasim so a month where is perhaps the perfect choice for a day of action calling attention to the plight of theaters one year and so the coronavirus pandemic. this unusual play always begins the same way ok. i have just been the. i have begun to read and i have no idea what's going to happen. there are no were her no real script and no director the actors get their instructions once they're on stage where they slip into the role of a 29 year old theater director from iran there is a bit of a plot but that's a secret it's all part of the concept and it's meant to allow the actors to be more

spontaneous in their improvisation that's also why each actor is only allowed to perform the piece once in the meantime thousands of actors have done that including rami khouri my preparation is to not prepare you know not google not think about it too much actually i just want to be vulnerable as possible with it because. i think the whole point of broadway producers tom courtesy and devlin elliott came across the piece at the edinburgh fringe festival noticed that there was a play written by an iranian playwright and thought that would be interesting to check out and within minutes we realized we were seeing something we'd never seen before for their 2016 production and new york's west theater they were able to recruit a number of acting stars that helped bring the play with the secret plot to the world's attention. and i'm joined now by theater creator nasim soleimani poor who lives in berlin but wrote the play white rabbit red rabbit

in 2010 when he was still in iran so now see him you've said that this device of keeping the play a secret even to the actor was born out of necessity what do you mean by that. well hello to you and everyone thank you just like in 2000 and among you might know i was a still in iran and in war and i was really keen to to do a show globally so i thought maybe i can shift some paradigm. in that in the future as like a structure came up we did. something with you supposed to be a form fight and theme quite a 1st time with an actor in front of a live audience and the actor basically is reading your voice now i've got a question about the story so if there are any actors out there who might perform this play some day stop watching right here. i understand that the end of the play

there's that the actor who's playing here is basically instructed to do something terrible to him or her south it's a kind of test whether the audience will intervene why did you include that. well i think it's a choice you're right. david i strongly believe that we live in a very beautiful but yes very very troubled world we have black lives matter the climate change is real and you and i are speaking something is happening a catastrophe in myanmar so question is do we basically react to them saying what or the borders of our of the media and how much we push in which direction what are that red line i think that's what that's what the play is is trying to to to to explore with the help of the hallmark and the audience and he told me that when this performance is done live as is usually the case there is actually

a lot of audience interaction. it is the eye it happens that audience even they they try you know the audience summers ago on stage and stuff to show friends environment like you were going to do a show where we're going in may and mexico tomorrow inside a prison so different context as i bring it brings and brings in different you know moments and with this black was speaking of the white rabbit red rabbit is being performed in over 120 places this saturday's some virtually and you can't possibly be there to see all of the 120 performances in one day is there a show that you're particularly excited to see are you going to be participating in any way. i mean i look at the list today i was doing good we had like what mama mama you know 1 you have to stumble i want china to york london and some of those plays i have of being there personally can perform i want to talk about you know

the mexican company or she showed across the netherlands i hear only 5 and one theater in crete different venues in the land there are 7 payment be doing shows and the audience without a choice on whom to basically pick which show room part of the show they want to see what different actors i would try to sneak in how they differ a bit of difference so if they are on you know most definitely i would do that well it's not a month for thanks so much for coming on arts and culture congratulations on this work of art which is now 11 years old and still as relevant as ever and as popular as ever thank you very much i also want to thank you all removal for initiating given all of these great preview series and the actors are going to take a look thanks so much. of our more culture news now england's royal shakespeare company is harnessing 3 d. video games technology and live stream performances of

a midsummer night's dream the technology transforms real life actors into virtual avatars actors and the troops say they believe the once radical 16th and 17th century playwright shakespeare would approve the performances are free of charge but viewers can pay $10.00 pounds to interact with the cast as virtual fireflies. and to leave you now with some new works by a french artist site proof uses sand and grass as his canvas and the last 2 years he's taken his biodegradable paints to 3 continents painting giant linked hands he says the project is all about friendship here's his latest from then in.

the w.'s crime fighters are back again a little africa's most successful radio drama series continues from the all of us odes are available online course you can share and discuss on w. africa's facebook page and other social media platforms to crime fighters tune in now. more than half the world will be living with limited water resources we haven't had to think about our war i think that era is over it's a financial product like any other financial model of the world is changing the most important commodity jump is called be free if it was a necessity or commodity starts march 22nd on d w. this

is the story of a world whose borders and territories were drawn by the slave trade where violence subjugation and profit imposed their own roots slavery did not begin in the cotton fields of the us it is a far more ancient tragedy that has been going on since the dawn of humanity from the 8th century onwards for over 1000 years africa was the epicenter of a global form of human trafficking. my parents were abused by those with a fair complection. songhai full lani. bantu big bull malinga. over 20000000 africans were deported

traded and reduced to slavery this criminal system shaped our history and our world so expansive was its reach that for a long time it seemed impossible to fully explain its mechanisms. in this series we will journey back along the roots of the slave trade. to. be a. the thing about the slave trade a key thing about the slave trade or not i always would have to explain a store american students who immediately would want to put it into a kind of an ethical human rights card of a card you have to look at an economic terms and so if you have if you're talking about a slave trade if so where is the demand where is there a demand for labor and what is the nature of that demand for life for. 2000 years ago slavery became an integral feature of the roman empire eventually in

