Handbook of Black Studies PDF

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-sea...

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-search-entry, and may also include videos, embedded datasets, downloadable datasets, interactive questions, audio content, and downloadable tables and resources. Author: Adeniyi Coker Pub. Date: 2010 Product: Sage Reference DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Keywords: Africa, safaris, jungle, films, cinema, Congo, darkness Disciplines: Race & Ethnicity, Race, Ethnicity & Migration, Black Studies, Sociology Access Date: July 8, 2024 Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Online ISBN: 9781412982696 © 2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Film as Historical Method in Black Studies: Docu- menting the African Experience AdeniyiCoker Through long years the “Black Mother” of Africa would populate the Americas with millions of her sons and daughters, and Europe would pile up libraries of comment on the nature of these victims and of the Africa that could yield them. But where in the multitude of these opinions—philanthropic or cynical, sincere, self-interested or merely superstitious—may one safely draw the line between illusion and reality? Perhaps it is only now, when the bitter memories of slaving are assuaged by time, when the old servitude of Africa begins to be dispelled by a new freedom, and when there is no longer any point in the beating of breasts or the apportioning of blame, that one can usefully look for the truth of those astounding years. —Davidson (1980, p. 12) The acknowledged birthday of cinema is December 28, 1895. This is when the first movie theatre opened in the basement of the Grand Café in Paris (Mast & Kawin, 2003). The Lumiere brothers in Paris and Edison in the United States held the monopoly of cinema in 1895. The major difference between the films of Lumiere and Edison, was, whereas the former specialized in documentary work, the latter dwelled on the dramatic enhancing of the fiction film. The invention of film coincided with the invention of the projector. It should be noted also that by 1908, when D. W. Griffith, director of Birth of a Nation, signed his first contract, it was with Edison's competition, the Biograph Studio (Davis, 1996). Edison and Biograph later combined forces to cre- ate the Motion Pictures Patent Company, which was disbanded in 1917. The Lumieres were essentially interested in the technology of cinema, whereas Edison appeared to favor the artistic product. The initial Edison cameras were quite heavy and consequently restricted to indoor usage. This was contrary to the portable nature of the newly invented Lumiere cameras, which immensely enhanced outdoor cinematographic work. The Lumieres are also credited with stabilizing film width at 35mm, which re- mains the standard gauge today. They also established the exposure rate of 16 fps (filming speed)—a func- tionally silent speed until the invention of sound required a faster one for better sound reproduction (Mast & Kawin, 2003). Armed and equipped with portable cameras and enhanced film science, the Lumieres special- ized in shooting natural scenery around the globe, in locations ranging from South America to Africa to Asia. Handbook of Black Studies Page 2 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. They were intent on bringing scenes from around the world to the public at-large and to those unable to afford travel and sightseeing trips. The year 1897 marked the first Lumiere documentary films made in Africa. The effects of these films were not simply chemiluminescent: They were the divaricative, inclemental genesis of a tradition that created the idea of Africa as exotic—a tradition that covered the span of the entire 20th century and that continues well in the 21st. To successfully analyze any relationship between African history and the cinema industry, an understanding of the sociopolitical climate and psychohistory of the period encompassing the invention of cinema becomes imperative. A panoply of historical accounts and Western scholarship relating to Africa as early as the 13th and 14th centuries indicate an atmosphere of comity toward Africans in that time period. An examination of well-chronicled accounts by 14th century traveler, Ibn Battuta or Leo Africanus's The Description of Africa (1526), bear testimony to the civilizations and humanity inherent in Africa, prior to European or colonial incur- sion, out of which would emanate a fusillade of outlandish historical accounts on encounters with Africa. A clear example is T. J. Hutchinson's work, Impressions of Western Africa (1858), which was supposedly written after a trip he undertook into Africa. In the book, he asserts, “The Africans must continually rub their lips with salt, to keep them from putrefaction.” An examination of this assertion from the vantage point of the 21st century displays the overwhelming preju- dice of such a statement. Undoubtedly, it was this kind of authoritative writing guised in “objectivity” that gave birth to lascivious idées fixes and gross caricatures of African figures bearing oversized lips. In attempting to understand and decipher the European perception of Africans through the ages, an examina- tion of artwork produced by European artists, especially in the area of painting can become an invaluable and reliable primary source. As a result of the monetary value that Western culture places on artwork, which in a sense hinders its alteration or destruction, art becomes a window into comprehending race relations through the ages. Relevant examples of such works are collections from The Images of the Black in Western Art Research Project and Photo Archive, commissioned by Dominique and Jean de Menil. Among the de Menil Foundation collection that underscore this point are a 13th-century image of “Saint Maurice,” a Black patron saint of the Holy Roman Empire, made by an unknown German artist. Further evidence can be found in paint- ings located at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy; the Adoration of the Magi collections are 1,464 paintings, by Andrea Mantegna. The subjects of one