DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 408 975 IR 018 388

AUTHOR Semali, Ladislaus TITLE Quest of Visual Literacy: Deconstructing Visual Images of Indigenous People. PUB DATE Jan 97 NOTE 10p.; In: VisionQuest: Journeys toward Visual Literacy. Selected Readings from the Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (28th, Cheyenne, Wyoming, October, 1996); see IR 018 353. PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative (142) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Critical Thinking; *Critical Viewing; *Cultural Images; Ethnic Groups; Film Criticism; *Films; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; *Indigenous Populations; Inquiry; Misconceptions; *Visual Literacy; Visual Stimuli IDENTIFIERS *Africa (Sub Sahara); *Gods Must Be Crazy (The); Visual Representation

ABSTRACT This paper introduces five concepts that guide teachers' and students' critical inquiry in the understanding of media and visual representation. In a step-by-step process, the paper illustrates how these five concepts can become a tool with which to critique and examine film images of indigenous people. The Sani are indigenous people of the in Southern Africa. The culture, language and social life of the Sani has been represented in the film, "" (1984). Through the humorous images in the film, the writer-director makes jokes about the absurdities and discontinuities of African life. In films, through the manipulation of camera angles and other techniques, the viewer is given a sense of realism. Such ploys of visual representations of people demand a careful analysis to discover:(1) what is at issue;(2) how the issue/event is defined;(3) who is involved;(4) what the arguments are; and (5) what is taken for granted, including cultural assumptions. Each of these questions is explored in relation to "The Gods Must Be Crazy." In critical viewing in general, a systematic mode of inquiry should be applied which focuses on the visual, source, origins, and the determinants of media and visual constructions. By using these five concepts in critical inquiry, the ways in which the language of visuals is socially and historically produced can be examined. (Contains 13 references.) (AEF)

******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproducedas received from the person or organization originating it. Quest of Visual Literacy: Minor changes have been made to Deconstructing VisualImages of Indigenous People improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this Ladislaus Semali document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Abstract The purpose of this essay is to introduce five concepts that guideteachers' and students' inquiry in the understanding of media and visual representation.In a step by stepprocess, I will show how these five conceptscan become a tool with which to critique and examine film imagesof indigenous people soas to expose the oppressive spaces in the daily dose of media andvisual messages designed to provide informationand entertainment to credulous aims to be a model for teachers audiences. Thisessay contemplating to use such tools intheir own classroomsto teach critical viewing, critical thinking,and critical reading skills.

