CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN POLITICS 3204- DR. KWASI DENSU Taking Root The Vision of Wangari Maathai Lloyd Mickens Florida A&M University: Spring 2014 The contents in this document are a critique of the documentary Taking Root. This Paper takes a systematic and analytical approach to the video and uses class and chapter concepts from CPO 3204 Contemporary African Politics. Lloyd Mickens CPO 3204 Dr. Kwasi Densu Taking Root Movie Critique Taking Root, The Vision of Wangari Maathai is a documentary filmed by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater released in April 2008. This movie mainly expresses the intense story of the Kenyan Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple action of planting a tree grew into a national movement to defend the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy. Wangari Maathai is also the first environmentalist and the first African female to earn the Nobel Peace Prize. A. How does the documentary contradict, support, and clarify, etc. your understanding of contemporary African culture, history and politics? Most of this documentary supports and clarifies my understanding of contemporary African culture. During the course I’ve learned that traditional African leadership structures undertook great changes under colonial rule and continue to progress today. Pre-colonial Africa had several different states characterized by different types of leadership; these involved small family groups of hunter and gatherers, bigger organized clan groups, and micro nations. Many African communities are still being governed by a council of elders, which is responsible for facilitating conflict and making almost all the important decisions within the public. B. How much does the documentary agree or clash with your view of Afr... ... middle of paper ... ...tary. Throughout history several people have dedicated their lives to protecting human rights. In the documentary Wangari Maathai devoted her life towards bettering the environment of her native land, Kenya. I can say that after viewing the documentary “Taking Root” that my perception about Africa is definitely more clarified. The documentary addresses several things that we have discussed in the course and speaks on many issues that I care about. I am honored to write a critique on the movie and that is my overall response. References Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai (Marlboro Productions, 2008). Hytrek, Gary (2012).Sage Journal. Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. Retrieved from http://tso.sagepub.com/content/40/1/87.full http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai/taking-root-documentary http://takingrootfilm.com/
“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples ' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves” (Jared Diamond). In the book Guns Germs and Steel he accounted a conversation with Yali, a New Guinean politician that had asked “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”. Diamond tries to answer this by describing the difference in use of government throughout history by bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.
Bhorat, H. M. (2013, June 20). A Conversation on President Obama’s Trip to Africa (web audio recording). Retrieved March 29, 2014, from Brookings: http://www.brookings.edu/research/interviews/2013/06/20-obama-trip-africa-kimenyi-schneidman
The essential point of view in the documentary and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s speech is that our views need to shift and that if started now, the future generations can learn from our mistakes. Specific
The African-American race is viewed negatively in this documentary. One aspect of race that stood out to me was the way people of color are negatively stereotyped. This stood out to me the most because it shocked me. At my high school in Chelan, people of color are associated with positive judgements. There are
A great deal of this novel looks at Africa and the narrative changes. I believe that this change was important to show that there was a parallel of the components, the fact that the tribes were exploited as well as the people in the American south. The village was trampled by the white man because they believe that they were superior and the Africans had no right to stay where they were. The novel was a very good depiction of what life was like for the African American men and women for this time. I believe that years of the treatment conditioned the peoples to act as they did out of habit. All it takes is one idea or one stand to change and that is what happens for each character in the book. I believe that Walker did a great job in capturing the time and I agree with her view on racism and feminism. I would love to believe that none of this could have happened but I know that this sort of social action was the just the spark that women and African Americans needed to start to level the playing field. There were so many brave people that are not fictional that went through the same things that should be applauded for trying in the first place.
Khapoya, Vincent B. The African Experience: An Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.
Lonsdale, John. "Mau Maus of the Mind: Making Mau Mau and Remaking Kenya." The Journal of African History, 31, no. 3, (1990): 393–421.
We must understand the differences in the African and European political experience in order to understand the difficulties faced by African leaders. In Herbst’s book States and Power in Africa, First I will give an overview of the differences between the African and European advances toward becoming a nation state. Next the reasons why these differences are important to understanding the difficulties faced by African leaders will be discussed. Finally I will give an overview of possible alternatives to the current system of states in Africa.
In Africa, the interests of various individuals and groups have transformed the possession of power into nightmarish dimensions due to the flaws in the political structures of the societies. Although some of these degenerative weaknesses have been explained by historical experiences, there still remains the fact that the progressive development of any society depends on a conscious pruning of flawsin the organizational structure of the society by those with the power to provide guidance and direction. Moreover, this burden of leadership could elicit either patriotic parasitic tendencies in the utilization and exercise of power. (Ehling 23-25)
In her TedTalk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks about the issue of having a single story of any place or any people. Single stories result in stereotypes, in negative perceptions, and a complete lack of understanding of the true complexity under the surface. This constantly occurs with Africa, it’s people, and the situations that it faces from colonialism to the Rwandan genocide. Single stories are wrong and should be amended and complex understandings of other groups should be supported. Unfortunately, this rarely happens and we often face the world with simple understandings of other parts of the world. Ethnic complexity is important, integral for change, but the truth is that the so-called ethical paralysis is more common.
Africa’s struggle to maintain their sovereignty amidst the encroaching Europeans is as much a psychological battle as it is an economic and political one. The spillover effects the system of racial superiority had on the African continent fractured ...
Africa has been the embodiment of european perspectives before and after the Colonialism; these perspectives have attempted to provide insights on the facts behind it. In those terms, Africa has been reduced an atmosphere of concepts such as deep darkness, mystery, and madness, a place in which attrocities arise at any time of the day, and people are savages and chaotic. From that colonialist viewpoint, Africa was a place that needed help and control urgently in order to save it form itself and civilize it; therefore, white European men felt the need of accomplishing this mission and bring civilization to black men, which only meant to do thing as Europeans did. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1993), these European visions are portraited to such an extent that makes us understand that to unveil the heart of Africa we first need to be expose to their attrocities, and realise that we will always fail to do it because the chaos would consume us as well. Achiebe says it himself “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality.” (Achebe, 1977) This is one of the many issues that postcolonialism argues and confronts as a lie, since African history has only been told from the colonizer's viewpoint overshadowing the perspectives and voices of the colonized. Chinua Achebe, on the other hand, was the first writer to actually tell the story from the eyes of the African communities through his novel Things Fall Apart, more especifically, nigerian tribes. In this essay, I will attempt to analyze from a postcolonial approach themes present in the novel such as identity, ...
...hat this is the era of accountability and transparency in the running of governmental affairs, the current generation of Africans is enlightened and empowered, and are capable of asking questions about their actions.
...’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements. In the end, what holds African countries such as Nigeria together is their shared pride. Modern, western influences can bring positive changes to society, but new cultures cannot completely eradicate the foundational cultures to which a society is founded on.
Kaduna: Baraka Press, 2004. Magesa, Laurenti. A. African Religion: The Moral Tradition of Abundant Life. Nairobi: Pauline Pub., Africa, 1998. Mbiti, John S. Introduction to African Religion.