476 run collapsed under the pressure of invasions by so-called barbarians. scattered territories a range of peoples and powers fought over the empires remains this a goddess and ostrogoths in the west slavs in the north east berbers in the south the byzantine empire the kingdom of new bia and arab tribes in the east just like rome before them these societies also practiced slavery. in every society we see slavery and it doesn't matter where they come from they come from everywhere from the steps. to to russia through a ball of eastern europe or all through the slavic countries which is where of course the word for them in most of the european allies which is comes from a comes from rewards law all of. those were people that. conceptions

of a worm slave. for a long time most to slaves were white the majority of slaves being black is a relatively recent phenomenon in history. so how did a widespread practice evolve into an enormous trade which progressively focused its sights on the african continent. one of the starting points of this story is cairo on the river nile a 23000000 strong megalopolis born from the network of trade routes between the middle east and africa. today it's the continent's most important crossroads for people and goods. south of the modern city are the ruins of 4 start the 1st arab city in egypt. these remains are a neglected site and yet this is where the destinies of africa the middle east and

the mediterranean converged some 1400 years ago. in $641.00 a game changing event would occur with their vast conquest campaign underway the arab armies established a junction between africa and the middle east their expansion into egypt would change the continent's entire economy and intensify the demand for slaves. slavery was crucial to the concourses self and it was crucial to systems of the slum the empire and its expansion from the is self captives where turned into slaves and those slaves were recruited in daraa made that conquered basically the world at that time. to use

them or it was 1st and foremost a trade with economic and political stakes. the slaves were the essential source of energy. back then there was no oil. they were in effect the driving force behind these emerging empires. the arab troops pressed ahead as far as the south of egypt all along the nile a stretch the christian lands of new bia their arabs found provisions and above all slaves who they would enlist in their armies to pursue their expansion in $769.00 they signed a pact with the new stipulating that hostilities would cease in exchange for $360.00 slaves per year in a war and slave what was considered. a cold thing to do with prisoners and without doubt warfare was the major cause of enslavement almost everybody who was and

sawyer was a enslaved through an act of violence that was related to either a war or to kidnapping order it's very consciously braiding which was an extension of war and. in the beginning it wasn't a trade. it was spoils of war. the conquest was swift in less than a century the arabs had occupied the mediterranean southern shore a border was taking shape separating the muslim world from the land of the so-called infidels. from the valley in niger to make korea in libya and the desert region the arabs impose the same conditions they had established in newbie young they use these agreements to organize the 1st deportations from africa to the middle east entire convoys of captives made their way towards the world's new

center baghdad. the illustrated manuscripts short tales taken from arabic literature show how these 1st african slaves intermingled with muslim society. after 2 centuries of military conquest the demand for slaves evolved in the 9th century the embassy dynasty embarked on a monumental project to transform the swamps around basra into lush orchards instead of soldiers baghdad now needed workers to cultivate the iraqi soil to do so the empire brought in thousands of slaves. on some sides there were between 505000 workers. and there was considerable turnover because in such conditions their working life barely went beyond 10 to 15 years.

it required hard labor. in order to get. it again for this one they needed lots. and they began to import. slaves for all from all over. where do the muslim arabs go to get slaves out of principle they pick non muslim slaves from another culture and outside the empire. color wasn't the basis for slavery culture was the slaves weren't part of the dominant culture. in the 9th century the arabs extended their trade networks from the entire mediterranean to the caucasus turkey the balkans and russia. from the horn of africa entire boatloads of ethiopian and new 1000000000 captives were sailed up the

nile. even further out from the high plateaus of somalia and tanzania successive waves of slaves referred to as sun streamed into mesopotamia via the indian ocean appears to be apportioned ward. and black and when slaves began to be brought in large numbers. of what is now your rock. there were proportionately so many. of course that zion should begin to be used as a name to mean slaves in. little by little the number of slaves grew and became so high that rebellions broke out among the banks of the euphrates and the tigris in 1969 the sand took up arms and raised an army numbering tens of