illustration in the collection are three kings, paying homage to the Christ Child, his mother the Virgin Mary, and Mary's husband Joseph. Mary and Joseph are dressed in sim- ple garment, whereas “the Magi” (three kings), bearing exquisite gifts are clad in extrinsic attire and jewelry. One of the kings in the painting is African. A second painting, in the Magi collection illustrates a stately Black knight, with handsome ulotrichial features. There is a long tradition of paintings of Africans in Europe by var- Handbook of Black Studies Page 3 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. ious artists. The hundreds of such paintings from the European medieval period, as indicated by the image of the Black in Western art project, represent major archival work about the African image. An array of these paintings would suggest that, up until the 17th century, the overwhelming visual image of Africans was one of pulchritude and intrepidity. So when and how did changes arise? Background The invention of cinema in 1895 was only 33 years removed from enslavement and the emancipation procla- mation of 1862 in the United States and only 11 years from the 1884 Partitioning of Africa at the Berlin Confer- ence. At the invitation of German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck, representatives of other European nations met, essentially to scramble for African land and resources. This meeting by predominantly European na- tions, lasted almost 3 months, as they (Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) created artificial boundaries on the African continent, disregarding any linguistic, ethnic, and familial bound- aries already established by the indigenous population (Gilbert & Reynolds, 2004, pp. 250–252). Although the maafa (the more than 500 years of exploitation of Africa through slavery, colonialism, and imperialism) and enslavement of Africans was almost 3 centuries old, European nations ushering in an age of industrialization were in dire need of the kind of raw materials that only Africa could provide: gold and diamonds from South Africa, rubber for pneumatic tires from Nigeria and the Congo, cocoa for chocolate from Ghana, and so on. This was what the Berlin Conference centered on: money. The following sections from “The Berlin Act of Feb- ruary 26th, 1885,” (see Gilbert & Reynolds, 2004, p. 250) signed by the participants of the conference, remain a historical confirmation of the larceny and fleecing of Africa. I. The trade of all nations shall enjoy complete freedom. II. All flags, without distinction of nationality, shall have free access to the coastline of the territories. III. III. Goods of whatever origin, imported into these regions, under whatsoever flag, by sea or river, or overland, shall be subject to no other taxes than such as may be levied as fair compensation for ex- penditure in the interests of trade. The exploitation of Africa for the economic benefit of the West—whether by removal of humanity or through colonization and pillaging of natural resources—had to be rationalized in some form or fashion. This is where history, psychology, literature, and even the sciences and medicine, rather than objurgate, acquiesced, col- laborated, and were in complicity with capitalism and imperialism. By the 17th century, the intellectual sham to rationalize enslavement, colonization, and the conquest of Africa Handbook of Black Studies Page 4 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. would boast a mass participation of respected intellectuals. Africa became an “equal opportunity” turf. Every discipline within the academy was viably represented. Historians explained enslavement and colonization as being largely of benefit to the victims—the common erroneous assumption being that Africa never contributed anything to human civilization; thus, the African contribution lay in the service of labor in the Western Hemi- sphere (Hutchinson, 1858; Toynbee, 1987). The widely accepted explanations of European incursion in Africa were on the surface eleemosynary; “Christianity, Commerce and Civilization,” for the Africans (Ajayi, 1965; Boahen, 1986; Davidson, 1988). Conclusively, and with the retrospect of five centuries, the European pres- ence in Africa was not out of a sense of self-abnegation. Several 18th-century physicians and anatomists validated the rationalizations of historians by developing racial criteria through the science of craniology and phrenology. Simply put, this was the “objective” and sci- entific means of determining superior and inferior human intelligence by measuring skull volume, brain size, and hat dimensions. Notable, eminent, and respected scholars in the field of craniology were Philadelphia physician, Samuel George Morton; Swiss physician and Harvard scholar, Dr. Agassiz; and French anatomist, Paul Broca. Morton and Agassiz traversed the Southern United States, measuring the skulls of “Negroes” and fabricating scientific data to rank Caucasians on top of the intelligence chart and African Americans at the bot- tom. A clear example is Morton's (1839) work and publication, Crania Americana. Gould (1981) painstakingly illustrates a host of examples on this fabrication of scientific data, in his work, Mismeasure of Man. Types of Mankind contains a compilation of the unedited papers of several cran-iologists, edited by J. C. Nott (1854). Morton's paper in this collection is titled, “Comparative Anatomy of the Races.” Morton uses slave owner Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia (1781) as his premise and starting point. Jefferson declares; “Never yet could I find that a Black had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration; never saw even an elementary trait of painting or of sculpture.” From this Jefferson assertion, Morton the scientist concurs; I have looked in vain, during twenty years, for a solitary exception to these characteristic deficiencies among the Negro race. Every Negro is gifted with an ear for music; some are excellent musicians; all imitate well in most things; but, with every opportunity for culture, our Southern Negroes remain as incapable, in drawing as the lowest quadrumana. (quoted