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African Films, 2008.
An examination of the cinematic voice for Africa, as heard in the movies "ABC Africa" and "Hotel Rwanda".
2,417 words (approx. 9.7 pages), 2 sources, APA, $ 73.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses two African films: Abbas Kiarostami's "ABC Africa" and Terry George's "Hotel Rwanda". The paper explains that by providing those of us far-removed from its crises with a visual and emotionally pertinent expression of the suffering so pervasive in Africa, cinema can help to humanize what is otherwise seen as an abstract social problem to the unaware. The paper looks at how Abbas Kiarostami's "ABC Africa" and Terry George's "Hotel Rwanda", present two very different cinematic approaches to shedding light on current realities in Africa and while both carry the essential message that the world has failed in its responsibility to the continent, the two films use different forms, voices and contexts in order to accomplish this goal. The paper discusses how in the documentary presentation "ABC Africa", the Iranian filmmaker commits to digital video the findings of his trip through Uganda, where the AIDS has been exceptionally merciless. The paper further explains that where Kiarostami's film provides real documentation of an ongoing crisis, the "Hotel Rwanda" offers a dramatic reenactment of the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a character who becomes a lens through which the audience experiences an unfolding 1994 genocide. The writer believes that as we approach ongoing situations such as disease, poverty, ethnic violence, political unrest and poor international relations in Africa, we must be prepared to, as these films together suggest, address head-on the institutional problem of racism.
From the Paper
"By the start of the new millennium, much of the developed world was suffering from an impression that the AIDS epidemic had somehow ended through the course of the 1990's. With awareness campaigns, contraception programs and medical outreach efforts helping to alleviate what had been an unchecked problem during the decade of its worldwide incubation, the United States especially had adapted the stance that the crisis had been addressed and averted. That perspective is one largely conjured by American ethnocentrism, because even as the wealthiest nations in the world improved in its cognizance of and ability to combat the spread of the disease within its own borders, the poorest parts of the world continued to endure a rapidly exploding plague. The sexually transmitted disease, Abbas Kiarostami's 2002 film reminds audiences, has been an intensely destructive force in Africa, serving to even more clearly define the gap in living standards separating the developed world from the developing world."
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African-Americans in Film, 2007.
An analysis of Eddy Murphy's representation of African-Americans in the film, "48 Hours."
1,259 words (approx. 5.0 pages), 1 source, MLA, $ 42.95
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Abstract
This paper examines the representation of African-Americans in film, focusing specifically on the 1982 comedy, "48 Hours," starring Eddie Murphy. The paper explains the storyline of the film and how Murphy is presented as a character in the film. The paper also looks at the light in which African-Americans are presented in general through films and in this film in particular.
From the Paper
"Although the film gives Murphy equal billing, and the film undoubtedly would be impossible without a talent like Murphy to hold his own against Nick Nolte, ultimately it is not a step forward in representing African Americans in their complexity. If it is funny, it requires audiences to know, understand, and to a certain extent accept stereotypes of African-Americans as lawless, funny, and ultimately under the control of Whites in everything but their language, not with their political or physical strength. Murphy is always foul-mouthed and overly sexualized and a "brother" in contrast to Nolte's "country boy" cop. Nolte's own strident masculinity within the context of the law and even infidelity is validated without condemning his character, while it marks Murphy as a criminal. Murphy's apparent freedom and force of personality, like the transitory freedom of the character during the "48 Hours" is no real freedom of expression at all. It is a sad continuation of a long tradition of representing African-Americans in crime films as criminals, sidekicks, and powerless. According to the stereotype sadly embodied by Murphy, Blacks in this genre are only apparently powerful with weapons, information or menace, and this power is transitory."
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Treatment Of African American Men In Hollywood Films, 2002.
Discusses stereotyped portrayals of black males in various films.
