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2003 Review of Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (film) Ian Barnard Chapman University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Barnard, Ian. Review of Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (film). African Arts 36.2 (2003): 86-87, 96. Print.

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Chapman University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Articles and Research by an authorized administrator of Chapman University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Review of Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (film)

Comments This article was originally published in African Arts, volume 36, issue 2, in 2003.

Copyright MIT Press

This book review is available at Chapman University Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/english_articles/59 other yellow. As the flesh-like tones play off ther personal rumination. Although new to song like "Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika" ("God Bless each other, the gritty, tactile nature of the surface U.S. collectors and museums, the artist has Africa"-now the official national anthem of tempts the touch of the viewer. Appropriately, displayed ingenuity and potential to such a ), which has no "political" con- further investigation into the context of the degree that curators in the Department of tent, becomes politicized by reason of the con- painting's creation leads to the discovery that Modern Art at the Metropolitan Museum texts in which it is sung; people transform a the ochres used as pigments in the painting are deemed it appropriate to acquire a Nel for seemingly innocuous old song into something also applied to the skin of participants in initia- their own collection. This exhibition was a more militant by "putting an 'AK' [machine- tory ceremonies in the region of South small but noteworthy step toward redefining gun] there, taking out a 'Bible' there" to reflect Africa. Not coincidentally, deeper investiga- contemporary African artists of indubitable growing protests against ; and lin- tion will reveal that the Transkei is also where promise, such as Karel Nel, as, simply, con- guistically challenged white South Africans Nelson Mandela was born and where he went temporary artists. 0 paternalistically applaud the singing of black through ritual initiation. South Africans, symptomatically oblivious to So, Karel Nel is not an overtly political The catalogue Karel Nel: Status of Dust (Art First the fact that the songs are actually criticizing artist. His work is wide in scope and multiva- Contemporary Art, New York and London; 29 pp., and threatening the white listeners, and are lent in meaning, two characteristics that will 17 color illustrations, $10 softcover) contains essays not about the stereotypically banal matters grow and deepen not only upon further in- by Jessica Dubow and David Bunn. It is available the onlookers clearly think the singers are vestigation into the work but also upon fur- from Art First New York or Art First London. addressing. Given these promising premises, it is dis- appointing that Amandla! doesn't explore the wider (and more challenging) implications of its thesis about the interweavings of music and politics. Such an exploration would neces- film/video music (and art in general); and its attention to sitate moving beyond the specifics of music superstar professional musicians, such as and South Africa to at least a gesture in the Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, togeth- direction of what this thesis means for art in er with singing individual activists and groups general and for music and art in the rest of the of everyday citizens suggests a democratic world. This extrapolation is especially impor- view of art, a view contrary to those para- tant given that the filmmakers are U.S. Ameri- digms that normalize individual star "spe- cans and that the film has, until now, been Amandla! cialists" and narrow aesthetic criteria. Such most widely shown in the U.S. (The recent A Revolution in Four-Part paradigms are tellingly exemplified in Chris- controversies around the timid and subse- topher Null's review of the film on the Web quently retracted antiwar statements of Madon- Harmony site filmcritic.com: "Note to filmmaker Lee na and the Dixie Chicks point to the need for Directed by Lee Hirsch Hirsch: A bunch of people singing out of key this kind of discussion in the U.S.) Alas, Produced by Sherry Simpson is not a four-part harmony." Amandla! resists making such connections by Kwela Productions, 2002. 