in Nott, 1854, p. 456) He Continues Although I do not believe in the intellectual equality of the races, and can find no ground in natural or human history for such popular credence, I belong not to those who are disposed to degrade any type of humanity to Handbook of Black Studies Page 5 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. the level of brute-creation. Nevertheless, a man must be blind not to be struck by similitudes between some of the lower races of mankind, viewed as connecting links in the animal kingdom. (in Nott, 1854, p. 457) Another accomplished Harvard University anatomist, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, certified Morton's conclusions, link- ing Africans' craniologically to chimpanzees and orangutans. His judgment: “Yet it cannot be denied, however wide the separation, that the Negro and the Orang do afford the points where man and the brute, when the totality of their organization is considered, most nearly approach each other” (in Nott, 1854, p. 457). Physician Samuel Cartwright's publication “Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro” (1854; see Bankole, 1997), emphasizes the different physiological and anatomical constitution of Africans. Cartwright defines the diseases, as only peculiar to Africans. One such disease was “dysthaesia Aethiopia.” This appears to have been the most common diagnosis that “slave doctors”—supposedly superior in the area of tropical diseases likely to affect the enslaved—diagnosed. The symptoms of the disease were an enslaved person's refusal to work, appearing moody, destroying farming tools and implements, tearing and rending the clothes offered slaves by White owners, inciting and agitating trouble in the field, and so on. Recommended treatment for this ailment was putting oil on the enslaved person's back and then applying several lashes to the back with a leather strap, then ensuring that the slave carry buckets of water, and walk for several miles, without a hiatus. This guaranteed that the slave inhale cleaner air into the lungs, to quell the source of ailment. It is clear from a perusal of medical literature from the 19th century that the medical profession's perception of Africans was one of contagion. The history of “telegony” accentuates this point. “It began with a letter written by Lord Morton to the Royal Society in 1820, and published by them.” Essentially, telegony came to be known in the United States, in the 19th century, as, “the black baby myth: the belief that if a white woman has sexual intercourse with a black man, there is always the possibility that any baby she may subsequently bear, per- haps years after the incident in question, will have black physical characteristics” (Darwin & Seward, 1903, p. 320). Telegony opened up several debates by eminent scholars of the day, including Darwin in 1868, who was prepared to accept that such things could happen (Banton, 1987). Experiments with telegony continued into the 1890s (within the same decade of cinema's invention) when J. Cossar Ewart wrote the article on telegony in the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Handbook of Black Studies Page 6 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. There is every indication that this practice of medical and physiological apartheid continued well into the 20th century. Consider that although African American physician Charles Drew invented the blood banking system, which the American Red Cross employed for transfusion during the Second World War, African Americans as blood donors were summarily rejected. Due to unending agitation, the Red Cross made some concessions and started to accept the blood donated by African Americans. This practice of blood segregation, however, did not come to an end until December of 1950—2 years after President Harry S. Truman signed executive order No. 9981, ending segregation in the United States Armed Forces. The efforts to denigrate Africans were contemporaneous; thus, cinema cannot be onerously castigated for its persistently negative image of Africa, in valorization of the Eurocentric cause. Up until the invention of cin- ema, the sanctioned visual cartographic perception of the world that Europeans were educated on was the “Mercator” map of 1569, which distorts the physical geography of the world to the extent that the northern hemisphere is misrepresented as grossly larger than the southern. Second, Greenland, which is 0.8 million square miles, is represented as being equal to Africa, although Africa is almost 11.6 million square miles. And finally, the Mercator places Europe at the center of the world, as opposed to Africa. These misrepresentations would continue until Arno Peters introduced what is now known as the “Peters Map” in 1974. As a result of this kind of distortion, African cultures were ignored, often deliberately. These attitudes and ignorances affected everybody in cinema's universe: those who used the camera and those who edited the film; those who marketed the motion pictures and those who showed them; those who reviewed motion picture and those who consumed them. (Davis, 1996, p. 11) Documenting the African Experience By 1895, cinema was inheriting a 3-century-old tradition. In addition to the historical, psychological, and sci- entific, Western cinema would come to rely greatly on the literary for material to feed its reels—to fill in the gaps in its historical and cultural naïveté on Africa. The blueprint to any kind of film production is always “the script.” Filmmakers relied on fictional literary works about Africa to create films on Africa, essentially transfer- ring the prejudice of the writers onto the screen and elevating it to a level of prestidigitation. A case in point is Handbook of Black Studies Page 7 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. the U.S. film Birth of a Nation (Griffith, 1915), which is an adaptation by Griffith and Biograph Studios of the Thomas Dixon (1905) novel, The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. This novel, advocating the inferiority of “Negroes,” as well as the danger that they posed to southern women, was in congruence with the