Introduction In the study of visual Critical inquiry isa term currently used communication and visual literacy, critical inquiryis not used among educators that sparkscontroversy. widelyinclassroomsasatoolfor For some educators, criticalinquiry reflects a deconstructing visualimages,particularly newapproachthatallows teachersto those images thatrepresent people's culture, construct pedagogical practices whichconnect identity, or ethnicity. While with their students' experiences this has began to and provide occur in some schools, it is not students with a vision of social yet common change by practice in all schools. Withcritical inquiry, encouraging them to research theirown topics students learn to become critical and ask their own questions. consumers This approach who are aware of visualmanipulation and stands in contrast withteaching the classics stereotyping as an important projectof critical and a canon of acceptableliterary works far literacy education. removed from the students' experiences to be In order to illustrate thecurrent inquiry memorized for exams. For many other movement, I decided to apply the workwhich educators, critical inquiry isanother fad, a I and other university resurrection of old ideas researchers in critical growing out of a pedagogy have engaged inover the past 10 long history in educationof creating new years. This method of inquiry is basedon the labels for old ideas withoutany real change in rationale that if we hope classrooms and schools. to create media and visual environments thatwill help us change Critical inquiry is nota fad.It draws from oppressive literacy practices,we have to think social theory studies ofpopular culture, the critically about what kinds media in its many forms, of learning we literature, the role want to go into the classroomsand the of the state in strugglesover race, class and pedagogical spaces in whichlearning occurs gender relations, nationaland international for most students; how theseliteracy practices economic structures, andthe cultural politics are projected or articulated with other of imperialism and social, postcolonialism (Giroux, political, and ideological forces. 1987; Giroux & Simon,1989; McLaren, Hammer, Sholle, &Reilly, 1995).Simply put, critical inquiry Deconstructing Images of Indigenous means questioning. This People practice of questioning requires both teachers In this essay, I introduce and studentsto account for their a discussion about own beliefs the Sani. The Saniare the indigenous people and practices byexploring the contradictions of the Kalahari Desert in that are necessarily Southern Africa. inherent in their own These people have for lives. many years been called "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THE the "bushmen",a derogatory name coined by MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED B' Alice D. Walker 247 2 EST COPY AV ILALE TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE: INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." early European settlers in the early 1900s. Media Studies, Stuart Hall reminds us that This name has been used until recently, when media (and indeed visuals) play a significant got its independence in 1990. The role in the creation and reinforcement of culture, language, and social life of the Sani specific images of the world, the manufacture has been represented in the film: The Gods of consent, and the positioning of political Must Be Crazy(:984). As the name economic interests (Hall, 1982). "bushman" suggests, the Sani have been In the study of visual representation in portrayed in this film as a creature of the films, the complex issues surrounding culture, Stone Age that persists to be an obstacle to identity, and ethnicity are brought to bear. progress, civilization, and modernization. The dominant visual techniques and coding Inthe powerfulvisualand humorous devices employed by the producer of The images of The Gods, a South African writer- Gods, to convince viewers of the accuracy or director, , makes jokes about the believability claimed in the story, combines absurdities and discontinuities of African life. the Hollywood classic cinema with ignorance He portrays the Sani culture as primitive, the associated with remote area groups (Bordwell, environment in which they live is labelled as Staiger & Thompson, 1985). paradise on Earth, and their entire existence Watching the film prompted me to think seemstoclashsharplywith"civilized" about its underlying messages in relation to societies predominant in large cities and in other films I had seen, and caused me to Western . In this pixilated absurdity, wonder if the politics and representations in Uys wrote, produced, and directed The Gods, The Gods had also been in other films about in which three divergent plot-threads are Africans. The continued reassertion of white arbitrarily braided into a whole. racial hegemony and patriarchy seems to be By bringing the discussion of the film about most explicit in this film. Equally, the nature the Sani to the foreground,I expose the of the reality constructed by the film and the mistaken popular beliefs commonly portrayed values implicit in its visual representations are about Africans in movies and television, wittingly intertwined with humor and cannot especially in Travel, National Geographic, or be taken for granted. Discoveryfilms. Thishumorous Readers may be troubled in two contrasting anthropological story does not only show how ways: on the one hand, some who are different cultures perceive the same