2,475 words (approx. 9.9 pages), 14 sources, $ 87.95
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Abstract
Discusses stereotyped portrayals of black males in various films. Cites examples from THE BIRTH OF A NATION, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, the blaxploitation genre, MANDINGO, 1930s films of the old South, THEY WON'T FORGET, 1940S STEREOTYPES AND THE "New Negro," TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Realistic treatment of black males in several independent later films.
From the Paper
"D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967) represent opposing poles in the treatment of the African-American male in Hollywood films. The portrayal of black men in both films is absurd, but their intentions were quite different. Griffith, the Southern-born director whose great career was a milestone in the development of the medium, claimed until his death that his film was not racist despite the thousands of African Americans and white Americans who explained why it was, indeed, a landmark in screen racism. His conception of the old stereotype of the sexually predatory black male, intent on despoiling white females, gave cinematic form to one of the most prevalent myths involved in white fear of black people. Kramer, on the other hand, was a devout liberal interested in furthering the cause of ..."
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African Poverty and the Bankruptcy of African Leadership, 2005.
Examines poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and the failure of African leaders to enact strong economic and agricultural policies geared towards change in the region.
1,734 words (approx. 6.9 pages), 4 sources, MLA, $ 56.95
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Abstract
This paper demonstrates that African leaders have contributed significantly to the growing problems of poverty in the Sub-Saharan African region by failing to address endemic problems of embezzlement, bribery, corruption, and nepotism. The paper also shows that many of these leaders are unable to institute effective economic and agricultural development policies geared towards uplifting the African people from their current state of poverty to that of self-reliance.
From the Paper
"From time to time, some parts of Africa are prone to drought, but this paper takes the position that drought constitutes a very negligible aspect of the problem of poverty in Africa. Technological innovation could be adopted to deal with the issue of drought as has been demonstrated in Israel. The core problem in Africa is bad government and poor management of the peoples' resources. Africa holds the majority of the world's natural resources, but the continent is suffering from a leadership crisis that is basically symptomatic of all the African states."
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African Americans and Native Africans, 2002.
A comparison of the different sub-cultures of the African American minority group in the United States.
2,370 words (approx. 9.5 pages), 6 sources, MLA, $ 72.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses the history and culture of the recent immigrants to the United States from Africa and the Caribbean. It details how these immigrants are labeled as "African Americans" and lumped into the same sub-culture as the veteran African American population of the United States since the slave-trade. These two population groups are compared for their manners, cultures and social norms. A history of African immigration to America is provided.
From the Paper
"The African Americans, or Black Americans as they are called, are the largest minority group in the United States, after the Hispanic Americans. This is a racial group whose ancestry is believed to be from the sub-Saharan Africa. However, there are some African Americans who claim to have their roots from the European immigrants, Native American or the Asians. In general the African American populations is usually referred to as Negroes, blacks and Afro-Americans. "
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African Americans, 2002.
A comparison of the portrayal of African Americans in "Souls of Black Folk" by W.E.B. Du Bois with D.W. Griffith's 1915 film "Birth of a Nation".
754 words (approx. 3.0 pages), 3 sources, MLA, $ 26.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses how in his novel "The Souls of Black Folk" W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that the problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color-line and how written in 1903, Du Bois' analysis proved correct for the rest of the century, particularly the first two-thirds of the 20th Century when Hollywood films depicted blacks as inferiors. It shows how a comparison of his portrayal of African Americans with D.W. Griffith's 1915 landmark film "Birth of a Nation" reveals a vivid contrast in the depiction of African Americans. It looks at how Du Bois portrays African Americans as a people who experience racial suffering and injustices, but also as a people with great strengths and resources who must fight as opposed to the film industry which stereotyped them as ignorant savages or grinning, dancing stooges or people who could only hold menial jobs and who lacked morals and intellect.