psychohistory of the United States in 1905 and 1915. In this era, the Klan was symbiotic with government and lynching of Negroes was an American rite of passage. Incidentally, Griffith's first work at Biograph Studio was the racist film, Zulu Heart (1908), supposedly set in Africa but shot in New Jersey The film industry has applied this Birth of a Nation formula in its foray into Africa through the following works: Joseph Conrad's (1902) Heart of Darkness; Henry Rider Haggard's (1885) King Solomon's Mines, Edgar Rice Burroughs's (1914) Tarzan of the Apes, and Alfred Aloysius Horn's (circa 1870) Trader Horn, all forming spe- cious, chiaroscuristic building blocks and cornerstones for Western cinema in Africa. Although a plethora of the writers and literature on Africa were produced by the British, essentially because of their colonial relationship with Africa, the Americans would take their racial cues about Africa from the British, and then surpass them. In all instances, these works have been reproduced several times since original in- ception and through the last century. The themes and images have remained sempiternal, adapting to political correctness while maintaining the negative impetus that created them. The eclectic lexicon and creative “potpourri” of themes and images of savagery, barbarism, cannibalism, and superstition are overlapping with no interstices—layer upon layer into screen representations of Africa. Nowhere is the notion of Africa as a “dark continent,” more crystallized than in Conrad's (1902/1988) novel Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad was born Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in Poland, in 1857. As a young man he joined the French merchant marine and made three voyages to the West Indies in 1875 and 1878. In 1886, he received a mariner's certificate, became a British citizen, and changed his name to Joseph Conrad. Inspired by Henry Morton Stanley's adventures and memoirs on Africa, Through the Dark Continent (1878) and In Darkest Africa (1890), Conrad embarked on a voyage of Africa, sailing the Congo River in 1890. This journey provided material for Heart of Darkness. It is also pertinent to note that European trade activ- ity in Africa, as a result of the Berlin conference, was already fully formed. It was this impetus that created companies such as the Royal Niger Company. This exploration into the Belgian Congo, the abode of “African savages” was the basis of Conrad's work, which Achebe (1989) in Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays has described as completely racist. Heart of Darkness was the basis of the Francis Ford Coppola (1979) film Handbook of Black Studies Page 8 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Apocalypse Now, with Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. In 1993, Turner Pictures and Chris/Rose Produc- tions produced a television version of Heart of Darkness, filmed in Belize and the United Kingdom, with no significant changes from Conrad's 1901 version. The central character is a trading company manager, named Marlow (Tim Roth), who must go in search of a missing outpost-head (John Malkovich), whose job it is to secure ivory for the company. Marlow's assistant is a native named Mfumu (Isaach De Bankole), who is an avowed cannibal. From the onset of the film, Marlow has terrible premonitions about his assignment in Africa. His company in England requires that he sign undertakings not to release any information concerning trade secrets he finds in Africa to any of the competition on his return. Marlow inquires of the company secretary if he has ever been to Africa, to which he responds, “I am not such a fool as I look.” With this said, Marlow departs for Africa. After arrival in Africa, he prepares for the search of Kurtz at the company office. He employs a native guide, Mfu- mu, as his assistant. The company accountant warns him immediately that Mfumu is a cannibal. The journey begins by boat, into the hinterland, in search of Kurtz. A White man and member of the party, Alphonse De Griffe (Patrick Ryecart) detests any contact with the Africans. Sardonically, he refers to Kurtz as, “the lily-white protector of the dark hordes.” He beats and berates the Africans at every opportunity. Just as in the films on Africa that would come in subsequent years, we do not really get to know the Africans. The only character we are exposed to is Mfumu. His nose, lip, and cheeks are pierced with human bones. He contends that they are the remains of his enemies. He carries a pouch full of human bones, from which he exchanges bones daily. At one point Marlow watches in curiosity. Marlow: Another enemy Mfumu? Mfumu: (Shaking the bag of bones) Many enemies! As they journey upriver, darkness virtually engulfs them; it gets foggy, with mysterious noises emanating from the forests around them. Mfumu: (Yelling) They see the boat captain! Marlow: Who sees the boat? Handbook of Black Studies Page 9 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Mfumu: You don't see them, they see you! Captain, give them to us! Marlow: And if I give them to you what will you do? Mfumu: EAT THEM! It is shortly after this exchange that the boat is attacked and a spear to his chest kills Mfumu. Marlow pulls the spear out of Mfumu's chest, and then wipes his bloodied hands, all over his own face; resulting in a visage quite lugubrious. Interestingly, Marlow's focus is no longer on the attackers but on the natives on his boat. He fends them off Mfumu's lifeless body, because they appear intent on devouring it. He fights the cannibals off and then throws Mfumu's body overboard into the river. No sooner is this done, than a native jumps out of a tree and into the river, to feed on the body. It is interesting that in none of the European films, such as Braveheart (Gibson, 1995), set in the stone ages, middle ages, or in the era of barbarians, have we observed cannibalism. And neither has Hollywood showed any major interest in sensationalizing Alfred Packer or Jef- frey Dahmer for the titillation of its Western audience. Eventually, Marlow finds Kurtz; it is not enough that in the “hugger-mugger” Kurtz, is a