Out of Africa - The film

A few nights ago, with nothing to watch, I reluctantly drew from my pile of movies, one that has been sitting there for months. Out of Africa.

Unlike the book by Karen Blixen, the movie version is painful to watch. Beautiful story to a non-Kenyan, non-black, non-African. Then again, I cannot claim to speak for all blacks. Other black people have a totally different experience of Africa. Even other Africans (My experience in South Africa has taught me this).

Anyway, I began watching the movie half-heartedly. I really wasn't sure what I would find in it, but I was sure to find the racist bullshit that seemed so innocent to the unknowing viewer. I was not disappointed. Scores of half-dressed men (men - absence of women) running around to welcome the Memsahib. The occasional defiant Kikuyu man, who must in the end give in to the gentle power of the madam. The use of the Kikuyu and Maasai as filmic background to an otherwise all-white experience of this savage land, complete with lions and other wild animals featuring as a constant threat to the well-being of the white lead character. Meryl Streep looks fabulously delicate I must add.

Point is, as a Kenyan and an Afro-conscious person, I refused to watch the whole movie in one sitting (small pockets of resistance). I kept seeing the gaps in the movie, discovering the spaces that needed correcting and revising.

Don't get me wrong. The movie was good. My problem was that of representation. One cannot over-emphasize the need for proper representation in movies (see bell hooks Race and Representation). Otherwise, what's to stop an ignorant white person from treating me the way Africans are often treated in the movies? Why should I be cross if someone should make certain assumptions about me simply because I am an African?

Movies, being some of the most consumed forms of popular culture are crucial in creating images of 'truths' and 'non-truths' in the minds of consumers. People see Rambo and they begin to imagine that America is full of tight-lipped heroes who would do anything, including risking their lives to save their country. Poeple watch Jet Li and Jackie Chan and assume Asia is all about fighters and warriors. People watch Tsotsi and associate black people with crime in South Africa. Its not even a joke. How many South African novels, plays and movies do you watch that do not at one point or the other bring up the idea of the black man as a criminal? And the Kenyans. Between the Kalenjin long distance runners and the Statue-like Maasais in the open green fields, what chance have those of us in betweeners got? Oh, and if you were not a Mau Mau as I recently found out, you do not feature in the map as Kenyans. I was once asked, as I tried to explain Kenyan politics to a Zimbabwean, if I had ever fought for land. Tricky question, given the fact that Kenyans fought for land in the 50s and earlier. I wasnt born, neh? But no. It matters that I did not come from the Kikuyu community, who fought with the white man until we got independence. How does one even begin to explain the role 'we' played?

Yet in all the places I have named, other things take place. People live. People deal with situations as they come.

Which takes me back to Karen Blixen. Eish. You know, perhaps today I will go back and watch the second half. I stopped at the place where she makes a journey across a savage forest filled with lions, to find her husband who has abandoned her.

Wish me luck.

bell hooks and the true meaning of freedom

I recently received seven (!) of bell hooks' books. There are those who might find issues with the politics of this particular intellectual, but reading her, listening to her transforms her from an otherwise difficult theorist into a simple accessible one. For instance, her thoughts on popular culture. She does not attempt to bog us down with theories by Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall and the rest, rather, she goes for that movie that you absolutely loved, and tells you why it was a rasict and/or sexist movie. Take for instance, The Bodyguard in which starred Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. For all those weepy romantics such as I, it was le fabulous, neh? Wrong. hooks analyses the racist ideology that informed the creation of that movie, carefully looking at the position of the black woman vis-a-vis the white man. What were the several unsaids of the movie? what was the movie supposedly transcending and what did it actually not? Mphh! A mind-breaker, but guys you must read her. The book I am currently reading was one of her first. It is about black women and feminism, and the manner in which they were 'trained' to push aside sexism in favour of racism, while black men took advantage of the system. It is a book about the double oppression of women in America over the years, and the manner in which black women have, began to absorb their servitude positions in the face of strong black men at their expense. It has some interesting insights for anyone interested in feminism in general.Why have we for instance taught ourselves that to be a feminist is a bad thing? Think about it. I am currently enjoying Sex and The City. I have just been given the book as a gift, but I am watching the series. Now, why is it, that women who go for what they want, are labelled 'something badf and dirty'? Why are they considered feminists, aka outcasts? What patriarchal frameworks underly some of the assumptions we make when making decisions about what we can or can't do in life? Yet, aren't we, as women, happier when we are freer? aren't we happier being able to make our own decisions without anyone questioning them? Aren't we happier knowing that when we settle with a guy, it has to be a guy who can respect us? We all lie to ourselves and make excuses for abusive men, when in fact we do not have to! To read bell hooks is to discover the true meaning of freedom, especially for the eternally oppressed African woman. True, we may have variations of feminisms in Africa that accommodate various levels of patriarchy, but life teaches one to be wary of abuse, however slight. Do read any of her books. You can visit the www.allaboutbell.com website to become more inspired, for starters