From the Paper
"Before the release of "Birth of a Nation" blacks remained for the large part politically indifferent to the derogatory images presented by the film industry. One historian attributes their lack of interest to the deep puritan fundamentalist roots that dismissed film as needless frivolity (Cripps 11). Another reason could be that African Americans had so many areas that required their attention that leaders did not have the time to deal with film. The depiction of African Americans in Hollywood films was horrific, with stereotypes of them as ignorant savages or grinning, dancing stooges or people who could only hold menial jobs and who lacked morals and intellect. D. W. Griffith, the single most influential director of his time, took the stereotypes even further in A Birth of a Nation,@ portraying African Americans as brutal, lusting menaces who represented a very real threat to society."
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Black Film History, 2002.
The history of the involvement of African-Americans in the Hollywood film industry with a focus on the contribution made by women.
2,641 words (approx. 10.6 pages), 8 sources, MLA, $ 79.95
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Abstract
This paper looks at the history of the inclusion of blacks in the film industry since the early 20th century. It discusses major players in the field, especially women, beginning with the all-black film movement that started in the silent era with the Lincoln Motion Picture company in Los Angeles in 1916. The writer mentions the hardships and hurdles that the African-Americans faced in the form of discrimination and racism before they could establish themselves in the film industry. The paper also examines the changing image of how African-Americans were portrayed in movies in the past.
From the Paper
"In recent years, both blacks and women have had to fight to become recognized in the film industry and to achieve any form of power. There are now a handful of black film directors, and a few women directors as well. In the silent era, though, when the economics of filmmaking were quite different, there were a number of women in the director's chair, many forgotten today, just as there were many black directors not in mainstream Hollywood filmmaking but in the all-black film movement. A number of these black directors were in fact women as well, and they constituted an early challenge both to white and male dominance of filmmaking."
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African Cultural Retention, 2008.
This paper explores the question: Are African Americans destroying African culture?
765 words (approx. 3.1 pages), 4 sources, APA, $ 27.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that African culture retention is noticeable in many aspects of the American lifestyle. The author points out that the African heritage for U.S. blacks survived the vicious system of slavery, despite attempts to remove remnants of African culture from the slaves and to instill a European/white culture so that they could be more accepting of their situation. The paper relates that some distorted cultural practices such as violence, sometimes labeled as "African", are not even remotely related to any kind of link with the cultural diversity of the African continent. The author concludes that the issue of African cultural retention and the destruction of the African-American society is so intertwined that it is sometimes hard to examine them separately.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Tenets of African Culture In the United States
Conclusion
From the Paper
"The retention component has also been used to damage the influence of African culture; for example acts of violence or family structure, and or social interactions have sometimes been linked to the African culture, or the travesty of slavery, or even more so, the cultural practices in Africa concerning relationships, marriage, and relationships. Liberating African American cultural identity will show that the African influence or content of this identity, although not in a pure form, offers a significant amount of positive influences."
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Pan-Africanism, 2007.
A discussion on black African philosophy and Pan-Africanism.
2,380 words (approx. 9.5 pages), 6 sources, MLA, $ 72.95
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Abstract
This paper examines how Pan-Africanism is a philosophy or belief that African people have a common bond and share common objectives, aimed ultimately at unifying themselves on their own continent as a dignified race. It points out that the belief has pertained to all black Africans and their descendants in the African continent, including the non-Blacks, and later, those outside the continent. It explores their attempts at expressing a common African personality and coming together as a nation and as one race on their own continent, especially during the period between World War I and World War II.
Outline:
Introduction
Review of Literature
Method
Summary of Findings and Conclusion
From the Paper
"This source describes Pan-Africanism as a socio-political viewpoint and movement for the unification and uplifting of all Africans within the African Continent and outside or those in African diaspora into one global community. It was first conceived of by Henry Sylvester Williams to cover Africans in the Continent and then later broadened to include those throughout the world. Pan-Africanism started in the West Indies, not Africa, and was coined by Williams for his 1900 Pan-African Congress. The leading and largest pan-African movement in the world is the UNIA-ACL organization, founded by Marcus Garvey, an Afro-Jamaican, in Kingston, Jamaica in 1912. His advocacy spread to the United States, specifically to Harlem, New York where he set up his headquarters in 1914. It re-examines African history from a pro-African perspective rather than from a pro-European's and restores traditional African concepts and culture. Other pan-African organizations are Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association-African Communities League, Trans-Africa and the Internal Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement. It is, however, criticized for ignoring or downplaying cultural and ethnic differences and socio-political circumstances among Black peoples worldwide."
