The History Of Cameroon, Africa, I Will Fleece You, And Africa

By the late nineteenth century, France terminated the slave trade in French Cameroon and abolished slavery in the French colony of Martinique. Although the French removed the physical chains on people of African descent living in French territories, the remnant of slavery and colonialism continues to manifest itself through the mental enslavement and exploitation of people of continental Africa and the African Diaspora. In Jean-Marie Téno’s unorthodox documentary about the history of Cameroon, Africa, I Will Fleece You, and Euzhan Palcy’s film set on the island of Martinique, Sugar Cane Alley, they shed light on the transferable nature of slavery and colonialism in postcolonial societies. Accordingly, Téno’s, Africa, I Will Fleece You, and Palcy’s, Sugar Cane Alley, manipulate

After Téno recounts the history of Cameroon post-independence, he introduces the audience to a journalist named Marie Claire Dat. Marie visits several major cultural centers of literature and finds that the major libraries of Cameroon carry books primarily written by European authors and books pertaining to European history and culture. Marie goes on to visit an outdoor marketplace where she finds a market called “The Librairie du Poteau” which is considered a book cemetery. While she examines a book, the camera zooms into the cover of a comic book and the scene is then interrupted by the jarring sound of a lion’s roar. The set proceeds to transition to a black and white reenactment of the past where children are pictured reading comic books while playing soccer. In reference to the comic books Téno says “Through them, we learned to read.” Again, the scene transitions to a black and white scene of children in a classroom reading and repeating what their black teacher tells them to in