Repercussions

It is possible to argue that the acquisition of roots became an urgent issue only when diaspora blacks sought to construct a political agenda in which the ideal rootedness was identified as a prerequisite for the forms of cultural integrity that could guarantee the nationhood and statehood to which they aspired. The need to locate cultural or ethnic roots and then to use the idea of being in touch with them as a means to refigure the cartography of dispersal and exile is perhaps best understood as a simple and direct response to the varieties of racism which have denied the historical character of black experience and the integrity of black cultures (Gilroy 1993: 112).

Leading off from Gilroy’s argument on the genesis of the cultural black nationalist facet of Afrocentrism, and going beyond the afore-mentioned arguments about conservative moral and communal aspirations emerging from popular black consciousness movements (as exemplified by some of the teachings in the independent black schools), the afrocentrically imagined Africa does not take into account the reality of the experiences and challenges of the continent itself. The “mythologised Africanity” of Afrocentrism as described by Gilroy, also incorporates subjective representations of “African history and culture” in the broad sense of both terms (Gilroy 1993: 87).

Hill Collins argues that, in essence, Afrocentrism can be viewed as a “civil religion”

based on the criteria that it includes “repetitive practices [that] are designed to build solidarity among the community of true believers,” and the incorporation of initiation or conversion ceremonies whereby an individual adopts “an African name” and an Africa-centric personal style. As such, she posits that such practices engendered exclusionary circumstances which meant that “some segments of the African American community could never become ‘Black enough.’” Consequently, many African Americans rejected these expectations. She thus concludes by stating that “[i]n essence, sexism and homophobia within academic Afrocentrism” which she describes as a “peculiar hybrid identity” of a “civil religion” and as

“science of Blackness,” thus “compromised its own claims for a comprehensive love ethic and fostered its demise” (sic) (2006: 85-91).

Moreover, in constructing an African American cultural base which focuses on great and ancient African civilisations, or creating celebrations like Kwanzaa by reconceptualising elements of a Zulu traditional practice, adopting ancient Egyptian principles as Maat does, or incorporating fragments of the Kiswahili language, contributes to the premise that a romanticised, selective conceiving of Africa necessarily ignores the cited country’s own reflections on the specified cultural forms and the contemporary political, economic and societal actors that define the continent. It cannot in earnest be said to be “dialoguing with Africa” as Karenga states. Another pitfall within these black consciousness ideas can therefore be noted in the ways in which Africa is employed or featured in their principles.

In referencing decolonialism as Black Power activists did, or executing the afore-mentioned cultural constructions, applications of some of the black consciousness objectives thus engendered processes of appropriation which were highly selective and which focused principally on ways in which African Americans could articulate their questions of identity and the status of their American citizenship, without a requisite conscientising of what these processes actually meant with regard to the subsequent development of limited and limiting conceptions of Africa and Africans.

Furthermore, as these messages in Black Power and/or Afrocentrism found expression in popular media and music forms like the films discussed or in the various avenues of hip-hop culture, the informing political value which motivated these black cultural explorations and their implementations by African American educators such as Karenga and Kunjufu diminishes, leaving the uncomfortable arena of relations or contact between Africans and African Americans raised in the preceding chapter.⁴⁵ Thus, a corollary of these processes of selective appropriation as encouraged and widely disseminated through black nationalist vehicles such as Black Power and Afrocentrism, has led to the creation and maintenance of problematic perceptions (and subsequent filmic representations) of Africa and Africans.

The film industry is implicitly commercial in its need for the broadest possible audience in order to offset production costs. Consequently, the production of a narrative structure, message and images are hinged on representations that multitudes can relate to through spectrums of familiarity (e.g., resembles things known or seen, or experienced). The incorporation of African elements as I argue they are meant to be understood in the films discussed, reflect hooks’ contention that “commodification strips these signs [black nationalist rhetoric] of political integrity” (1992: 33). For while this statement refers to the

45 See chapter one, under sub-heading “Black Identities in Film”

African American cultural black nationalist articulations such as the representations of Afrocentric fashions in Sankofa, Daughters of the Dust, and New Jack City, a similar desiccation of substance happens when, as discussed above, fractions of African cultures are recomposed for African American consumption, and then preserved in this reconstituted form by the repetition of this use in the various mediums.

