HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- On rare occasions, the wasteland that is North American television surprises. During a recent dreary, winter morning, an arts channel broadcast a Senegalese movie that depicted life in the lesser corners of Dakar. A female vendor took her abused friend and daughter into her care, and then she fell in love with a corrupt but amiable policeman. Not much happened, and, if it did, this writer missed it because of a scheduled flight out of town. Nevertheless, the Senegalese movie provided an antidote to the conventional portrayal of Africa in a spate of popular Western movies. The flaws in representation are twofold, though connected. The first relates to authenticity. In movies set in Africa, there is often a sharp disconnect between what is portrayed on the screen and reality. The second involves the persistent stereotype of sub-Saharan Africa as a continent of exoticism and primal violence -- a world utterly unlike the West.
Western Movies Depict Africa as Monolithic Land of Difference and Violence
