Multimedia Collection
Le Malentendu Colonial (Colonial Misunderstanding)
DVD
73 min
2004
BV3625 .N42 M25 2004 DVD
Le malentendu colonial examines European colonialism in Africa through the prism of Christian evangelism. The film scrutinizes in particular the role of German missionaries in the 1904 genocide of the Herero people. It was during this genocide that Germany developed its first concentration camps. Le malentendu colonial also examines the 1884 Berlin Conference, where the colonial powers divided Africa amongst themselves.
The film reveals how colonialsim destroyed African beliefs and social systems and replaced them with European values as if such values were the only ones compatible with modernity. Although critical of the relationship between the missionaries and the colonizers, the film also highlights the role of African Christians in Namibia's struggle for independence and in the greater African Renaissance.
In this sense, Le malentendu colonial carries forward the thesis director Jean-Marie Teno began in Afrique, je te plumerai where he argued that Africa could only find its way forward into the 21st century if it affirmed its own traditions. Teno has written: "The humanitarians of today have replaced the missionaries of yesterday. Colonization has turned over a new leaf of globalization but in Africa there is nothing new on the horizon; a little more charity and less and less justice."
In French, German, and English, with English subtitles.
Distributed by California Newsreel (www.newsreel.org).
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