things in shocked by the obvious racism of the film totally different ways, but it does so in a may wonder why Iworry about basic shameless manner. principles of visual representation; on the A critical examination of The Gods Must other hand, many may wish that the questions Be Crazy coincides with the critical approach I pose could just be ignored, simply because, to inquiry made explicit in this essay.This in their opinion, the film was only a piece of approach provides a systematic educational art and entertainment why not just follow model with which to read critically visual one's pleasures and savor the riches that the images of women, minorities, people from world. of narrative provides? Unfortunately, other cultures, ethnic groups, and images of there are many sides to any piece of art! other social groups embedded in media and Because all media and visual productions visualmessages,inordertorecognize are produced from a variety ofmotivations, stereotypes, ethnocultural bias and suchunderlyingmotives need tobe discrimination, and to understand how these questioned. Perhapsif we can find a images help to structure our experience. The responsible way of defending theethical value of such critical pedagogy rests with the criticism of narrative, we will encourage belief that visuals impart knowledge and can similar probing in the other arts that I must entertain while leaving permanent images on neglect here. We are reminded of Andrew impressionable minds (Giroux & Simon, Bergman'sstudyoftheDepressionin 1989). In his book, Return of the Repressed America and the movies, where heargued 248 EST COPY AVAILABLE that every movie isa cultural artifact and as Nixon'sguidefor teachingcritical such reflects the values,fears, myths, and mindedness, these five assumptions of the culture that concepts provide an produces it important starting point forcritical inquiry (1971). In the pages that follow,I show that (Werner & Nixon, 1990). The Gods is indeed How might one a product of such myths apply suchacritical and fears. inquirytovisual representations of the Gods MustBe Crazy? In his essays on representation,Richard Dyer (1985) quipped: "howwe are seen What is the issue? determines in part how we are treated; how We must ask: Whatcontext motivated the we treat others is based on howwe see them. production of The Gods? Byquestioning the Such seeing comes fromrepresentation" (p. production and construction 39). of the meaning- In ordertoquestionvisual making processes in visual representations, as suggested by representations, Dyer, it is we will examine closely the visualimagery important to adopt a systematicmode of and popular representation inquiry. By using the following of people which five concepts help shape their personal,social, and political for inquiry about visualrepresentation, issues worlds. In thinking about "whatisthe of diversity, and the inequalitiesin knowledge issue," I aim to direct attentiontowards the and power that exist betweenthose who broader issues: (1) what sense do manufacture information in theirown interests representations make of the world? and those who (2) what consume it innocently as news are the visuals representing tous and how? and entertainmentare systematically and In other words, how do critically questioned. the individuals represented in the film becomeseen or how does the way we see them influence Five Concepts how we for Critical Inquiry about treatthem? (3)what Visual Representation aretypical representations of groups insociety? (4) Visual representation refersto the way what does this example of visuals imagesandlanguage represent to activelyconstruct me? (5) what do the visualsmean to others meanings according tosets of conventions who see it? shared by and familiarto makers (producers) To decipher The Gods MustBe Crazy as a and audiences(viewers). As a visual visual representation of culture,identity, and representation of storytelling, filmsshare ethnicity, it is necessary much in common with the to know something historical or about 's past history,its present fictional narrative,including plot, theme, domesticandforeignpolicies,andthe character, setting, conflict, andresolution. singlemindedness with which SouthAfrica Through the maneuvering ofcamera angles, before independence, used cutting, and lighting, the manipulation the system of of time to shape its future.Within its and space is effectivelyaccomplished to give the viewer a sense of borders, South Africa had foralmost four realism.For this decades been creatinga new territorial and reason, such ploy of visual representationsof demographic entity. people demand a careful Although we tend to analysis to discover hear only the prettyaspects of apartheid, its (1) what is at issue, (2)how the issue / event is defined, (3) greatest manifestation was the manipulationof who is involved, (4) what the people within a finitespace. As it has been arguments are, and (5) whatis taken for acknowledged by several reviewers granted including of this cultural assumptions (See film, The Gods is an expressionof this aspect Figure 1).In short, a systematic mode of of apartheid (Brown, 1982,p. 42); Denby, inquiry will focuson the visual, source, 1984, p. 47); Davis, 1985, origins, and the p. 51; Keneas, determinants of media and 1984, p. 22).Accordingly, the film delves visual constructions,all of which are carefully on this aspect of racist apartheid byinversion. put together to influencethe viewer in a certain way. Adapted from Werner and 249 Figure 1 Critical Inquiry Questions