thousands of men. heading the insurrection was. a former high dignitary of the of a seed caliphate. what we know about that revolt his that many of the participants perhaps most of them were not actually african or weren't there were some newbie ins the most important leader of the revolt was. someone who is an arab whose mother had been an indian. so it's gives you a sense of how complicated the demography was. was quite a learned man but he began to be deceptive fight with her. and when he went to bust he found that there were a lot of slaves there. these farms began to actually do investigation and found that the conditions of the slaves were very very bad there was so much this that affection among them that they are the most rebellious group

the ones who could. have revolution there is kind of a shutdown because it was that slavery which lasted for about over a decade it was so disruptive it seems to have been one of the contributing factors to a kind of a shrinking of trading in the india western indian ocean. the regimes armies were deployed to brutally put down the rebellion between 500001 1000000 slaves were massacred in mesopotamia this century ended in a bloodbath. despite its failure the uprising precipitated the decline of baghdad in favor of another city cairo the empire's new capital. in the 10th century cairo was the mediterraneans greatest trading hub far ahead of venice general and constantinople the empires center of gravity had shifted towards africa. this new

geo political situation had far reaching consequences from then on this slavery routes turned toward africa. customs change as did the slaves position in society. slaves in egypt were reflected the wealth of cairo and so we find slaves in all levels of society to find slaves as as concubines to the. right as elite corners in and entertainers but probably the largest number of slaves. were in the domestic sphere so these were household slaves. and people were purchased slaves of course to perform labor but also because those slaves had a had a symbolic value and those slaves reflected an owner's social status and increase their own prestige and in their various communities.

for a long time historians had no information on the slaves who were taken to cairo but the discovery of some extraordinary documents which had been hidden for a 1000 years in the city's oldest synagogue has enabled them to find out more about the captives identities and places of origin. for almost a millennium the jews of this son of god deposited documents one out manuscripts into a large chamber. authentically with the ultimate intention to bury these documents and in a ritual way because those documents might have been name of god written on them and so they weren't to be disposed of casually. but the community never buried these documents and amongst these documents were hundreds of documents or relate to slavery there are dozens and dozens of bills of sale for slaves.

preserved at the university of cambridge the guineas that documents reveal how moving the empires capital to cairo trade routes is laid from antiquity the slav the caucasian was replaced by the african. i found it roughly 52 percent of slaves especially domestic slaves in egypt or from black africa but between the late 10 and the 13th century. africa was exposed and vulnerable. nubians ethiopians and sudanese would now make up the majority of slave contingents sold in cairo. here at the street markets most were women black women who were exhibited as trophies. destined to satisfy all of their master's requirements their prices were determined by their age and beauty. slave

woman have arrived yet means they translated into english as things like success prosperity prodigality these are all names which reflect the way that slavery function as a kind of form of consumption and then we also have have slaves with names like. wild rose musk. names that reflect luxury items very often when you have domestic slaves a possible relationship begins to develop between the slave on us and the slaves and if it can become quite intimate for example when a child is born a guard she would be given a slave servant. who would grow up with her but almost like a friend although the status is quite different. with.

them discovered we're often told that in islam but then slavery was very paternalistic with a tight relationship between slave and master and that the slave was always sure they would have benchley be freed and integrated into the master's family if you met. my believe it's misleading to consider slavery this way as something that had a soft side to sell the disc that was one of the buckle pulled you can't understand slavery if you don't relate it to the violence at its heart so soft slavery or domestic slavery you know that's nonsense slavery is the negation of being human through the use of violence. of your laws to. fit this bill. as the empire expanded more and more slaves adopted their masters religion. since islam for bade the enslavement of muslims the newly converted thought they could

now escape the violence of these domineering relations these conversions posed a contradiction for the arabs on the one hand they had to enfranchise these new muslims on the other hand they would not give up their slaves. thinking from the islamic perspective it's only true and belief that you get slaves that's the legal you know principle basically in the frontiers of islam is considering the people they are and believers that's the legitimate area where slaves can be produced. as the number of converts grew the arabs had to find new sources of slaves conversion in turn created demand having become muslims certain groups such as the berbers sided with the arabs and helped them find captives beyond the empires borders. the beggars themselves where in slave

to buy dollars although they convert to islam they were to the dow's inferior and vassals. the whole of the better verse and it turns out on trade it's a fundamental the 1st knowledge we have it's from out of exposes that talk about the betters having. established. the sahar network with sub-saharan africans. what we know is that the use of the camel helped basically increase the trait. and that knowledge was transmitted to the arabs. the better support was of crucial value. they were masters of desert survival techniques beginning with the use of camels the only rideable animals capable of doing without water for weeks. thanks to this means of transportation the arabs

were able to cross the daunting sahara barrier. so here or in some ways is a barrier but so are the oceans and in some ways are you after developer technology your own ability to cross it it was always a barrier your most sounds of. a political issues affect the movement of people. trade routes formed between the north and south of the sahara to connect both ends of the desert merchants had to follow the caravan route right along babbar territory and pass through the scene. dahmus on. massa before arriving in timbuktu the deserts last stop and the gateway to the mali empire.

