Interculturalization In African Cinema

Interculturalization in African Cinema

Day by day our world becomes increasingly interconnected. People migrate across continents and ,among materialistic belongings, bring their culture with them. Once in contact with other cultures they can clash, coexist or move one step further: interact with each other. This is known as interculturalism. While cultural conflicts have been covered intensively by scholars such as Samuel P. Huntington who predicts culture clashes to be the main source of conflict in the post-cold war world (Kirkus Reviews) and various books about coexistence have been written such as “Positive Examples of Coexistence from the History of Peoples and States of the South Caucasus” by Haykaz Hovhannisyan et al. While these

As Africans did not gain control over their movie history until the late 60 's (Ukadike 1), the absolute control of colonial powers about which films are being shown in the colonies meant that movies presented to Africans were carefully chosen and reinforced colonial structures in all aspects of society, thereby imposing European cultural norms on the African societies (Barker 161). However, a shift occurred when the French and Belgians began to include Africans in the production of movies during the 1960s, ultimately allowing them to produce their own. Despite this progress, most of Africa 's emerging cinematic industry in the 60s and 70s was deliberately ignored by westerners (Ukadike ix), with only a few french journals advocating the developing African cinema until the appreciation began to spread. This expansion coincided with the immense growth in published critical studies and analysis of African cinema in a different, more widely spoken, language – English. Since English is far more spoken than French, the language switch facilitated the comprehension by westerners of themes portrayed in African

An example of this type of movie would be “Nairobi Half Life”, directed by David Gitonga. The film was selected as the Kenyan entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Award. The plot is similar to Hollywood movies. A young aspiring actor, Mwas, motivated by the western Action movie and in dreams of becoming a famous actor, moves to the country 's acting-capital, in this case Nairobi. As he arrives in the city begins to live a double-life. On the one side by joining a gang which steals car parts to make a living and on the other side he secures a role in a play in the Phoenix Theater. There are fundamental differences between his two lives. While Mwas is around the gang, they correspond in Swahili, he is dressed poorly and his life appears to be in constant jeopardy. Meanwhile when he is working in Theater, conversations as well as the play are in English. Furthermore he is dressed nicely, people don 't appear to struggle financially and the overall setting appears to be save. The stark contrast between the two conveys a clear message to the viewer: superiority of “Westerness” in all areas - the Clubs Mwas and his actor friends go to, the drinks they consume, the music they dance to, the language they speak, the clothes they wear, the cars they drive and the view of the city with skyscrapers similar to western metropolitan areas. Not only is this flattering to western viewers, it also portrays the other part of Mwas life as negative and backwards. Drugs,