# Inquiry Key Questions

1. The Issue What is the issue? What sense do media make of the world? What do visuals mean to those who see them?

2. Definitions of the Issue What is the source of information? What form does the issue take? What information is left out?

3. Who is involved What groups are involved? Who is the media intended for? Whose point of view does the media take?

4. The Argument Why was a certain media were selected? What information in the visual is factual? How is the message affected by what is left out?

5. The Assumptions What attitudes are assumed? Whose voice is heard? What points of view are assumed?

While the landscape of The Gods looks to my understanding? (4) how does it serve or be very much like South Africa, it is set in not serve my purposes? (5) what information what some critics call the mythical country of is left out? . Because Uys' Botswana does not The first ten minutes of the film addresses exist, except in his imagination; features of the relationship between illusion and reality. the landscape, dress, and custom are not to be "It looks like a paradise, but it is in fact the found in real Botswana.Uys' Botswana is most treacherous desert in the world, the insteadadreamofahappy-go-lucky Kalahari." We see footage of the placid bantustan, those equally fictitious homelands Kalahari "bushmen" searching for water. In that the South African government tried to this desert we meet the "dainty, small, and create all over South Africa, literally out of graceful Sani ("bushmen")." We're unsure of dust, for the dumping of African people. the film-maker's intent, suspecting satire, but Clearly, the central issue posited in the film thesequenceturnsouttobeafairly is about value questions defined by the film- predictable documentary with dry, straight- maker's goals, ideals, and hopes. As always, faced narration about a peaceful, "primitive" the contention or challenge therefore is to tribe of tiny"bushmen" who liveina recognize that many of the things of value to gracious, simple world digging for roots and me are not necessarily valued to the same foraging for berries, without any knowledge degree by other people. of crime or violence. A Coke bottle drops from a great silver bird in the heavens and How the Issue Event is Defined? intotheorderlylivesofthenomadic As we consider how the event is defined, "Bushman" Xi and his family. The bottle, as several questions come to mind: (1) what is it soon turns out, is a gift from the gods. the source of the information? (2) what form You can blow on it and make a windy music, does it take?(3) how does the form shape you can roll it and crush millet.Pretty soon 250 5 1:EsT COPY HAMA LIE comes arguing over the bottle's possession Who is Involved? followed by acrimony, anger, and fights. As we explore "whatgroups are involved", The story about the Sani is being narrated and our attentionis drawn to twoimportant defined by an outsider who does not include questions: (1) who is the targetaudience? (2) the point of view of those whosestory is what point of view is present? being told. The idea of In this narration, the culture of interest helps us to be criticalof how a the Sani and that of other African societies is particular representation, issue,or event may presumed to be a quaint relic of the past be biased. Less obvious thanidentifying the rather than vibrant contemporary culture. filmmaker may be the fact that hisreasons or One might ask: Who are these "gods" who arguments could be self-serving, are crazy? designed They are the technologically largely to protect or enhancethe invested advanced whites whose very garbage isa interest or dominant perspective insome way. source of wonder to most of the developing A vested interest includesany privilege that a world!In their simple wisdom, the Sani group enjoys and considers their "right." come to reject what white society hasto Arguments may be designedto protect or offer, symbolized in the discardedbottle. enhance thisinterest whether position, This very rejection is a sop of white angst, benefit, status, or credibilityperhaps at the because it means that the Sani donot covet expense of an opponent who is made to look the white standard of living, and so cannot be foolish, selfish, stupid, immoral,uninformed, considered rivalsfor South Africans,the or downright perverse. ideal state of affairs. However admirable, the In the film The Gods MustBe Crazy, the kind of decision this rejectionrepresents is filmmaker uses a narratorto guide the completely absent from the everyday lives of viewersandintones who and whatis the indigenous peoples of SouthAfrica.If important. Some peopleare cast as victims; thereis one overwhelming fact of the others as heroes. An ethnoculturalbias runs dispossessed Tswanas, Zulus, Xhosas,and throughout the plot. This bias portrays Sani, as it is for many Africans, it isthat they Africansaschildlike, have no control whatsoever incompetent,and over what they unscientific.This bias reinforcesa long- can accept or reject. For most Africans, the standing myth about Africa-the Dark decision continues to be made byoutsiders Continent.Even though the theme of this and that decision has never concerned itself in film may pretend to portraya simplistic tale the least with what the Africanwants. of the search for the tranquillife and to It would be curious to know how much Xi satirize white urban living, beneaththat was paid for acting in the movie. Did he tranquil life lies a parable aboutwhite South ever see the movie? What did he think of it? Africa with its basic values; thosevalues of Has he read some of the ravingreviews about the privileged, for it is only those his movie? Will he read this content article? These with the world's goods whocan afford to rhetorical questionsare simply an illustration poke fun at them! of the predicament in which the continent of Who is in the film?The film's story is Africa lies in relation to the rest of the world. made of a number of intertwiningplots. The Like many Africans, the media are still out of firststoryinvolvesXi,the reach and will be so-called so for many years to come. "Bushman." As Uys shows it, the lifeof the Poverty is rampage; amenitiesof the modern "bushmen" is idyllic, completely in world like telephones, harmony electricity, plumbing, with their environment, livingcommunally, or simple, permanent housing is a dream for until a careless aviator throwsa Coke bottle many indigenous peoples who live inremote into their midst. In another subplot,set in a areas and out of the urban,circle. Why is it neighboring African-governedcountry,a this way? The context withinwhich Gods revolutionary Sam Boga was made is attempts a coup. He not given anywhere