When watching movies relating to the same topic that were produced in an overall large time span, it is clear that the social connotations associated with this topic are subject to change, whether it is positively or negatively. The depiction of Africa and its inhabitants are no different. Without a doubt, one can say that movies based on Africa and Africans have changed, but only to a certain amount. Many of these films still portray Africa as this land of “dream and nightmare” (Dunn 1996) and Africans as being seen as inferior barbarians (Walker and Rasamimanana 1993). Specifically dealing with the their inferiority, the amount and worth of the speech or dialogue Africans are assigned within these movies can tell the overall view the filmmakers …show more content…
Kevin Dunn (1996) explains in his paper that the images of Africans in popular films during the 1930s “[…] consciously or not, the filmmakers were acting as cultural colonists by reinforcing and legitimatizing Western political practices in Africa. These images contributed to the viewing audiences’ misperception of Africa and Africans and helped to perpetuate and strengthen racist and colonialist modes of thinking” (149). Dunn (1996) also points out that “[…] such imagery tells us more about the self [white Westerners] than the other [Africans]” (150). Because African has always been seen as a land filled with inferior individuals who cannot speak for themselves, the filmmakers had to show that the only way to save this overall population was to civilize them through colonialism (Mudimbe 1988). However, if anything, this accurately shows how the Dunn’s “self” actually views the “others.” The way the filmmakers successfully got their views across was implementing Western thoughts and stereotypes of Africans throughout their films. Often, Africans were all part of tribes, constantly naked, barefoot (Walker and Rasamimanana, 9), singing, or dancing, and seen as plain stupid, to be quite frank. Most importantly, however, is the amount of dialogue, whether it is native or English, assigned to Africans. …show more content…
Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is about a husband and wife who get shipwrecked by the shore of the continent of Africa and end up living in a tree house in the jungle. The pregnant woman gives birth to the son in the jungle. Not long, though, apes come into the tree house and kill the parents and a female ape takes the son and raises him as her own. Later in the film, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot finds a much older Tarzan in the jungle and learns who his parents are and brings him back to Europe. Throughout this whole film, there might be at least five minutes combined in which Africans are present. During these five minutes, they are trying to kill Captain D’Arnot and his crew. After successfully killing every single member of the crew except for Captain D’Arnot, they are in search for him. Captain D’Arnot climbs in a tree to hide, but only after he drops his hat on the ground. Shortly after, the African savages arrive and notice the hat; one of them picks it up, places it on another’s head and they all laugh. Later on in the film, when Tarzan and Captain D’Arnot arrive in a village in which is overtaken by white Europeans, there are some Africans portrayed there, especially a female who’s clearly the property of one of the white males. Throughout this whole scene, she is seen with her hands wrapped around the man’s body without