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History and Film, 2003.
Two essays that discuss how history is represented in two films.
2,760 words (approx. 11.0 pages), 7 sources, APA, $ 95.95
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Abstract
This paper presents two essays that discuss how history is represented in films: the 1997 "Amistad" that deals with the 1839 revolt by kidnapped Africans against their captors, and the 1939 "Drums Along the Mohawk" that deals with the effects of the beginning of the American War of Independence on the lives of pioneers living in New York State.
From the Paper
"The film Amistad is an account of a fact-base story of the revolt by kidnapped Africans against their captors. The incident touched off no less than three court cases in the U S with former President John Quincy Adams ..."
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Pan-Africanism, 2006.
This paper discusses the history and goals of the Pan-Africanism movement.
1,550 words (approx. 6.2 pages), 7 sources, MLA, $ 50.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that, during the 1900s, Africa had suffered from the repressive establishment of colonialism by European countries, racial discrimination, and slavery. The author points out that, in response to this oppression, the African people created a political and social movement called Pan-Africanism. The paper relates that one of the goals of this movement was to unite native Africans and those of African decent that were forced to leave Africa. The author cites that, in 1900, the first Pan-African conference was organized and American Dr. William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois was selected as chairman. The paper states that, at the end of World War II, a new wave of Pan-Africanism was formed with, for the first time, a militant demand for complete independence instead of virtuous proposals. The author concludes that the Pan-African movement improved the standards of living for Africans and gave them more political and economic power.
From the Paper
"Another event that helped Pan-Africanism gain popularity was the Italian Fascist and occupation of Ethiopia between 1935 and 1941. Italy launched an invasion in Ethiopia, without any Ethiopian provocation in October 1935. Italy succeeded in overtaking Ethiopian towns and main roads. Ethiopians refused to surrender and fought back against the Italians. Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, ordered Italian troops to fight back using whatever measure necessary, including poison gas. The Ethiopians resisted giving up and the Italians were unable to defeat the Ethiopian Patriots."
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Wole Soyinka's "Myth, Literature and the African World", 1994.
This paper reviews Wole Soyinka's "Myth, Literature and the African World" on the importance of stories emphasizing African identity based on African experience without comparison to European experience.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 1 source, $ 47.95
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From the Paper
"The central theme of Wole Soyinka's "Myth, Literature and the African World" is that the most important myths and literature in Africa are those which allow Africans to understand and appreciate their lives and history without comparing it in some way to the European experience. Soyinka writes that his book is concerned with eliciting from history, mythology and literature, for the benefit of both genuine aliens and alienated Africans, a continuing process of self-apprehension whose temporary dislocation appears to have persuaded many of its non-existence or its irrelevance . . . in contemporary world reality.
In other words, Africans have let the European world convince them that their culture was somehow inferior to that of ... "
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The African-American Identity, 2008.
An in-depth examination of the African-American identity.
2,404 words (approx. 9.6 pages), 6 sources, APA, $ 73.95
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Abstract
This paper analyzes the characteristics and identity of the African-American people. It argues that the moment at which the African-American nation came to be was that marking the initiation and implementation of the slave trade and it was this process which began to separate the histories of the African people and the African people transplanted to America. The paper explains that the experiences imposed by transition in America would create a new culture that, whether bred of acceptance or resistance, would represent a point at which no return to Africa could be genuinely expected and generations would be reared into American society under the machinations of slavery, and this very reality would be of greater relevance than any level of personal acceptance, whether that acceptance would have taken the shape of an abandonment of African cultural identifiers or of the outright acceptance of Christian worship. The writer concludes that it seems one must arrive at the resolution that the African-American identity began with the inception of the experience of the African people in America, characterized as it would be by racism, slavery, inequality and the triumphant and ongoing emergence from this shadow.