in the isunsuccessful,andtogetherwithhis production of this film. followersfleesinto Botswana. A third 251 6 subplotinvolvesawhiteteacherwho happens, the threat is not only to Africans but suddenly gets bored with her meaningless job also to the white race personified by the in a city office and takes a job as a teacher in heroine.To save Africans. and Europeans an African school in Botswana.There she alike,whiteorganizationalskillsmust meets up with Andrew Steyn, a shy, awkward mobilize all indigenous peoples and even biologist who eventually wins her.These African natureitself(in the shape of a three plots fuse at the resolution, when the poisonous bush). As the film illustrates, Africanrevolutionariesseizethewhite AndrewSteyn,thepacific,unworldly schoolteacher and her African pupilsas scientist--thepersonificationof a hostages,andtheyarerescued by the technologically advance but nonaggressive biologist and Xi working as a team. South Africanbeats all the odds. For many people, Africa is not a place but a state of mind, the heart of darkness. Africa What are the Arguments? has never been dark, however, to those who This question drives the core issues of live there.It is ignorance on the part of the inquiry. Besides looking at what groups are outsiders that was, and continues to be, dark. involved in the film, an examination of the The great tradition that Gods draws on is arguments postulated in the film reveals that the journey through Africa.Not the sort of The Gods has a strong point of view! What expedition where you hunt for animals, but argumentsenhancetheinterestsofits the missionary journey where you hunt for dominant side and what arguments detract the souls of human beings. When applied to from the credibility of the other side? More white South Africa before independence, the specifically, students and teachers must ask notion of "missionary", someone with a the following critical questions: mission,derivesnewmeaning! This (1) why was aparticularvisualimage "mission" is essential to the white mans's selected? (2) what information presented in view of Africa.To Africa, Europe sent its the visual image is factual? (3) what portion missionaries, includingitsfanatics. The ofcontentisinaccurate?(4)why are Afrikaner, the white man in that part of shots/camera work arranged that way? (5) do Africa we now call South Africa, decided visual images match narration? (6) how does early on that his mission was to bring the sound affectvisualimages?(7) how is message of the bible tothe wilderness. repetition of visual images, and text used? (8) Unlike Dr. Livingstone's ambition to bring how do graphics affect the message? (9) how the Word of God to the people of Central does stillness or motion aid the message? Africa, the Afrikaner had no desire to share (10) what is left out? (11) how is the message that Word with the kaffir, the unbelievers, for affected by what is left out? Afrikaners were God's Chosen People, and It is important to look at how the visuals the Chosen do not share with the unchosen, are manipulated in this film.For example, for then how would you tell the difference after about six minutes the film cuts to a big (Davis, 1985, p. 51)? In the middle of this city, where we are introduced to "civilized century, the Afrikaners' mission came to man." Civilized humans, we aretold, mean the protection of White Christian managed to maketheirlivesmore Civilization (i.e., the privileged against the complicated by trying to make them easier. Africans and Communism).In Uys' film, By contrast, the "bushmen" have a very these two the Africans and Communism simple lifeuntil the Western world intrudes arepersonified by Sam Boga andhis upon it. guerrillas. Themissionof AndrewSteyn,the A figurative interpretation of the plot, then, biologist,isscientificdiscovery,inthe reveals that Africans are like children who innocuous form of examination of elephant are easily led astray by outside agitators (i.e., droppings.Xi's mission, however, is the theAfricanliberationists). When this 252 7 BEST CO AVAILALE preservation of the way of lifeof the Tanzania's Serengeti and the Ngorongoro "bushman." Crater. Epidemiologists speak with horror of The arguments are made through anecdotal deadly viruses like HIV and Ebola thatare stories of the way the people in the filmgo presumed to have come out of the jungle,and about doing their everyday work. Here, the countless undiscovered microbes waitingto underlying platitude by which most South emerge. Africans rationalize their relationship with For Anthropologists, Africa's most Africans comes to the surface: "Africansare impressive statistics are the ones thatmeasure like children." In the film, they go children. the enormous diversity of itsindigenous By introducing the guerilla fighters, the film people. The diversity of the different African shows that their own government, being societies, from Ashanti to Zulu, and their African, cannot be relied upon to protect customs provide a rich heritage more thana them. They must be rescued by the ingenuity deficitculture. With varying histories, of a white man in collaboration with Xi the cultures and living, these indigenous peoples "Bushman." have lived on the continent for centuries and All these people scurrying around the are spread over 50 independent countries. A landscape of southern Africa, colliding in majority of the indigenous people includes pratfalls, constitute a distorted microcosm of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, hunters, and the class of peoples and ideologies that is in gatherers. Some 1,300 languagesare spoken reality deeply tragic. What Uys has done in on the continent, about a third of the world's the film, in fact (albeit a fact disguised by total.Each language represents a distinct humor), is to create in Gods the imaginary indigenous group with its own beliefs and its land that the architects of apartheid would own rituals and ceremonies some of which have us believe in, where South Africa's have been performed for hundreds ofyears. intentions are the good for everyone. In this For the media, however, Africa is often land of make-believe, entire villages drop misunderstood because of western media's their work and turn out to singa hymn of dismissal of the continent as backward and welcome to a white teacher.This gesture therefore unworthy of coverage, until disaster depicts the relationship of Africans towards strikes like in the case of the recent famine in white people is gratitude for the help being Ethiopia, Somalia and Rwanda. What isnot given, of whites towards Africans, protective portrayed is that Africa is a diverse continent, paternalism. Thispeaceful,dependent both of re-emerging democracies