Drawing insights mainly from Stuart Hall, but also from Ruth Mayer, please answer the following question: How does stereotyping shape the relationships between the Great White Hunter and Africa and Africans in the film, The Ghost and the Darkness?
The relationship between the Great White Hunter and the Africans and their home is built upon the stereotype that the white individual is automatically more superior, dominant, and knowledgeable than Africans simply because of their race. Stereotyping can be described as an unfixed form of ideas that “reduces people to a few” where the “strategy of ‘splitting’ between the normal and abnormal” emphasizes the unequal relations between the different characters (Hall n.d., 258). The unfixed form, meaning …show more content…
Naturalization, according to Hall, is what allows Africans to be “au naturel” and to be “fitted” as servants to the white (n.d., 245; Dunn 1996, 158). It explains why they are primitive and thus, be colonized as Africans can only survive if they “adapt to the white image of them” including changing their “style, looks, and behaviour” (Hall n.d., 270). All other races, such as Indians are treated above Africans and are respected. Abdullah, the leader of the workers, goes against John’s command twice in order to protect his men and their beliefs. If an African would have done the same they would have been publicly shamed or even killed, because of their primitive stereotyping (The Ghost and the Darkness, 1996).
Africans and their culture will always be portrayed as inferior and abnormal compared to the white character. This is because of the multiple stereotyping’s that form their relationship undermining Africans potential and capabilities. Regardless of the actions Africans do in their home, the white character is always portrayed doing it better. Only one of the thousand cities in Africa is shown. IN contrast in every film, the entire continent is negatively portrayed showing how stereotyping’s negatively affect the relationship between the two
The relationship between the Great White Hunter and the Africans and their home is built upon the stereotype that the white individual is automatically more superior, dominant, and knowledgeable than Africans simply because of their race. Stereotyping can be described as an unfixed form of ideas that “reduces people to a few” where the “strategy of ‘splitting’ between the normal and abnormal” emphasizes the unequal relations between the different characters (Hall n.d., 258). The unfixed form, meaning …show more content…
Naturalization, according to Hall, is what allows Africans to be “au naturel” and to be “fitted” as servants to the white (n.d., 245; Dunn 1996, 158). It explains why they are primitive and thus, be colonized as Africans can only survive if they “adapt to the white image of them” including changing their “style, looks, and behaviour” (Hall n.d., 270). All other races, such as Indians are treated above Africans and are respected. Abdullah, the leader of the workers, goes against John’s command twice in order to protect his men and their beliefs. If an African would have done the same they would have been publicly shamed or even killed, because of their primitive stereotyping (The Ghost and the Darkness, 1996).
Africans and their culture will always be portrayed as inferior and abnormal compared to the white character. This is because of the multiple stereotyping’s that form their relationship undermining Africans potential and capabilities. Regardless of the actions Africans do in their home, the white character is always portrayed doing it better. Only one of the thousand cities in Africa is shown. IN contrast in every film, the entire continent is negatively portrayed showing how stereotyping’s negatively affect the relationship between the two