108 minutes. U.S. distrib- British and U.S. punk musicians of the emphasizing the specialness of the South utor: Artisan Entertainment. 1970s and 1980s similarly challenged political African case; it ends with Abdullah Ibrahim Reviewed by Ian Barnard and artistic norms with their usurpation of asserting that the South African "revolution" elitist assumptions of qualifications for musi- was the only one to have been "done in four- This documentary film by first-time U.S. cianship: according to their democratic adage, part harmony." It also reinscribes racist essen- director Lee Hirsch chronicles the role of anyone who could hold a guitar could be a tialisms. All the black people in the film sing; music in South Africa's antiapartheid move- good punk musician (see Hebdige 1979). The the white antiapartheid activists make speech- ment from the 1940s through the 1990s. recent controversy around the Poets Against es and write poetry. Its ultimate effect is to Amandla! argues that music took on numerous the War in the U.S. has rightly renewed debates rehearse the distance between subject and functions in the Struggle. It was able to reach about definitions of "good" art. Amandla!'s object that made antiapartheid activism such a and politicize people who might not be filmmakers are to be commended for not comfortable cause in the U.S. in the 1980s: as moved by speeches and pamphlets; it served whitewashing the militancy of some of the long as American liberals could decry the as a source of strength, pride, and support; it freedom songs' lyrics ("We will shoot them exceptional horrors of South Africa, they did- boosted morale and inspired action; it served with our machine guns") in order to placate n't have to interrogate racism in their own as a secret communication tool among acti- more conservative viewers, such as the author country or delineate the continuities between vists; it chronicled the history of the Struggle; of a letter to South Africa's Sunday Times, who South African apartheid and U.S. racism. and it even acted as a weapon in itself, as with wrote in response to the newspaper's review Ironically, Amandla!'s ideological specifici- the fear-instilling Toyi-Toyi dance-song com- of Amandla!: "'Whites watch out, we are going ty does not translate into visual precision. In bination. Moreover, as musician Abdullah to kill you...slowly' even as a quotation from fact, as a film, Amandla! often doesn't work at Ibrahim says in the film, music was not only the past is still shocking, vicious, racist, bar- all. Despite the claims of the official Web site part of the liberation struggle but also part of baric, uncalled for, and damaging. Living in that "In form as well as content, Amandla! the process of self-liberation for black South southern Africa as an elderly white male is breaks new ground" (Amandla! The Movie), the Africans. In addition to being heard as a stressful enough without having ignorant film's visual iconography and methodology soundtrack to visual images, the music per se American revolutionaries cashing in on the are frequently dominated by well-worn and is presented a) in the form of archival footage situation" (Thesen 2002). uninspired mainstays of bad documentary of singing and dancing in concert and other And just when we might be wondering filmmaking. Thankfully, it is not weighed public settings (such as political rallies), b) in about the many pieces of music in South down by voice-over narration, but it is pop- contemporary community and studio perfor- Africa that, even in the midst of the most dire ulated by many talking heads, numerous mances (presumably created for Amandla!), conditions of discrimination, oppression, and cringeworthy reenacted scenes (in one, a and c) in the more informal singing of many brutality, must not have had overt political close-up shot of a pair of legs in camouflage of the performers and activists interviewed content, the film shows how this "non-politi- pants walking through some bushes, accom- (who sing unaccompanied, often in their own cal" art becomes unexpectedly politicized in panied by bursts of gunfire on the soundtrack, homes and usually seated in their "inter- the context of apartheid. Thus a love song is meant to illustrate the guerrilla war waged view" chairs). becomes a Struggle song as it functions as a on South Africa's borders), and seemingly The film has a potentially important point means of communication between an under- random insertions of archival footage. This is to make about the imbrication of politics and ground guerrilla fighter and her or his lover; a the technique of lackluster music videos or 86 african arts - summer 2003

