The distinguished Ethiopian film-maker Haile Gerima journeys from his birthplace to Addis Ababa in the company of Ryszard Kapuscinski, a Polish writer who covered African affairs for 30 years on behalf of the Polish Press Agency, and whose book about Haile Selassie, The Emperor, forms a backcloth to their pilgrimage.
Poland, Kapuscinski points out, "was also colonised", making his identification with Africa, and Ethiopia in particular, that much sharper. Africa is now on a difficult and often bloody journey from colonial rule to democracy, and it is Gerima's aim to explore this journey in the lives and words of ordinary people.
Ethiopians need education, often walking across harsh terrain for many hours a day to seek it, but learning is meaningless if it cannot be followed by useful work. In the opinion of some, an education system based on the model of earlier colonisers is irrelevant to Africa's present needs. A former Minister of Foreign Affairs describes the resulting vacuum: "We are as if we have lost our compass... as if we have nothing to live for."
From such a pessimistic departure point, Gerima and Kapuscinski travel in search of constructive hope.
A Low-Flying Pictures production for BBCtv