White-man-turned- cannibal; he has also been installed as a god to the “natives,” adorning his abode with human skulls and a “witchdoctor” (Iman) outside his hut. Marlow tries to remind Kurtz about his fiancée in England, to which Kurtz responds; “She is a memory, a past with no history, like Africa.” The role of the witchdoctor, played by supermodel Iman, is the only Black female role and our introduction to an African female in this work. Yet compared with Kurtz's fiancée in England, there is nothing genial about her. Kurtz is out of his mind, delusional, sick: Marlow tries in futility to save Kurtz's life, only to have Kurtz expire while moaning, “The horror! The horror!” Marlow returns to civilization—to Europe—and misinforms Kurtz's fiancée that he died calling her name. With this act, Marlow keeps Kurtz's memory dignified and intact. The same kind of dignity that is not accorded the Africans. The funeral songs for Kurtz in the Congo are Olatunji's “Akinwowo” and “Were Were.” These are Yoruba songs, emanating from West Africa. The people of Congo do not speak Yoruba. This is tantamount to sub- Handbook of Black Studies Page 10 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. stituting Finnish in an Irish Gaelic bard, on account that both people are Caucasian, so why the heck should it matter? Similar to Heart of Darkness is Alfred Aloysius Horn's 19th-century novel, Trader Horn, which also details his experience as an Ivory trader in Central Africa. Trader Horn (1931) marked the first presence of a major feature film production, on location in Africa. It is an example of another truly vicious anti-Africa film. It espoused just as much cannibalism as Heart of Darkness. Trader Horn was made three times (1931, 1970, and 1973) in the 20th century. Although Stanley's diary, How I Found Livingstone (1872), was a clear influence on Conrad's work, it was not until 1939 that Twentieth Century Fox would bring Stanley and Livingston to the screen. The story centers on the true life adventures of New York Herald journalist, Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904). Although an American company produces the film, it opens with acknowledgements; “To the officials of his majesty's gov- ernment in British East Africa. The producers wish to express their appreciation for the cooperation that made possible the filming of the safari sequences in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.” This American film was in line with the kind of propaganda themes that British filmmakers released in the advancement of imperialism. With- in this same time period, London Film Productions released Sanders of the River (1935) and Hammer Films, U.K., Song of Freedom (1936), both starring Paul Robeson. The pair of films was massive propaganda and rationalization in favor of Africa's colonization. From the American acknowledgment, it is impossible not to see how the British imperialist agenda could have influenced the filming of Stanley and Livingston—particularly when one considers that in 1939 the entire con- tinent of Africa was still under European colonization. Stanley (Spencer Tracy) is inveigled by his boss, the publisher of the New York Herald to go in search of Livingston in Africa. The publisher pronounces this re- quest to Stanley while he is staring at a map of Africa and uttering the words, “The dark continent, mystery, heat, fever, cannibals; a vast huge jungle in which you could lose half of America; a land which even the greatest conquerors never dared penetrate.” The publisher sees potential for a story on Livingston in the continent of Africa, humanizing the savages. Stanley heads out to Africa, with a guide in tow whose services he has used in an assignment related to American Indians in the Wyoming Territory in 1870. No sooner is Stanley on a steamer heading to Africa does he encounter Lord Tyce (Charles Coburn), the publisher of the London Globe. Tyce is also heading to Africa to recall his son, Gareth (Richard Greene), who has almost been crippled due to malaria in Africa. Gareth went to Africa in search of Livingston. On arrival in Africa, Lord Tyce informs his son, “I want to get out of this abominable climate as soon as possible.” Handbook of Black Studies Page 11 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Gareth Tyce resides with John Kingsley, the British Consular Officer and his daughter, Eve. When we meet John Kingsley, it is clear that he is almost senile and constantly bewildered. Eve complains to Stanley after dinner that Africa has destroyed her father. Although he is barely 50 years old, his appearance is that of an 80-year-old. This leads her to warn Stanley, “Do you want to come back like all the others? Broken, and old before your time? Shattered by something that's far too big for any of us to conquer? Do you think you can fight Africa alone and win?” Stanley ignores the warning and pushes on into the interior of Africa, and after bouts with malaria and fever, he finds Livingston (Cedric Hardwicke) at Ujiji. In the background of this entire scene, plays the Christian hymnal, “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching unto war, with the cross of Jesus, going on before,” underscoring the Christian Missionary agenda that guided Stanley's crusade. Stanley's mis- sion enhanced colonial expansion in Africa, particularly in favor of King Leopold II of Belgium. With Stanley's assistance, Leopold was able to establish suitable colonies, which included the founding of the Congo Free State. The result of this was a furthering of the Berlin Conference goals and large trading ventures. For his role in the expansion of imperialism in Africa, Stanley was knighted in 1899 and sat in the British parliament from 1895–1900. Livingston succumbed to “disease and infection” in Africa and died in 1873. This troubling archetype of sick- ness and disease in Africa, which drives characters in Heart of Darkness and Stanley and Livingston, can be found in several Western films on Africa: West of Zanzibar (1928), And the Band Played On (1993), Outbreak (1995), Plague Fighters (1996), Operation Delta Force (1997), and unbelievably, in a recreation of