and of relationship would continuewere it not for troubledareaswithleftovervestiges of the advance of the guerrillas. colonialism,andismade up of many countries, climates, geographies, histories, What is taken for granted? and peoples. To examine what is taken for granted in By now, itis common knowledge that any text requires that viewers and readers Africa overflows with indigenous forms of question some of the cultural assumptions. communication: theater, drumming, dancing, The ways in which visual media constructions traditional storytelling, and village meetings arereadorevaluated by audiencesin which have informed and entertained for America are often not questioned enough. centuries.And yet, in the past 30 years, For example, different disciplinesof science however, the continent has been inundated measureAfrica in different ways: with radios,, televisions, VCRs, and other Geographers point toa climate that ranges western products. This state of affairs makes from the burning Sahara,to the steamy rain Africans"knowledgecolonies." Most forests of Zaire, to the drysavannas of African states, apart from South Africa,are Kenya. Biologists notetheastonishing too poor to compete with European and abundance and variety of the continent's American economiesinterms of media wildlife,withaparticularmentionof production and dissemination. The reliance 253 8 on the West for all but local news results in withperceptionsof theremote"Dark reduced and distorted coverage of Africa Continent", the worldview of manynon- consistent with the legacy of colonialism as Africans, particularly Europeans, was clouded portrayed in The Gods. over with myths and stereotypes, and Africa Tanzanians, for instance, get news about was misconceived then as now with all the theirneighbors,the Kenyans, from the myths and stereotypes intact.Some of the westernmedia. Nigerianslearnabout simplest myths are most common: lions in the Tanzanian events from the British jungles, the isolated Dark Continent, inferior Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).All over savages,araceofNegroesheathens Africa the pattern is the same. The image we developed only by the grace of God and the seeintheUnitedStates,thecorrupt, White man, and a land of turmoil, incapable incompetent, starving, dependent, hopeless of self-government. Because these myths and Africa, is the image manufactured in the West stereotypes are alive today in the schools' and transmitted to Africa, although there are curriculum (howeverunintentional the pockets of resistance to this inundation by distortions and omissions may be), in the westernmedia. Raised onadietof hands of unaware and unskilled teachers, the Westernized history, Tarzan books and films, curriculumcontinuestofeedtheracist andsensationalizednewsmedia,many doctrines and practices of white superiority students in the believe Africa to and privilege. be a primitive land of hot, steamy jungles inhabited by wild animals and savages. This Conclusion myth is normalized and reinforced by Ttgl In this essay, I have tried to illustrate that Gods Must Be Crazy. the production of meaning from media and Even though present day technological visual texts about what is important to know changes have brought far reaching structural depends upon knowledge which is shared by changes inindustrializedcountries, a community. Such knowledge is constructed particularly in the area of production and by individuals' belief system, their distributionofinformationandliteracy worldview, their use of language, and by the materials, the situation in Africa and much of way they construct representations of self, the developing world remains a challenge. others, and of thephysical and societal Communities in metropolitan cities like Dar environment. es Salaam, , Lagos, and Nairobi One major aspect of teaching visual literacy look to the communities of Los Angeles and is toidentifywherethatknowledge New York with awe and wonder, imitating represented in the visual comes from, and their music and fashion, and craving for the how it is constructed. How did we come to instant gratification and escape that movie know what we know about a certain event, or entertainment has to offer. group of people? Where did the perceptions However, unequal representation of news we hold about Africans or certain ethnic and events of non-western societies persists. groups come from? By posingthese African media outlets on the continent lack questions, the various assumptions underlying the technology and speed to generate reports the production values of dominant news and or images of its people fast enough for the entertainment media areinvestigated and world beyond theirborders. And yet, critically evaluated. western media portray Africa as just one The five concepts for critical inquiry about massive civil war, a famine-torn place with a visual representation outlined in this essay few pyramids in the north, racial struggle in cannot claim tosubstitute or uproot the the south, civil wars, and some lions and century-old myths and stereotypesabout elephants in between. Africa and the African people. These The reality about Africa has been distorted concepts, however, provide a framework to among non-Africans. For centuries, starting question such myths and stereotypes, which 254 9 EST COPY AVAIL&LE have toalargeextent been createdin Giroux, H. (1987). "Critical Literacyand literature, media, and cinema. By using these student experience: Donald Graves' Approach concepts in critical inquiry, we also examine to Literacy." Language Arts, 64, 175-181. the ways in which the language of visuals is socially and historically produced. Giroux, H. Simon, R. (1989). Popular Therefore, students need to be encouraged CultureasPedagogyofPleasureand to question theclarity and strength for Meaning. In H. Giroux & R. Simon (eds.) reasoning, identify assumptions and values, Popular Culture: Schooling and Everyday recognize points of view and attitudes, and Life. New York: Bergin & Garvey. (pp. 1- evaluate conclusions and actions provided by 29). all narratives whether they be picture books, short stories, poems, plays, film, and pieces Kellner, D. (1995). Media Culture: Cultural of nonfiction. Studies. Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern.New York: Routledge. References Bordwell, D., Staiger J., & Thompson, K. Keneas, A. (1984). Newday 9, Part 11,p. (1985).The Classical Hollywood Cinema: 22. Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960. New York: Columbia University Press. McLaren, P., Hammer, R., Sholle, D., & Reilly,S.(1995). RethinkingMedia Brown, R. (1982). Monthly Film Bulletin 3, Literacy: A CriticalPedagogyof p. 42. Representation. New York: Peter Lang.

