Netflix has a few options on fiction and non-fiction depictions of African history:
- Cry, The Beloved Country (Likewise a book, the remake of a 50's movie that has James Earl Jones cast in it). Based off the book the movie follows two mens lives right before the apartheid political system in Africa went into effect.
- The Greatest Silence Documents the horrors and violence towards women through the war in the Congo.
I don't think this is on Netflix but still a good documentary:
- God Grew Tired of Us (2006? 07?) depicts three of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan...and their transition from child soldiers of Africa to being integrated in America from a refugee background.
Don't just look for African based flicks though! There's great stuff on the Middle East (Isreal, Lebanon, India) as well as South American countries too that might provide some enlightenment or insight.
-Ray
Ray,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point- In general, Americans are culturally and politically unaware of Africa. I am in an African Studies course and can contribute the following pieces of information:
One, be careful about generalizing "Africa." It is a massive continent with millions of inhabitants, who speak varying languages, practice vastly different religions, traditions, and rituals. To say, "All Africans have child soliders" or "All Africans practice Female Genital Mutulation" is a dangerous fallacy. We must be sensitive to the fact that making sweeping generalizations about any culture promotes the ignorance towards it.
Secondly, be mindful when watching these films. Are the directors from a Western nation or from Africa itself? How is Africa presented? (Typical themes include: savage, bare-chested, wild, drugged, malnourished, poor, crazed, etc.) As a personal anecdote, I went and saw the recent film Captain Phillips about the Somali pirates. Four months ago, I would have watched it and left thinking about how savage pirates are. Under my new perspective, I came to realize how the Western director, Paul Greengrass, imposed his ideas onto the film to dehumanize the Somali. The pirates were depicted as screaming, drugged, wild-eyed ruthless young thugs. The Americans were heroic, pristine, and almost mechanical. The point is, we are bred to watch these movies about the portrayal of Africa or Africans and accept them as wild people. If we recognize that Somalia has been a failed state for over 20 years, my ENTIRE lifetime, we begin to have the understanding of why the some of the Somali people are desperate enough to turn to piracy.
Lastly, I appreciate you taking the time to talk about this because media discourse really does shape the thoughts in our heads. If we can look at these films with a more critical understanding of the sociopolitical context, we will gain a better understanding of humankind.
Alan Parton author of Cry, The Beloved Country is a native to South Africa. His book highlights the disparity and racial elements present in Africa before Apartheid as mentioned. This is definitely not entirely homogenous across the continent as a whole...I'm just trying to find something that focuses on regions, so I chose the films from South Africa, the Congo, and Sudan just to cover different regional struggles.
DeleteThe Greatest Silence was in fact respectful, and seeking public awareness to a margin of women who had encountered varying degrees of violence during the Second Congelese war. I'm all for humanitarian rights, and I do understand that as Westerners, as a "white" individual, even my privilege could potentially bias how I see the Nation as a whole. Just trying to nip it in the butt ....But here's some more info on the documentary if you are at all interested: http://thegreatestsilence.org/
God Grew Tired of Us really does well in portraying the struggles coming from both a refugee, orphaned background and being placed in the United States and having to grow accustomed to our culture and norms. It's difficult to transition from a trade or barter system of goods to being told "You need a drivers license and that will be 200, plus we here in America need you to buy insurance...etc." These kids find means of coping as they go through our education, workforce, and seek appropriate housing.
I would never generalize problems....my issue is that I have very little understanding beyond what I know of Rwanda, the illicit and often deadly diamond/mineral trade, the disparities of the Nile River and it's contamination....I would just like to learn more about say, human trafficking, or human rights violations, racial discrepancies. I didn't mean to generalize, again, but these are filmed in various regions within Africa, and with each sort of film gives a different insight on issues that have affected people within those specific regions. (Racial disparity and apartheid, sexual violence and kidnapping, and child soldiers and rehabilitation respectively).
If anything, human on human violence is someone's needs not being met. Unfortunately the United States hasn't been so kind both in media and history towards respecting other people's cultures and heritage. Yes, there is potentially some bias in anything we read or watch, but take that with a grain of salt?
Thanks for your input! Is the class you're taking worthwhile? I'd love to take it in the near future. :)
I think this is very interesting and does show how little Americans do know about Africa. I think that this might be a issue that the media should look more into and could help problems in Africa and globally with a better awareness for the issue.
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