Cinéma et racisme: "The gods must be crazy / Les dieux sont tombés sur la tête" en Afrique australe

• Main Authors: C. Cantin, H. uste
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Gents Afrika Platform, Afrika Brug 1986-01-01
• Series: Afrika Focus
• Subjects: Film; Southern Africa; Apartheid; Stereotype
• Online Access: http://www.gap.ugent.be/africafocus/pdf/86-2-2-Cantin.pdf

This critical comment on the film "The Gods must be Crazy" deals with the controversial reactions it provoked. The Anti-Apartheidlobby has condemned it as implicitely racist but others qualified it as an amusing, entertaining comedy. In the first part the authors analyze a number of differing press-comments. In the second part they try to identify the stereotypes about Black and White. Finally the authors describe the reactions of some 40 spectators by means of a debate with a preceding description of the South African political context ("contextualization") aiming at orienting the audience towards the thesis of a racist film.