Black Gold Film Analysis

Although it’s true that by the 1950s, European empires were in decline as African leaders were successfully forcing an end to colonial rule, the absence of the European empires still has a huge effect on how African governments and societies are governed and ran. The European empires leaving the continent of Africa is ultimately good for Africa in the long run, however I feel as though the colonizing countries owe something to their African colonies. For European colonizers to simply take over African countries, utilize their people and resources for profit, and then leave them all alone after being driven out is incredibly unfair. For a statement to say that the influence of Western powers on the continent “dwindled because, out of respect

The economy that the Europeans left in Africa still has repercussions to this day. The farmers are paid unfair wages for all of the work they do. This lifestyle is reminiscent of the days where the Europeans controlled what work the Africans did and while controlling their wages – low and barely enough to support their families with nutritious meals. For example, Black Gold outlines the coffee trade in Eastern Africa/Ethiopia and follows a Coffee Union manager as he tries to fight for fair prices for their coffee. Negotiating for higher prices for their coffee would increase their workers’ wages and allow them to have better lifestyles, while also boosting the local economies of the farming regions. The coffee farm region that the film focused on didn’t even have enough funding to build and fund good schools for the children in the area to become fully educated. The village lives as low-income communities with many of their children being malnourished and reliant on outside aide. Even though the coffee workers work so hard, they only make the equivalent of $0.50 per day even though they produce multiple bags (each containing many kilograms) of coffee per day. A standard cup of coffee in the US is around $2-$3. The conversion how much a coffee farmer makes to produce kilos of coffee to how much ONE CUP of coffee costs in the US is astounding. This problem can be fixed with help from countries that purchase

The thing about the World Trade Organization is that it’s dominated primarily by European trade nations that don’t give African nations a fair chance at voicing their opinions about the prices of their goods. The gag is that the Europeans are the ones that forced them into this position in the first place by colonizing their continent, and to this day they aren’t giving them a fair chance at building up their economy. This is why I do not agree that Western nations and multinational corporations chose not to maintain ties with independent African states “out of respect for the