3. Narrative Messages in the Selected Films

The films discussed in this thesis have been selected for their popularity which, I argue, is always related to any and/or all combinations of what messages they transport, the vehicles of that message, the plot and its strength, and the dialogue and the actions that take place, which work parallel to the plot.

To be clear, the messages are necessarily contemporaneous, and the actors who carry the plot are generally familiar and wildly popular African American icons. Moreover, as there are relatively so few African Americans represented in Hollywood, those who succeed are cast in numerous films and series, which adds to their visibility. As a result, it is not surprising to find features which cast many of these icons together.⁴⁶ Some are simultaneously successful hip-hop stars, which adds to their iconic statuses. In short, these are people who would have strong crowd-pulling power because their abundant representation in commercialised, popular mediums, most notably those targeted for black audiences.⁴⁷ The plots of these films are usually pitted against “the system” or “The Man”

(meaning racist institutions and/or capitalist endeavours), or, in other words, against mechanisms that maintain their position of power by systematically oppressing African American communities and individuals.

Furthermore, each film has a message which is always connected to the politics, historical events and societal circumstances (such as living conditions, education, employment and political representation) of the contemporary African American communities of the time in which they were produced. As such, the messages in these films often deal primarily with concepts of black unity as a force against white hegemonic power, citing black empowerment, self-determination, and conviction in these as ways of defeating the afore-mentioned oppressive elements. To expand, “black empowerment,” as it is always presented in the films, comes first from re-educating oneself from an Africa-centric perspective. “Self-determination” entails being motivated to improve individual and collective circumstances from a position of self-love and not “hate for white folk” as Dan Freeman, the main character in The Spook articulates (00:47:38 minutes). “Conviction in these” connotes standing steadfastly by these principles and being prepared to use force if necessary, as a means of achieving black unity and empowerment, or in the face of social

46 Examples include Waiting to Exhale (1995; Dir: Forest Whitaker), The Best Man (1999; Dir: Malcolm D. Lee) or Precious (2009; Dir: Lee Daniels).

47 If, for example, the actors were also hip-hop artists, then they would be cast to appeal to their crossover hip-hop audiences too.

backlash, by which I mean verbal castigation, or duplicity in, for example, scenarios where token job positions are given to African American staff in order to appear integrated.

So pervasive are these institutionalised oppressive conditions, that it is implausible to have a film about African American communities, or with African American characters in principle roles which does not address the experienced inequalities in some way, especially if the film or series wants to be as representationally realistic as possible. Accordingly, this body of films thus deals with the denial of African Americans, the equal rights due to all citizens of the United States.⁴⁸

The black consciousness politics that emerge from this fight, and which are strong undercurrents in the messages of these films, often refer to “black” empowerment and unity.

However, as a result of such a conflation, they thereby incorporate the exclusion of Other identities by subsuming or appropriating elements of these, and/or by making tenets that speak to one, often conservative idea of blackness.⁴⁹ For although the nationalisms invoked by black consciousness movements call for and speak as a unified black collective, there are apparent conflicts that emerge, due to the fact that these nationalistic processes tend to highlight the implicit processes of exclusion and objectification by one identity of the other.

This serves to undermine the aspects of black consciousness principles which require and encourage a cohesive collective identity in order to fulfil their emancipatory objectives. As a result, depending on the messages and the way in which these are voiced, this could mean that a viewer who cannot relate to the narrative, characters or diegetic representations can feel excluded from all or part of the socio-political themes explored in these films, and in some, their unifying intentions.

Moreover, as has been posited in chapter one, in order to produce or read the messages incorporated into the narratives, the viewer has to interpret the array of signs presented. As a corollary of such a process (observing, deciphering and transcoding the sounds and images in order to make meaning from them), the identity of the viewer is in an implicit state of construction and re-construction as they are constantly positioning themselves in relation or opposition to the signs presented throughout.

