This movie was released in 1950, a delicate period for African countries. Trying to fight for decolonization after having been divided by western countries for their human and natural resources, this continent was not much acknowledged. The first thing to note is that at this specific time, after having discovered the mysterious continent and its inhabitants, the world had a very “savage” view of Africa and its people. “Native” Africans were more seen as uncivilized animals than actual humans with a different culture and history. This movie shows us how the contact between westerners and Africans was established but most importantly exposes a problematic view of Africa that is still present today in most of western societies.
First of all, one of the main aspects of exhibiting the colonizer/colonized contrast is the language that
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A dialect is a variety of a language. Each language has several dialects that belong to different ethnic or social groups. By the use of the term “African dialects” they are all grouped together whereas none of them resemble to one another. For example Zulu (South Africa) and Wolof (Senegal) are considered as “African dialects” whereas they are official languages very different from each other. There is a complete variation of language from country to country. Let us also mark that a language is defined as more official and written, while a dialect is mostly spoken, uncertified and looked down upon. The use of this term takes out the whole authenticity of each language. The perception of Africa is then narrowed to one culture, with similar tribes living in different areas. The tribes are painting our outlandish vision of these people. The same image we see in movies, people dancing around fires, wearing a lot of colors, living in a fully natural environment with no contact whatsoever with the rest of the