Wednesday 3 December 2014

..wake up.. and stop playing that stupid game of sleeping beauty..' [Concerning Violence]

..Is a quote taken from the film - Concerning Violence.

- “In the colonial context the settler only ends his work of breaking in the native when the latter admits loudly and intelligibly the supremacy of the white man's values.”
- Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth -


I went to see it last night, I'm glad I did. It's a very relevant film for our times.

The films looks at the violence of colonialism.
It features rare interview footage of Robert Mugabe, Thomas Sankara ( great man) and Amílcar Cabral.
There are also interviews with white settlers and missionaries.
The film looks at Liberation struggles from colonial rule in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, that took place across Africa and uses the work and writing of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth as it's basis
Lauryn Hill narrates, and does a great job.

- “In the colonial countries, on the contrary, the policeman and the soldier, by their immediate presence and their frequent and direct action maintain contact with the native and advise him by means of rifle butts and napalm not to budge. It is obvious here that the agents of government speak the language of pure force” -
- Frantz Fanon -







The great thing about this film is that it brings us right up to date.
Colonialism wasn't a long time ago.
The film reminds us that in the creation of a colonized... the colonizer created ( and continues to create ) himself. The more brutal the mechanism to sustain his way of life.. the more his humanity was, and is lost.

The film has a message for African countries today...
...that .. if 'they' seek solely to create an 'African version' of Europe... they are doomed to fail.
For Europe has shown us.. and continues to show us that there is a gaping flaw in the system. .. and it's not getting better.
Watch the news.

Besides.. it is said that no one can do 'European' better.... than a 'European'.... so why waste your time.
( we can debate who or what constitutes a European another time.. but the film is very clear)

“Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.”
- Frantz Fanon -


The film has a message for us all...
...look...learn... and do better.
A new way is needed.
Humanity must be restored
We need an ethical economic model

“The basic confrontation which seemed to be colonialism versus anti-colonialism, indeed capitalism versus socialism, is already losing its importance. What matters today, the issue which blocks the horizon, is the need for a redistribution of wealth. Humanity will have to address this question, no matter how devastating the consequences may be.”
- Frantz Fanon -


Yes, Africa needs it.. but the world needs it.
This new way has to come from somewhere.
..and sooner rather than later..
Human beings lacking in humanity are by the very definition of the word... no longer human.
Frantz Fanon's words are as relevant today as at the time of writing.
..What does that say about us?


How many of us play that stupid game of sleeping beauty.. I suspect we will tire of it soon enough.

**

Info on the film
Directed by Göran Hugo Olsson
Based on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth
Narrated by Ms. Lauryn Hill
Preface by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak



2 comments:

  1. I have never heard of this movie but I want to see it. The quote at the top of this blog post cuts through me like a knife. It's sad but so true.

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  2. I watched a scene ( the aftermath of an attack in the Bush.. in Mozambique) and I watched some of the faces. the expression ( to me ) was.. why?..
    Maybe one day.. someone will have an answer to that question. Until then.. Hope you get to see it

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