Stanley and Livingston made for television, Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingston (1997). To some ex- tent, the archetype even appears in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), in which the source of a demon that in- habits the body of a child in Washington, DC, is traced all the way to Africa. The notion of Africa as the White man's grave, abode to diseases, and senility has not ceased even in the 21st century. Of serious consequence to the image of Africa and Western cinema in Africa are the writings of Henry Rider Haggard. Haggard is the author of She; Allan Quatermain, and King Solomons Mines, all published in the late 1800s. Of these works, King Solomons Mines (Haggard, 1885) influenced cinema and the image of Africa the most. Haggard was an English man, born in 1856. He lived in South Africa and participated in its colonization by British forces in the late 19th century. Essentially, Haggard's presence in South Africa dates back to the systematic creation of a pre-apartheid system. Haggard's presence in South Africa in 1877 is 20 years after the establishment of the South African Republic in 1857 and 10 years before the discovery of diamonds at Kimberly Gold would be discovered on the Rand in 1886. This abundance of mineral wealth in South Africa attracted several European prospectors, including Cecil Rhodes, who initially came to South Africa to farm Handbook of Black Studies Page 12 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. cotton. Rhodes introduced the Glen Grey Act, which passed in 1894. This law ensured that only one member of each African family was authorized to inherit family land after the passing of a loved one—essentially dispossess- ing other members of the family and leaving them homeless. This law was designed to force the Africans off their homelands and into the mines. It guaranteed free and cheap labor to work the mines. In addition to this, Rhodes also introduced the Masters and Servants Bill, giving authority to Whites to beat and use physical force to subdue their Black employees. This was the sociohistorical and political climate that inspired Haggard's creation of works such as King Solomon's Mines. Haggard's works laid the blueprint for the “invincible great white hunter,” the “jungle safaris,” and “White romance in the African jungle,” and not surprisingly, it paved way for the film theme of Africa as the abode of “undiscovered treasure” that became the prerogative of the Whites. King Solomons Mines is so popular to the Western film industry that it was made at least five times in the 20th century alone. The first film version appeared in 1918, produced by a South African company and directed by Lisle Lucoque, who bought all film rights to Haggard novels in the same year. Keeping the same theme of a White hunter in search of fortune in Africa, the Gaumont British Picture Corporation produced King Solomon's Mines (Steven- son, 1937). This production featured Paul Robeson in the role of Umbopa, the native guide to Allan Quar- termain (Cedric Hardwicke) and Kathy O'Brien (Anna Lee). At the end, in a fight for his throne, Umbopa du- els with Twala and the “tribal witch,” Gagool. By 1950, an American Company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had financed another version of King Solomon's Mines. The filming locations of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, De- mocratic Republic of the Congo, and New Mexico make it the most extensive, lavish, and elaborate version of KSM, to date. In this version, the jungle romance between Quartermain (Stewart Granger) and Elizabeth Curtis (Deborah Kerr) is amplified. This American version defined the African Safari film. It was also rife with scenes of cannibalism, malaria, and White men becoming senile in Africa. In 1977, a Canadian company, Canafox and Gold Key Television in association with Tower of London Produc- tions, released a Canadian version of KSM, titled King Solomon's Treasure, filmed in Canada and Swaziland. South African actor, Ken Gampu, is featured in the role of the native guide, Umslopogaas. Interestingly, he appears again as the “native” guide, Umbopa, in the 1985 version of KSM, produced by Canon Group and Limelight, USA (Thompson, 1985). This 1985 version was filmed in Zimbabwe, with Richard Chamberlain as Quartermain and Sharon Stone as Handbook of Black Studies Page 13 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Jesse Huston. This version was quite supererogatory in that the theme of cannibalism overpowered the pro- duction. In a particular scene, an entire African ethnic group prepares a huge pot, the size of a house, filling it with lettuce, celery, onions, and corn and then builds a ladder that both Quartermain and Huston are forced to ascend as a fire is started beneath the pot. The ladder is collapsed, Quartermain and Huston fall into the broth, and there is mass celebration, hysteria, and jubilation in the “village.” Both Quartermain and Huston are to be stewed, with bowels and intestines intact! Quartermain: Jesse, they are having us for dinner. Jesse: Couldn't we just beg out without offending them? Q: They are not inviting us to dinner, they are having us for dinner! J: Oh goodness gracious. Q: Apparently, they prefer white meat! Hey, look at the bright side, at least we are the main course. J: I hope they choke on us! (She spits in the pot.) This 1985 version was so successful that in 1987 American company Golan Globus produced a sequel, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, filmed again in Zimbabwe (Nelson, 1987). Both Chamberlain and Stone reprise their roles in this version. This time they are in Africa in search of a legendary White tribe, with James Earl Jones as the “native” guide, Umslopogaas. They are forced to settle on Umslopogaas as a guide after a Portuguese trader, who hires out “native” guides, offers, “I figure you can choose between the Bamusa's who'll rob you; the Tamata's to serve you, or the Mapaki, who'll eat ya!” In this role, Jones is the “consummate barbarian”; wielding an oversized axe and clad in animal skin, he is reduced to thundering lines such as “I shall split