Blood Diamond, directed by Edward Zwick reaped success at many film awards shows, including the 2006 Academy Awards, its reach was worldwide. The film takes place during the civil war in Sierra Leone in the year 1991. The film follows Danny Archer, an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe and Solomon Vandy, a Mende fisherman. Though both men are African, their pasts and presents are in stark contrast to one another. Through Solomon’s discovery of a rare pink diamond, the prospect of change in both these men’s lives become attainable. For Danny Archer, this change manifests itself in his need to get out of Africa, for Solomon it is reuniting with his family as well as regaining his son from the RUF, a rebel army. The incorporation of Maddy Bowen -a white
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From the creation of ‘The Dark Continent’ in which Africa and Africans were presented as the complete opposite to Europe and Europeans. In the 17th century and onwards, discussions over slavery, colonialism and racism contributed to the negative accounts of Africa in Western media and discourse. One of the discourses about Africa in Western media circle around political and financial corruption. The corruption in African governments are widely reported in Western media, African politicians stealing money from the poor masses to enrich themselves and their families. The fact that many of the corrupt and failed power systems in Africa are derived from Western source, forcefully imposed on the continent at formal independence, is never really mentioned. The fact that the money stolen ends up in Western banks are not acknowledged in the media either. Though there is some acknowledgement of the West’s responsibility in colonialism and slavery, notions of ‘it is in the past’ and ‘we should move on’ imply the dismissal of the West’s destructive influence in Africa and subsequently the representation of Africa and Africans. Another discourse on Africa is that Africa is synonymous with poverty. The focus on the debt Africa owes to the global financial systems has been damaging in the representation of Africa. Even the phrase used in the activism of debt relief is patronising, ‘debt forgiveness’. The word forgiveness used here is arrogant, it hides the fact that Western banks lent money to African countries knowing fully that the county will struggle to pay the money back. This dubious loaning however has been well documented and broadcasted. In pictures depicting Africa in Western Media it is always the same bleak images. Images of flies on children’s faces only used for shock value and of dry and unfertile
From the creation of ‘The Dark Continent’ in which Africa and Africans were presented as the complete opposite to Europe and Europeans. In the 17th century and onwards, discussions over slavery, colonialism and racism contributed to the negative accounts of Africa in Western media and discourse. One of the discourses about Africa in Western media circle around political and financial corruption. The corruption in African governments are widely reported in Western media, African politicians stealing money from the poor masses to enrich themselves and their families. The fact that many of the corrupt and failed power systems in Africa are derived from Western source, forcefully imposed on the continent at formal independence, is never really mentioned. The fact that the money stolen ends up in Western banks are not acknowledged in the media either. Though there is some acknowledgement of the West’s responsibility in colonialism and slavery, notions of ‘it is in the past’ and ‘we should move on’ imply the dismissal of the West’s destructive influence in Africa and subsequently the representation of Africa and Africans. Another discourse on Africa is that Africa is synonymous with poverty. The focus on the debt Africa owes to the global financial systems has been damaging in the representation of Africa. Even the phrase used in the activism of debt relief is patronising, ‘debt forgiveness’. The word forgiveness used here is arrogant, it hides the fact that Western banks lent money to African countries knowing fully that the county will struggle to pay the money back. This dubious loaning however has been well documented and broadcasted. In pictures depicting Africa in Western Media it is always the same bleak images. Images of flies on children’s faces only used for shock value and of dry and unfertile