Witness presenter Rageh Omaar heads to one of South Africa's largest and fastest growing cemeteries. Once known for being the final resting place of the anti-apartheid movement’s greatest fallen heroes, Avalon now hosts a less prestigious African legacy – a cemetery fast running out of space because of AIDS.
In this cemetery lie anti-apartheid activists such as Joe Slovo and Tsietsi Mashinini. The cemetery is a signature of the South African struggle for freedom. The same cemetery today is fighting for its survival against a different enemy: HIV/AIDS. The epidemic is causing so many burials that Avalon is set to run out of space by the end of this decade.
Rageh Omaar and producer Zeina Awad spent time with the family of Gift, an AIDS victim who was buried in Avalon after spending many years alienated from his family and neighbors due to the stigma of his illness. As his sister and remaining family sit a night vigil to communicate with the ancestors, the scale of each personal tragedy becomes apparent.
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About Al Jazeera - Witness
Rageh Omaar presents Witness, a half-hour daily documentary series which features short, specially commissioned or acquired films gathered from independent filmmakers.
Each documentary reveals the unknown lives of ordinary people, following their lives, telling their stories and portraying the challenges that confront them. Our witnesses are people in a situation or those who have observed them first hand.
The films cover conflict, belief, the past and the future and as well as bringing new stories to light they showcase the talents of a new breed of multi-skilled, frontline journalist. In the studio, Rageh will further explore the issues raised in the films, with expert guests on the subject matter and the filmmakers themselves.
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