heading this immense empire west in john talk asia king of kings and its founding fathers. victory in the great battle of kareena in 1235 enabled him to unite all of the regions peoples and form a massive commercial network along the banks of the niger. martin and other. arabs and established a trading post in timbuktu from where they maintain trade relations with this centralized empire. they bartered salt fabric jewelry and mediterranean dates in return for ivory copper slaves and most importantly gold. reorganize trade tried to build up enter. regional relations in order to protect his empire's interests of the gov and so organizing regional an interagency trade was one of his greatest accomplishments of reason and may even have provided the

foundations for the mali empire fall that is quite good enough for them on a map to the point. of. timbuktu's importance stems from its geographical location. on the banks of the niger river its port became a center for transferring luggage and goods to and from the north. this natural crossroads occupied a strategic position in the transparent trade. the money empire which the babbar has traded with enjoyed abundant wealth thanks to the bamboo and brain mines it possessed the world's largest gold reserves more than

half of the precious metal circulating in the mediterranean originated from these deposits. are throughout the history of the trade between north and south for the. slaves were. there. and gold was always in the soft one feeds the other made with love i do know of no necessity of the good gold mining in african societies was mainly done by captives don't because the gold trade and slavery were closely linked. while i believe the gold may have predated slavery with the chronology is unclear it's usually said that both grew in significance at the same time don't they don't know that slavery was in fact hidden behind the gold trade. with d.c. . live close by dig for. some of the caterers generals never gave up this liquid of business that you felt that but the fact is it did make

a number of efforts to intervene with them he reminded his fellow countrymen of the threat that slavery posed to the survival of the malenka country to be better would be money. going to buy the comparisons are questionable but i do remember that charlemagne himself prohibited slavery but that didn't stop it you know that men will be men. the fall of the. oral tradition credits and john as the founder of mali and identity and the symbol of the country's prosperity for a century the mali and higher reigned over all of western africa leaving behind the deserts greatest library. in timbuktu history inhabits the homes where over 360000 medieval manuscripts

are preserved. these treasures are owned by wealthy local families they pass them down from generation to generation often hiding them from view in secret places. threatened with destruction tens of thousands of manuscripts are now being restored . this 11th century qur'an reveals how islam spread throughout western africa. thanks to merchant contacts between arab areas and african elites muslim culture graham. actually spread among and habitants of the sahara region south of the sahara to the point where syngenta kater declared islam to be the official religion

of the mali empire. so they're now part of the slimy slimy nation and they can benefit from the slum a compiler which is access to that big market that was controlled by the islamic empire and so best business connection been affected both the millions as well as the people in the islamic community at large. there are. the conversion of people in the silent region prompted merchants and chieftains to seize slaves even further away. the slave trade expanded south of the mali empire to animist

populations who the arab geographer. relegated to the fringes of humanity. almost all arab writers and korean you see and the others because. it's often sometimes. they don't really see them as humans or they consider them to be cannibals outside of the civilized world. or the lowest black men and practically not human. this is that. these descriptions show that reducing them to slavery was not really a problem from a theological or moral point of view. as the need to turn an individual into a slave an important element i suspect trade them as an other to construct an other

nes. and human societies have a broad range of criteria for doing. just the resists. and you can use the difference in skin complection difference in religion. in the transparent trade both for combined. can be made me do. the history of timbuktu is intertwined with that of slavery. according to legend the city took its name from an old female slave who had washed over the well where the herds drank. timbuktu supposedly comes from the word to him which means well into iraq and this woman's 1st name book to. today northern mali remains a caste based society in timbuktu ancestry determines rank whether somebody is

free or captive depends on their name and lineage. at the top of the social ladder of the light skinned to our eggs former warriors who have always owned land and weapons at the very bottom of the balance descendants of slaves who have nothing apart from their capacity for physical work to rely on for survival many still cultivate their former masters fields aware of their family's slave origins. who never let me through that hard of good will my name is i had a motto that i belong to the emir did out n. try my parents were abused by those with a fact complection with the feeling about it but i think the body in my father worked for them but not today while he was there herdsman but those with a fair complection abused them up and down more than welcome. them strong.

and. lent it meant to live fairly poor while the landowners have an interest in communicating to the workers that they are slaves not because of an old. it's a power that can be turned around because it's nature but it's a good but suddenly they are destined to be slaves. in this and it's got to lose. it's a very powerful ideology see if your blood is considered to be served you pass this nature on to your descendants. it becomes impossible to escape slavery. and i remember this guy was used to. that. but.