Madagascar

Vanilla is one of the most expensive spices on the market, second only to saffron. Madagascar produces nearly 80% of the world's vanilla, yet they are one of the poorest countries in the world. The farmers work in harsh conditions and are compensated disproportionately to the amount of effort that is required for the cultivation of vanilla. The Madagascar government allows the police force to oversee vanilla, as the value of vanilla creates a biased agenda. The police are subsequently corrupted…

Throughout the years 600 CE to 1750 CE, there have been many countries that participated in slavery and slave trade. However, there is one linking factor to all of them: African society. Native African peoples were the subject to many slave raids and many of them were taken away as slaves (Stilwell 22). This heavily affected their society as well as their political situation, culture, and economy. To begin, slavery was an extremely harmful force to basic African society. Slave raids in Africa…

In the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a short story written in frame narrative that a part of the adventure genre. In this novel the main protagonist is portrayed by a character named Marlow, who likes to explore places he have never been to. At the start of the story Marlow is set on a boat with four other people and they are waiting for the flow of ebb to change so they can sail off to their destination. In the meantime Marlow decides to tell a story about his personal experience…

Between 1881 and 1914, the European powers invaded, divided, and occupied the continent of Africa during what is now known as, The Scramble for Africa. In doing so, they disrupted the lives of African people and permanently altered the physical and cultural landscape of Africa. In Basil Davidson’s, “The Magnificent African Cake,” he chronicles the beginning of colonialism in Africa, the impact of European rule on the continent, and the ideologies that justified the exploitation of the African…

Marxist theory states that “capitalists enjoy profits due to surplus value” (Aviles). Rodney argues that this so called ‘surplus’ was African labor and raw materials: “colonies should exist for the metropoles by producing raw materials and buying manufactured goods, the underlying theory was to introduce an international division of labour” (177). This point was demonstrated through examples such as the slave trade, wage labour, technological advancement, and politico-military advances. These…

In his seven year research, Hofstede compared cultural dimensions in forty countries and divided this into four (or sometimes five) areas that summarized each culture. The dimensions included: Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV) (opposite collectivism), the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), and Masculinity (MAS) (opposite femininity), and Long-term Orientation (LTO). Power distance refers to the extent that less powerful members accept and expect inequality. Individualism is the…

Austerlitz continue his journey about finding his past. History has a way that it can physically and mentally affect an individual, in Austerlitz’s case, it caused him to have several mental breakdowns. While resting due to one of his mental breakdowns, Austerlitz has an epiphany , this time in a bookshop. While listening to the radio, which features two women discussing the summer of 1939, when, as children, they had come on the ferry Prague to England, as part of the Kindertransport which he…

African representations in the media is negative as african are depicted as living in poverty,with wild animals, in huts, uneducated and fighting war. Many Americans during their lifetime would never travel to africa to see for themselves that what the media is portraying is totally one sided. In the media today, we see African commercials where you can save a dying child for less than a dollar per day. The producer of these commercial normally go to a particular Eastern part of Africa that’s…

Introduction Although the word ‘Africa’ is often used to indicate one people and one place, the continent is made up out of ethnic groups numbering in the several hundred. Naturally, all these different groups have their own form of communication, and their own cultural heritage, which has been greatly damaged by European colonialization. Indeed, the competition between rival European countries for parts of Africa was relentless, especially during the 1880’s. And, as a result, at the Berlin…

The political- thrillers Blood Diamond and The Constant Gardener tell two different stories, however both movies deal with the representation of Africa in a Hollywood style. The character development, editing and themes are used to further enhance this Hollywood portrayal. Ralph Fiennes plays the role of Justin Quayle in The Constant Gardener. Justin, a minor English diplomat, seems to be a meek, unpassionate, passive gentleman; however this image of him is changed as he becomes provoked into…