Africa and the Popular Media
Lately I’ve become obsessed with sub-Saharan eastern Africa. It is a place that has been tormented by HIV/AIDs, war, over-population, corrupt and inept governments, and famine. Just as you think things are calming down in the region, another disaster breaks out. The current troubled area is eastern Congo. Northern Uganda seems to be settling down, but Darfur is still a mess. Kenya, where we thought there was hope, recently had a troubled election.
President “W” Bush got high marks for his humanitarian efforts in this part of the world. President Obama’s father is from eastern Kenya and that makes him a cult hero in eastern Africa. Hopefully, America’s interest in the Lake Victoria (and the Lake Region in general) countries will continue.
There have been an impressive collection of books and movies about the region. Here are a few that I would recommend. None are easy to read or watch, but they are worth the effort:
Movies
- The Constant Gardener (based on a John Le Carre novel)
- Hotel Rwanda (about the genecide in Rwanda)
- The Last King of Scotland (about Idi Amin)
- Gorillas in the Mist (about Dian Fossey’s Rwanda experience)
- Mountains of the Moon (about explorer Richard Burton)
Books
- “The Mission Song” a novel by John Le Carre
- “Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer” a biography by Tim Jeal
- “King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa” a biography by Adam Hochschild
July 26th, 2009 at 8:14 am
I recent thought of two additional movies:
“White Mischief” (1987) based on one of the scandalous murders in British history. It transpires in Kenya at a time just before the beginning of WWII.
“Out of Africa” (1985) is drawn from the life and writings of Danish author Isak Dinesen. The movie takes place on a plantation in WWI-era Kenyai.
And, of course, the book:
“Out of Africa” (1937) which is a memoir of Isak Dinseen which recounts the seventeen year when she made her home in Kenya, then British East Africa.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
There is also the recently published book by Tracy Kidder:
“Strength is What Remains” (2009) the story of a young medical student who fled the genocidal civil war in Burundi in 1994 for the uncertainty of New York City.
September 14th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I recently watched the movie “District 9″; it is very much a parable relating to modern-day Africa. And even though it takes place in South Africa, it’s message is certainly applicable to east-central Africa.
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:30 am
According to Courtland Milloy writing in the Washington Post and published in the SLTrib (Dec. 23, 2009):
“Annalee Newitz, writing last week on her science blog io9, criticized “Avatar” for depicting yet another white man as a hero in the liberation strugges of oppressed people of color.
As happens in movies such a “District 9,” “Dances with Wolves” and “The Last Samurai,” Newitz wrote, “a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its awesome member.”"
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:36 am
On New Year’s Eve I watched the movie “Invictus.” It is about Nelson Mandela and the South African national rugby team at the time of transition away from appartied. The film is enjoyable, but lacks bite. But it is another entry into Hollywood’s portrayal of Africa and African problems. In the movie, Clint Eastwood makes the case for symbols being important. And the need to overcome hate.
January 4th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
I missed another obvious selection: Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness.” This classic of English lit details an incident where Marlow, an Englishman, takes an assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain on the Congo River (assumed). Marlow is emplyed to transport ivory downriver and to return a “crazed” ivory trader back to civilization. “Heart of Darkness” was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Viet Nam movie “Apolcalypse Now.” The 2009 blockbuster movie, “Avatar,” is also said to have been inspired by Conrad’s novella.