This content downloaded from 206.211.139.192 on Mon, 18 Jul 2016 19:18:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms most U.S. television news, where sound bites current events Art of Cameroon; and overused visual clips stand for a particu- Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection of lar event or idea or feeling-reductionism Native American Art; replaces critical analysis or development. Art of the Northwest Coast Portland Art Museum Amandla! was made in 2002, many decades Portland, OR after countless documentaries and feature Information subject to change Traditional Arts of Africa, Oceania, and films first started chronicling the horrors of m western states the Americas apartheid, and during a time when many more Utah Museum of Fine Arts challenging films about apartheid are being (by closing date) University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT produced. A spate of provocative recent films Kilengi about the Truth and Reconciliation Commis- Africa Possessed; African Art from the Bareiss Family Katherine White Collection of sion come to mind here: Long Night's Journey Collection African Art; into Day, Ubuntu's Wounds, and The Guguletu Through October 19 Seven, for instance. However, instead of creat- Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Pre-Columbian and Oceanic Art; Australian Aboriginal Art ing a complex and nuanced visual depiction of A Maasai Community Seattle Art Museum apartheid, Amandla! can only rehearse simplis- Adorns a Bride Seattle, WA tic platitudes. The generic images are duplicat- Through October 19 ed by predictably vacuous captions: the film Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA m central states opens with the assertion that under apartheid, Wall Painting from (by closing date) black South Africans "were denied the most an Ndebele Community basic rights of African citizenship." Amandla! Through October 19 The Quest for Immortality can only give us Apartheid 101 over and over Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Treasures of Ancient Egypt again. Random images of shoppers, of people Through September 14 Mexican Trees of Life Kimbell Art Museum walking, of someone smoking, of a white mili- Through December 14 Fort Worth, TX tary officer moving through a bus of black pas- Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Remnants of Ritual sengers are no doubt supposed to stand for Partners of the Soul Selections from the Gelbard Collection apartheid's horrors, its victims and resistors, African Art of the Baule of African Art and for everyday life in South Africa. But these Through January 4, 2004 San Diego Museum of Art Through October 26 images are neither specifically connected to the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois San Diego, CA music in the film nor given any particular loca- Champaign, IL tion of their own. We are seldom told what The Beginning of Seeing African Art/Western Eyes incident a particular piece of footage is show- Tribal Art and the Pictographs Through December 19 ing, and we are hardly ever given a time or of Adolph Gottlieb Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University place. In the familiar trope by which the Other September 3, 2003-January 4, 2004 Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University East Lansing, MI is simplified, commodified, and fixed in time, Stanford, CA these times / places / people are all the same (see Fabian 1983). continuing exhibitions Some specific scenes in Amandla! are pow- (by state) erful: Hugh Masekela's concert performance African Trade Beads of "Stimela," a song re-creating the train jour- A Comprehensive and Aesthetic Approach neys of migrant workers leaving their fam- Picard African Trade Bead Museum, Carmel, CA ilies to work in South Africa's cities; Miriam African Gallery; Makeba's simple a cappella rendition of "Bahlei Pre-Columbian Gallery Bonke," a litany of leaders imprisoned under Selections from the Proctor Stafford apartheid; ex-guerrilla Lindiwe Zulu's dirge Collection of West Mexican Ceramics for a dead comrade. Disappointingly, though, Los Angeles County Museum of Art it's almost as if the filmmakers didn't have Los Angeles, CA Matthews Collection of African Art; enough faith in the film's music-both the Harer Collection of Egyptian Antiquities sound of the music and the images of its being Fullerton Art Museum, California State University performed-to sustain viewer interest or ade- San Bernardino, CA quately represent its political implications. Africa, Oceania, and the Americas Thus the music is "complemented" by the most Gallery DeRoche, San Francisco, CA banal of illustrative imagery. Fiber, Feather, Shell and Stone When the film moves from the specifics of Shaping Culture in Native California; the music to the general (South Africa), the Power and Creation general becomes generic. Critics and artists Africa beyond the Nile; Realms of the Ancestors have insisted for a long time that the specific Arts of Oceania; is the richest source of commentary on the Arts of Native America; general. The paradox of Amandla! is that its i'l' Vision of the Shaman, Song of the Priest many heavy-handed attempts to depict pol- Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, CA itics depoliticize South African history through Africa, Oceania, and the Americas decontextualization. In its eagerness to right- Cantor Center for Visual Arts ly place South African music of the past sixty Stanford University, Stanford, CA years in the context of its politics, Amandla! Exploring African Art; Native American Art; Afr icA attempts to survey, in 108 minutes, all of Power and Prestige South African history and politics of the The Royal Arts of Polynesia time. This superficial treatment results in a Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO documentary film that is often filmically Multiple Visions A Common Bond static and that fails to live up to its intellec- Folk art from more than 100 countries Old City 56n. 3d sree tual promise. UN Museum of International Folk Art References cited, page 96 Santa Fe, NM summer 2003 - african arts 87

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