your venerable head!” In King Solomon's Mines, all major films created by Western filmmakers on the subject of Africa have found their inspiration throughout the 20th century—films that have perceived Africa as a desultory jungle terrain Handbook of Black Studies Page 14 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. filled with animals to be tamed and conquered by White hunters. In 1995, Hollywood replaced the White Hunter with a Black one, a la Ernie Hudson in Congo (Marshall, 1995). This is another expedition into Africa in search of lost treasures. Captain Munro (Ernie Hudson) describes himself to his expedition, as “a White hunter, who just happens to be Black.” In the jungles of Africa, the ex- pedition comes across a group of “natives,” who laugh at the notion of a Black man leading a safari. Munro explains to the expedition that the “natives” think that Munro (a Black man) should have a load on his head. Other Hollywood films in Africa along the White hunter and safari themes are Africa Screams (1949), Africa Speaks (1930), Bomba the Jungle Boy (1949), Congorilla (1932), Devil Goddess (1955), Drums of Africa (1962), Drums of the Congo (1941), Hatari (1962), Jungle Jim (1937), Jungle Queen (1944), Killer Leopard (1954), The Last Rhino (1961), The Lost Tribe (1941), The Last Safari (1967), Mark the Gorilla (1950), The Mighty Jungle (1964), The Naked Prey (1966), Nagana (1933), Safari (1940), Safari Drums (1963), Savage Mutiny (1953), and Tanganyika (1954). In the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the United States took the British safari and invincible White hunter theme to a more asinine level with the invention of “Tarzan” in 1912. Unlike Conrad or Haggard, Burroughs had never experienced Africa. “He had done some reading about Africa in connection with the Stanley expe- dition” (Cameron, 1994, p. 24). Burroughs had never really been successful at anything before his creation of Tarzan. He had worked as a cattle driver, a gold digger, and railroad policeman. He had even tried his hand at being a salesman for Sears and Roebuck. Although he was American, Burroughs felt compelled to create Tarzan as the abandoned offspring of British aristocrats in Africa. The child is subsequently raised by apes into maturity, whereby he becomes “King of the Jungle.” It was this very notion that prompted renowned Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali at a Howard University speech in the late 1960s to say, “We have been brainwashed, even Tarzan, King of the Jungle in Black Africa is White!” Tarzan first went on the screen in 1917, with Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan. The most popular embodiment of Tarzan was Johnny Weissmuller, who took the reigns as King of the Jungle in 1932, with Maureen O—Sullivan as his Jane. (A White lord of the jun- gle is deserving of some human qualities, raised by apes, he cannot be a thorough beast; he still possesses the human capacity to love.) There are at least 110 major productions of Tarzan, spanning the years 1917 to 2002, with recent productions taking the form of animation, financed by both the Walt Disney and Edgar Rice Burroughs corporations (United States). What Tarzan exemplified in the American psyche was a sort of “mercenary complex”—essentially, when it comes to the brass tacks, this is Tarzanism. It is the ability to single-handedly invade and subdue “bad natives” with a perceived superior prowess and intelligence. United Handbook of Black Studies Page 15 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Artists, The Dogs of War (1980, Columbia Pictures); Black Hawk Down (2001); and Cheyenne Enterprises, Tears of the Sun (2003), in which Bruce Willis concludes, “God has left Africa,” are simply modern and tech- nologically enhanced extensions of the Tarzan mentality. Conclusion Historian Basil Davidson (1980) points out that “history is not an exact science, susceptible of clear and com- plete objective categorization, but a more or less fallible means of explaining the present in terms of the past” (p. 25). Western cinema has succumbed into the mis-education of an entire populace, rewriting history on the screen with productions such as Cleopatra, and bringing opprobrium to people of African descent with films such as Birth of a Nation. Undoubtedly, there is a direct link between colonization and the role of Western cinema in the propagation of anti-African sentiments and racism. Why, Peter Davis asks in his book Darkest Hollywood (1996), did it take the world community over 40 years, after the United Nations Declaration of Hu- man Rights to respond to apartheid in South Africa? Racism and the racial attitudes of Britain and the United States can be analyzed from these films. Especially because Britain had a colonial relationship with Africa, and the United States did not, it is clear that the British concern was the expression of a rationale for colonization and imperialism. What can be perceived from the U.S.-made films with African subjects is symptomatic of the racial attitudes, racial history, and relationship that Whites have with Blacks in the United States. This relationship is better elucidated through the awards of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Since the inception of this body in 1927, it is not an accident that not a single motion picture based solely on the African experience in the United States has been deemed a worthy recipient of the award. Even as the body has begrudgingly awarded African Americans recognition, it has been strictly for those roles where they have been in service to Whites or where the larger-White agen- da has been served: from Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind (1939) to Sidney Poitier in Lillies in the Field (1963) to Louis Gossett in Officer and a Gentleman (1982) to Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost (1990) to Cuba Gooding, Jr., in Jerry Maguire (1996) to Halle Berry in Monsters Ball (2001) to Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001). In some instances, these films have come to ludicrous conclusions: Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey in the Green