Framing Africa

Portrayals of a Continent in Contemporary Mainstream Cinema

Nigel Eltringham

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781782380733
• eBook ISBN: 9781782380740
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: African History

The first decade of the 21st century has seen a proliferation of North American and European films that focus on African politics and society. While once the continent was the setting for narratives of heroic ascendancy over self (The African Queen, 1951; The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1952), military odds (Zulu, 1964; Khartoum, 1966) and nature (Mogambo, 1953; Hatari!,1962; Born Free, 1966; The Last Safari, 1967), this new wave of films portrays a continent blighted by transnational corruption (The Constant Gardener, 2005), genocide (Hotel Rwanda, 2004; Shooting Dogs, 2006), 'failed states' (Black Hawk Down, 2001), illicit transnational commerce (Blood Diamond, 2006) and the unfulfilled promises of decolonization (The Last King of Scotland, 2006). Conversely, where once Apartheid South Africa was a brutal foil for the romance of East Africa (Cry Freedom, 1987; A Dry White Season, 1989), South Africa now serves as a redeemed contrast to the rest of the continent (Red Dust, 2004; Invictus, 2009). Writing from the perspective of long-term engagement with the contexts in which the films are set, anthropologists and historians reflect on these films and assess the contemporary place Africa holds in the North American and European cinematic imagination.

Index

accuracy, 40, 51, 60, 118–21

Achebe, Chinua, 5

Afghanistan, 39, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66

Africa

as category, 5–14, 108–9

composite, 7–8

African National Congress (ANC), 136, 137–8, 141, 153n6–7

African Queen, The, 2

African Studies Association 1

Aidiid, Mohamed Farah, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 60, 64, 66, 67n13, 68n20

Akulia, Margaret, 28–29

Algeria, 3

al-Qaeda, 63–64, 65

Allen, Sir Peter, 31

Amabokoboko, 167, 168

Amin, Idi, 13, 14, 21–36, 36n13, 37n15

as patriot, 32–35

and Scotland, 29–32

Amin, Jaffar, 28–29, 37n17

Amin, Kay, 25

Amin, Taban, 28, 37n16

Andrew, Dudley, 108

Anker, D.: ‘Imaginary Witness’, 130n5

apartheid, 2, 135, 136–37, 140, 141, 148, 157, 166, 167, 168

and betrayal, 145–48

Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC; Sierra Leone), 94, 110n4

Arusha Accords, 120, 121

Askari, 146, 153n6

Astles, Bob, 25, 36n9

Atlantic Monthly (journal), 98

Ato, Osman Ali, 52, 53, 67–68n18–19

Attenborough, Richard, 12

Azanian People’s Liberation Army, 150

Babel, 3

Bafana Bafana soccer team, 170, 171

Barre, Mohamed Siyad, 42, 47

BBC, 8, 9, 10, 105, 113, 114, 118–19, 120–21

Beata, 116

Belton, David, 113, 114, 118, 124

Benzien, Jeffrey, 14, 144, 146, 152

Beyond the Gates. See Shooting Dogs

Black Hawk Down, 2, 8, 9, 10, 39–66, 106

depiction of So...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction Cinema/Chimera? The Re-presencing of Africa in Twenty-First-Century Film
• One ‘Print the Legend’: Myth and Reality in The Last King of Scotland
• Two Black Hawk Down: Recasting U.S. Military History at Somali Expense
• Three Pharma in Africa: Health, Corruption and Contemporary Kenya in The Constant Gardener
• Four War in the City, Crime in the Country: Blood Diamond and the Representation of Violence in the Sierra Leone War
• Five Showing What Cannot Be Imagined: Shooting Dogs and Hotel Rwanda
• Six Torture, Betrayal and Forgiveness: Red Dust and the Search for Truth in Post-Apartheid South Africa
• Seven Go Amabokoboko! Rugby, Race, Madiba and the Invictus Creation Myth of a New South Africa
• Notes on Contributors
• Index