Hollywood and Africa Recycling the ‘Dark Continent’ Myth, 1908–2020 by Okaka Opio Dokotum
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Hollywood and Africa Recycling the ‘Dark Continent’ myth, 1908–2020 by Okaka Opio Dokotum TERMS of USE The African Humanities Program has made this electronic version of the book available on the NISC website for free download to use in research or private study. It may not be re- posted on book or other digital repositories that allow systematic sharing or download. For any commercial or other uses please contact the publishers, NISC (Pty) Ltd. Print copies of this book and other titles in the African Humanities Series are available through the African Books Collective. © African Humanities Program Dedication This book is dedicated to Prof. Emeritus Dr Robert T. Self — teacher, mentor, writing coach and friend, for grounding me in cineliteracy and the grammar of the moving image, and to my dear wife Pamela Renee for her gentle encouragement without which this book would probably have become one of many abandoned projects! About the Series The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd. The Series covers topics in African histories, languages, literatures, philosophies, politics and cultures. Submissions are solicited from Fellows of the AHP, which is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The purpose of the AHP is to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge by Africans in the five countries designated by the Carnegie Corporation: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. AHP fellowships support one year’s work free from teaching and other responsibilities to allow the Fellow to complete the project proposed. Eligibility for the fellowship in the five countries is by domicile, not nationality. Book proposals are submitted to the AHP editorial board which manages the peer review process and selects manuscripts for publication by NISC. In some cases, the AHP board will commission a manuscript mentor to undertake substantive editing and to work with the author on refining the final manuscript. The African Humanities Series aims to publish works of the highest quality that will foreground the best research being done by emerging scholars in the five Carnegie designated countries. The rigorous selection process before the fellowship award, as well as AHP editorial vetting of manuscripts, assures attention to quality. Books in the series are intended to speak to scholars in Africa as well as in other areas of the world. The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa. AHP Editorial Board Members as at November 2018 AHP Series Editors: Professor Adigun Agbaje, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa Consultant: Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology) Board Members: 1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa) 2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program) 3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies) 4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies) 5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory) 6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy) 7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History) 8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies) 9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology) 10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics) 11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology) Published in this series Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema, 2014 Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014 Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English, 2014 Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe, 2016 Pascah Mungwini, Indigenous Shona Philosophy: Reconstructive insights, 2017 Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa, 2017 Michael Andindilile, The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse, 2018 Jeremiah Arowosegbe, Claude E Ake: The making of an organic intellectual, 2018 Romanus Aboh, Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel, 2018 Bernard Matolino, Consensus as Democracy in Africa, 2018 Babajide Ololajulo, Unshared Identity: Posthumous paternity in a contemporary Yoruba community, 2018 De-Valera NYM Botchway, Boxing is no cakewalk! Azumah ‘Ring Professor’ Nelson in the social history of Ghanaian boxing, 2019 Dina Ligaga, Women, visibility and morality in Kenyan popular media, 2020. HOLLYWOOD AND AFRICA Recycling the ‘Dark Continent’ Myth, 1908–2020 OKAKA OPIO DOKOTUM Published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Makhanda, 6140, South Africa. www.nisc.co.za First edition, first impression 2020 Publication © African Humanities Program 2020 Text © Okaka Opio Dokotum 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-920033-66-8 (print) ISBN: 978-1-920033-67-5 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-920033-68-2 (ePub) Manuscript mentor: Prof. Emeritus Dr Robert T. Self Project manager: Peter Lague Indexer: Sanet le Roux Cover design: Advanced Design Group Cover photographs: front, © Jag_cz-stock.adobe.com; back, © Dominik Stötter/EyeEm/Getty Images Plates: p 114, © Warner Bros/Photofest; p 134 © Columbia Pictures/Photofest; p 151 © Sportsphoto/Alamy Stock Photo; p 189, © Warner Bros. Pictures/Photofest; p 217, © Sportsphoto/Alamy Stock Photo; p 228, © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/ Photofest; p 255, © Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Some material in this book was first published by the author in the following scholarly publications and is included with the permission of those journals: Chapter 4: “TIA (This is Africa!): Reproducing Colonial Violence in Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond (2006),” Journal of African Cinemas. Special issue: Everyday violence(s) and visualities in Africa. Vol. 6 Issue 2. (2014), pp. 175–183. Chapter 5: “The Biafran War According to Hollywood: Militainment and Historical Distortion in Antoine Fuqua’s Tears of the Sun (2003),” Lagos Historical Review. Vol. 12, (2012), pp. 23–40. Chapter 6: “Re-membering the Tutsi Genocide in Hotel Rwanda (2004): Implications for Peace and Reconciliation.” ACPR: African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review. 3, Special Issue on Peace Education, Memory and Reconciliation in Africa. Vol. 2. (2013), pp. 129–150. Chapter 7: “Encountering Mandela on Screen: Transnational Collaboration in Mandela Image Production from 1987–2010.” Sociology Study, Vol. 5: 11, (2013), pp. 794–802. Chapter 8: “Metatextuality in Kevin McDonald’s Transcultural Cinematic Adaptation of The Last King of Scotland (2006).” Africa Notes. Vol. 40: 1&2, (2016), pp. 33–56. Printed in South Africa by Digital Action (Pty) Ltd The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition. Contents Acknowledgements ix Foreword xii Preface xvi List of plates xxi INTRODUCTION 1 GENERAL OVERVIEW 10 CHAPTER 1 Constructing the ‘Dark Continent’ 11 CHAPTER 2 Manifestations of Hollywood’s Africas 25 ADAPTATION MODELS 66 CHAPTER 3 Ventriloquising the Dark Continent myth 67 CHAPTER 4 Colonial nostalgia 90 CHAPTER 5 Militainment and historical distortion 127 CHAPTER 6 Thisis ‘a true story!’ 147 CHAPTER 7 Ideological effacement and heroic self-transcendence 173 NEW APPROACHES 198 CHAPTER 8 Metatextuality in transnational film production 199 CHAPTER 9 Cyberactivism against ‘whitewashing’ 225 CHAPTER 10 Afro-optimism 231 vii CHAPTER 11 Afrofuturism 247 CONCLUSION 257 FILMOGRAPHY 261 BIBLIOGRAPHY 266 INDEX 293 viii Acknowledgements Many people and organisations helped to make this book a reality in over a decade of research and writing. While it is not possible to mention all of them, I acknowledge them and am deeply appreciative of their contributions. The manuscript for this publication was prepared with the support of the African Humanities Fellowship Program established by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) with a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. I would like to thank Dr Andrzej Tymowski, International