The Third Cinema: Deconstructing Negative Stereotypes of Africa
The Third Cinema: Deconstructing Negative Stereotypes of Africa
By
Daniel Olufemi
The arts, literature, music, internet, motion pictures, print and broadcast media and other artifacts of modern media culture share a common cultural conception –educating and shaping public perception. They provide the codes of recognition for self-definition and construction of meanings across socio-economic, political, gender and ethical issues. Thus, an individual’s lifestyle, fashion taste, arts appreciation, choice of consumer products, definition of beauty, et cetera is largely a factor of media exposure. The contemporary definition of feminine beauty as a woman with the tall and thin physique for instance, is as symbolized in movies and TV commercials. Cognizant of these socio-cultural dynamics, the Euro-American societies have endlessly exploited the media to foist their value system on the rest of the world. The outcome is a polarized world along dominant culture and sub-culture divides, in other words – the ‘us’ versus ‘other’. Africa, Asia and Latin America and the ethno-racial communities in the dominant Euro-American societies or the Third World societies constitute the so-called ‘other’, among which Africa is worse off in the cultural disequilibrium. Decades after sovereignty by the 53 countries that make up the continent, the regime of repression dating back to the arrival of the slave ships and subsequent colonialism has been sustained through the vast cartel of cultural producers of the Euro-American system. ‘Godfathered’ by the multinationals, governments and the non-profits, the cultural producers recycle and proliferate a mixed bag of hegemonic ideologies and image to devalue the African essence and potentials to attain natural capacity. The largely denigrating images, iconography, symbols, text, news and narratives stereotypically depict a savage and primordial people, endlessly beleaguered by an epidemic of poverty, starvation, diseases
By
Daniel Olufemi
The arts, literature, music, internet, motion pictures, print and broadcast media and other artifacts of modern media culture share a common cultural conception –educating and shaping public perception. They provide the codes of recognition for self-definition and construction of meanings across socio-economic, political, gender and ethical issues. Thus, an individual’s lifestyle, fashion taste, arts appreciation, choice of consumer products, definition of beauty, et cetera is largely a factor of media exposure. The contemporary definition of feminine beauty as a woman with the tall and thin physique for instance, is as symbolized in movies and TV commercials. Cognizant of these socio-cultural dynamics, the Euro-American societies have endlessly exploited the media to foist their value system on the rest of the world. The outcome is a polarized world along dominant culture and sub-culture divides, in other words – the ‘us’ versus ‘other’. Africa, Asia and Latin America and the ethno-racial communities in the dominant Euro-American societies or the Third World societies constitute the so-called ‘other’, among which Africa is worse off in the cultural disequilibrium. Decades after sovereignty by the 53 countries that make up the continent, the regime of repression dating back to the arrival of the slave ships and subsequent colonialism has been sustained through the vast cartel of cultural producers of the Euro-American system. ‘Godfathered’ by the multinationals, governments and the non-profits, the cultural producers recycle and proliferate a mixed bag of hegemonic ideologies and image to devalue the African essence and potentials to attain natural capacity. The largely denigrating images, iconography, symbols, text, news and narratives stereotypically depict a savage and primordial people, endlessly beleaguered by an epidemic of poverty, starvation, diseases
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