
The story of people the world over who live without electricity is heartbreaking. But in the day and age of renewable energy, more good stories are beginning to emerge. Here is one of them: a young entrepreneur in Mali is building a business to turn lights on for the approximately 99 percent of his countrymen who have no power.
The core of Daniel Dembélé’s business model involves buying broken and scrap solar panels and reassembling them into working solar panels.
A documentary on Daniel Dembélé, Burning in the Sun, shows the positive impacts solar power has had for the people of Mali. The program will air Sunday, January 29 on public television stations on the World Channel. It is part of the series AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, which runs throughout Black History Month.
Funnyman Wyatt Cenac, correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, will host the fourth season of AfroPoP. The documentary film series premieres on Sunday, January 22 and introduces viewers to films profiling men and women from across the African Diaspora.
AfroPoP is produced by the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and distributed by American Public Television (APT).
Cenac will introduce viewers to a number of independent films that comprise this season of AfroPoP. Episodes include Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, a film narrated by Laurence Fishburne that tells the tale of black inner-city youth in Los Angeles who became leaders of a punk rock music revolution (Sunday, January 22); Burning in the Sun, an inspirational portrait of a 26-year-old’s efforts to combine entrepreneurship and solar energy in Africa (Sunday, January 29); That’s My Face, the story of one New Yorker’s quest for self-discovery in Brazil (Sunday, February 5); and Calypso Rose: Lioness of the Jungle, the tale of beloved singer Calypso Rose, a minister’s daughter who became a pioneer of calypso music (Sunday, February 12).
“AfroPoP is a wonderful example of the unique ability of television to entertain and enlighten a large number of people, and I’m glad to be a part of that,” said Cenac in the press announcement.
Photo: Thabi Moyo.
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