Because in these films the featured identities are African American identities, these are therefore continually constructed and reconstructed in relation to each other, as well as to Africa and Africans because for obvious reasons, the African American identities that are introduced and developed are often presented as being centred on acknowledging an

48 This is arguably a continuing struggle; a premise which will be revisited in the final chapter of this thesis.

49 See chapter two for a full rendering of this view.

based origin. The strength of that character and the authenticity of his/her blackness are subsequently rooted in the degree to which he/she assumes this Africa-based origin as part of their physical and cultural heritage, which is also sometimes combined with taking pride in distinctly African American cultural markers.⁵⁰

While it can be seen as positive that Africa or Africans are incorporated into these African American films and their black consciousness messages, it should be noted that this also creates uncomfortable sites of identity construction for viewers who, though also identifying as black, are African. In almost all of the films I discuss, the imagined, romanticised or homogenous Africa and Africans represented, (i.e., representations that cannot be identified as belonging to any particular African country, people, history or culture despite claiming to do so in the films) might place the African spectator in an uncomfortable position of reconciling their own ideas of their identity in relation to the indeterminate characterisation on screen. The African viewer is thus confronted with a representation of Africa or Africans that they cannot or do not wish to identify with. Ultimately, this means that the African viewer is left to deal not only with an historically Eurocentric approach to the continent and its people, which stands in direct opposition to the black nationalist message embedded in the narrative, they also have to accommodate the subsequent distancing created between them and the overarching black consciousness message in the films and the African American characters, actors, narrative and imagery that transports it.

The following chapter will analyse the uneasy confluence of appropriation, denial and dependence cultivated by the unavoidable processes of objectification intrinsic to the construction of Africa and Africans in the chosen films, which essentially contribute to the emphasis of difference between both black identities. It is therefore important and necessary to be familiar with the messages and their contexts and thus be able to conceive of the subsequent position of the viewer. To this end, I will briefly introduce these contexts, present the messages interwoven into the plots and will then address the employment of African elements within these. I adopt a chronological approach in the production of this analysis in order to mirror the changing political contexts of the messages – namely, from blaxploitation to the post-hood films – thereby elucidating more clearly, the impact of these socio-political progressions.

50 This is notable in the inclusion of the scene where the Peazant family in Daughters of the Dust gathers together to eat the lavish spread of soul food (01:18:37 to 01:19:10 minutes). This contention is elaborated on further in this chapter, on pages 17-18, under the subheading, “Independent Films, Crossover Stars: Daughters of the Dust.”

3.1 Blaxploitation and Beyond: The Politics of The Spook and Shaft in Africa

At the time of the Civil Rights Movements in the 1960s, pressures from the NAACP and the Ministry of Justice in particular forced Hollywood to re-evaluate their hiring practices and their approach to the African American market. Threats for economic boycott of the industry and discrimination suits were made because of the continued absence of African Americans in their workforce, and thus, Hollywood’s slow response in the application of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Grant 34). Additionally, with the emerging militancy of Black Power politics and the fact that African Americans were increasingly identifying with urban environments, it became necessary for the studios to make films that appealed to this demographic, especially as they accounted for a noteworthy percentage of the total box office, which according to Paula J. Massood, was “ . . . somewhere between 30 and 40 percent . . .” (2003: 82).

Modelled on B-movie or exploitation film production codes, blaxploitation films were action films made on a small budget with a principal cast that were African American, and which sought to attract big audiences through their sensationalist narratives and uncensored violence and sexual displays (Dunn 46). They were, as Stephane Dunn describes, the dozens upon dozens of “black-hero-winning motif” films made between 1971 and 1973, set primarily in an urban environment (48). Although this period of African American filmmaking is generally referred to as the “blaxploitation era,” there are a number of films which did not adhere to the general characteristics ascribed to this genre, but which still made an important contribution to the African American cinematic record. The phenomenon of blaxploitation opened the door to other types of films which reflected more obviously the Black Power politics of the time such as Ivan Dixon’s The Spook, the television series, Alex Haley’s Roots (1977) and from the popular Shaft movies, the second sequel, Shaft in Africa.

Shaft in Africa and The Spook have been selected for analysis because besides their popularity, their narratives and messages serve as useful examples for the overall argumentation in this thesis.⁵¹ For, the rationale behind the production of blaxploitation films was not only that the industry had to create more possibilities in the production processes for

51 Namely, that in incorporating black consciousness politics, thereby necessarily including contemporary African American perceptions of Africa and Africans, coupled with the commodification processes inherent to producing a film for mass appeal, these films thus transport controversial impressions and representations of Africa and Africans. Furthermore, this in itself constitutes only one aspect of the pitfalls present in these films resulting from the incorporation of the expressed black consciousness discourses.