Mile (1999) is framed for a gruesome murder. He solves the mystery, which ought to absolve him of the guilt, but ends up appreciative of his own execution, as he continually consoles his ex- ecutioner (Tom Hanks). How appropriate is this in an age and time when thousands of African American men Handbook of Black Studies Page 16 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. sit on death row on specious charges? The same theme can be found in Joyce Carey's Mr. Johnson (1990), which is set in Africa. Harry Rudbeck (Pierce Brosnan) executes Mr. Johnson (Maynard Eziashi), his former servant, who ends up in the gallows essentially after protecting Rudbeck's railroad ambition. As Mr. Johnson goes to his death at the hands of Rudbeck, he sings praises of his love for Rudbeck. Davis (1996) identi- fies this uncanny formula as one where Africans are defined as good or bad by their actions toward Whites. The formula, he says, has had other uses than that intended for a White audience, where it confirmed the White man in the role of master and flattered him as being the worthy recipient of Black fidelity (Davis, 1996). Cinema, like artwork through the ages, is probably the most honest assessment and barometer for testing race relations for two reasons: First, cinema is free of inhibition and it is non-threatening, allowing the viewers the opportunity to realize and fulfill their fantasies removed from everyday life. Second, the film industry is a business with shrewd accountants and producers, who understand that a product is doomed to failure when supply surpasses demand. The comfort level judged by audience patronage of these films encourages and ensures a steady stream of these putrid works. Every single film made by Western filmmakers on Africa has borrowed from a fountain of racism and ignorance, in most instances stripping Africa of historical legacies. Shortly after the disaster of September 11th, 2001, Hollywood stopped the release of several films, including Collateral Damage (2002), because its content might be insensitive and inappropriate for public consumption, especially after what can be considered a recent national trauma. Africa and Africans in the United States merit and are deserving of the same consideration. Such rectification should occur with appropriate lessons in African history. Acquisition and respect of unbiased historical facts as they pertain to Africa can only serve as a much-required tourniquet to halt the hemor-rhaging of Western cinema's credibility. References Achebe, C. (1989). Hopes and impediments: Selected essays. New York: Doubleday. Ajayi, J. A. (1965). Christian missionaries in Nigeria. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Bankole, K. (1997). Slavery and medicine. New York: Garland. Banton, M. (1987). Racial theories. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Boahen, A. (1986). Topics in West African history. Essex, UK: Longman. Handbook of Black Studies Page 17 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Burroughs, E. R. (1914). Tarzan of the apes. Chicago: McClurg. Cameron, K. (1994). Africa on film. New York: Continuum. Conrad, J. (1988). Heart of darkness. New York: Norton. (Original work published 1902) Coppola, F. F.(Producer/Director) (1979). Apocalypse now [Motion picture]. Hollywood, CA: Paramount Pic- tures. Darwin, F., & Seward, A. C. (Eds.). (1903). More letters of Charles Darwin (2 vols.). London: John Murray. Davidson, B. (1980). The African slave trade. Boston: Little Brown. Davidson, B. (1988). African slave trade. Boston: Back Bay Books. Davis, P. (1996). Darkest Hollywood. Athens: Ohio University Press. Dixon, T. (1905). The clansman: An historical romance of the Ku Klux Klan. New York: Doubleday. Gibson, M.(Director) (1995). Braveheart [Motion picture]. Hollywood, CA: Paramount Studio. Gilbert, E., & Reynolds, J. (2004). Africa in world history. Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Gould, S. J. (1981). The mismeasure of man. New York: Norton. Griffith, D. W.(Director) (1908). Zulu heart [Motion picture]. United States: Biograph Studio. Griffith, D. W.(Director) (1915). Birth of a nation [Motion picture]. United States: Biograph Studio. Haggard, H. R. (1885). King Solomon s mines. New York, Cassell. Hubbard, R. (1995). Profitable promises: Essays on women, science, and health. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. Hutchinson, T. J. (1858). Impressions of Western Africa. London: Longman. King, H.(Director) (1939). Stanley and Livingstone [Motion picture]. Hollywood, CA: Twentieth Century Fox. Marshall, F.(Director) (1995). Congo [Motion picture]. Hollywood, CA: Paramount Studio. Mast, G., & Kawin, B. (2003). A short history of the movies. New York: Longman. Handbook of Black Studies Page 18 of 19 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Morton, S. G. (1839). Crania Americana; or, A comparative view of the skulls of various aboriginal nations of North and South America: To which is prefixed an essay on the varieties of the human species. Philadelphia: J. Dobson. Morton, S. G. (1854). Comparative anatomy of the races. In J. D. Nott (Ed.), Types of mankind. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo. Nelson, G.(Director) (1987). Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold [Motion picture]. Hollywood, CA: MGM Studios. Nott, J. C. (Ed.). (1854). Types of mankind. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo. Rakoff, A.(Producer/Director) (1977). King Solomon's treasure [Motion picture]. Montreal, Ontario, Canada: Canafox and Gold Key Television in association with Tower of London Productions. Stevenson, E.(Director) (1937). King Solomon's mines [Motion picture]. London: Gaumont British Picture. Thompson, J. L.(Director) (1985). King Solomon's mines [Motion picture]. United States: Canon Group and Limelight. Toynbee, A. (1987). A Study of history. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Van Dyke, W. S.(Director) (1931). Trader Horn [Motion picture]. Hollywood, CA: MGM Studios. Africa safaris jungle films cinema Congo darkness https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Handbook of Black Studies Page 19 of 19