From the Paper
"The African American experience is one by label and by reality that is distinctly paradoxical. Forcibly relocated from the land of its heritage and perpetuated in a land which had first enslaved it, thereafter oppressed it and perpetually undermined it, the African American nation may not be readily identified either with Africa, from which it is now many hundred of years removed, nor with America, which had persisted for generations to disrupt any opportunities for the development of an independent American identity through physical, social and spiritual brutality. The result is, in retrospect, a culture which would come into definition in simultaneity with the introduction of slavery to the United States and which would develop according to the developments of slavery and abolition. Most of the references used to support this claim are drawn from primary sources, derived both from former slaves and from slavers."
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"Africa and Africans", 2006.
This paper reviews and critiques the overt generalizations in Paul Boahnnan and Philip Curtin's book "Africa and Africans," which was written to dispel certain myths about the African people and culture.
1,620 words (approx. 6.5 pages), 1 source, APA, $ 52.95
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Abstract
The writer of this paper focuses on the overtly condescending style of writing in "Africa and Africans' by Paul Boahnnan and Philip Curtin. An example of this style of writing can be seen by the fact that the authors blame the African people for their wasteful method of farming and the resulting food crisis. This paper details the manners in which the authors stereotype and over generalize in their description of African culture, art, society, religion and other lifestyle factors. The writer of this paper describes each chapter of the book and points out if and where the authors misrepresented certain facts. While the original intent of the authors was to dispel various myths of the African people and their culture, this paper proves why the opposite result was achieved.
From the Paper
"Chapter two reiterates American ignorance in the opening sentence, wherein the authors state, "Africa is a part of the world about which Americans and Europeans can no longer afford to be ignorant." Although ignorance surrounding this continent does indeed seem prevalent across the Western Hemisphere, it is a mistake to assume that all Americans and Europeans are ignorant. However, this chapter becomes less controversial as it evenly describes the actual land and its geographical compositions, instead of general and populous compositions. Still, it seems paradoxical that the authors, while writing in hostile undertones of American ignorance, admit that much of the continent is navigable, due to its swells and basins; hence, it seems that the ignorance is more widespread than the asserted limitations to Americans and Europeans."
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African Cultural Retention, 2008.
This paper argues that African cultures were retained in the US and that African cultures did and continue to impact the dominant U.S. culture.
1,040 words (approx. 4.2 pages), 5 sources, MLA, $ 36.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that it is inaccurate to assume that there are no discernible African cultures left in the USA and that, because of the relatively small numbers of slaves bought to such a large country, all traces of African cultures were destroyed. The author points out that enslaved Africans from the same areas tended to be geographically situated together in the U.S. so that they were able to retain aspects of their individual cultures. The paper relates that Sheila Walker takes issue with the notion that European settlers "built" the U.S. and then imported some African slaves to perform manual labor for them. The paper underscores that she believes that the slaves bought to the U.S. were not ignorant, unskilled laborers but rather slave traders deliberately sought out people with skills, which the U.S. needed to help build the country.
Table of Contents:
False Assumptions
The Arguments of Sheila Walker
From the Paper
"She also points out that Africans must have made a major contribution to American society, history and culture, given that they comprised the numerical majority for the duration of the modern history of the Americas, until 1820. For example, out of those coming to the USA in 1820, 3 out of 4 new arrivals were African, not European. With this kind of demographic weight, it follows that the contributions of African minds and cultural presence had to be an important ingredient in the very creation of the Americas. Walker also points out that Howard Dodson backs her up on this theory and that he believes that the transatlantic slave trade played a central, defining role in the making of the modern world."
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