Davis, P. (1985).Cineaste, Vol. XIV, No. Stuart, H. (1981). "Notes on Deconstructing 1, p. 51. 'the Popular'," in R. Samuel, (ed.), People's HistoryandSocialistTheory.London: Denby, D. (1984). New York 7, p. 47. Routledge.

Dyer, R. (1985). "Taking Popular Television Stuart H.(1982). The Rediscovery of Seriously." In David Lusted and Phillip 'Ideology': Return of the Repressed in Media Drummond,(eds.),TV andSchooling. Studies. New York: Routledge, p. 62. London: BFI. Werner W. & Nixon, K. (1990). The Media Freire, P. & Giroux, H. (1989). Pedagogy, and Public Issues:A Guide for Teaching Popular Culture and PublicLife. An Critical Mindedness. London, Ontario: The Introduction.In H. Giroux & R. Simon Althouse Press. (eds.)PopularCulture:Schoolingand Everyday Life. New York: Bergin & Garvey. (pp. 199-212).

I

255 10 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) ERIC

NOTICE

REPRODUCTION BASIS

This document is covered by a signed "Reproduction Release (Blanket)" form (on file within the ERIC system), encompassing all or classes of documents from its source organization and, therefore, does not require a "Specific Document" Release form.

This document is Federally-funded, or carries its own permission to reproduce, or is otherwise in the public domain and, therefore, may be reproduced by ERIC without a signed Reproduction Release form (either "Specific Document" or "Blanket")..

(9/92)