By Chiquitta

For the longest time Hollywood has had an epic love affair with Africa. To Hollywood, Africa is a dark continent full of promise and danger lurking in every corner. If it’s not Albino apes gone wild in the Congo, it’s evil dictators ordering the bloodbath of their citizens in Uganda.

There is just too much material to work with when it comes to Africa and for this reason Hollywood’s love affair is far from over. Although Africa has long told it’s own stories, the budget for expensive production has long been out of reach. And the abundance of stories means that Hollywood is taking the plunge with movies like Blood diamond, Babel and Last King of Scotland all being shot in Africa.

The scenes that make Africa popular.

While I love the fact that Hollywood has oft put African countries on the map with its productions, I must say not most of these have pushed the local film industry forward. To make matters worse, Hollywood portrayal of African is rarely from the African point of view but rather from that of the West. Let’s take a look at some of the movies shot in Africa

Shadow of Kilimanjaro

While the locally produced horror movie OTTO may have scared the living daylights out of the Kenya Film Commission the same can’t be said for In The Shadow Of Kilimanjaro. I watched this flick on local TV back in the day and it was enough to convince me that baboons are not our friends. It’s apparently based on a true story. It’s 1984 and there is a drought in Kenya that causes 90,000 baboons to descend on the human population with hunger stricken gusto. Very bloody indeed. And apparently real baboons were used and the film was filmed in the same place the incident took place. Again Hollywood hits on the "dark continent" theme and wins. Sort of.

Ghost in the Darkness

And speaking of dark continent what better way to portray it than with man eating lions. Ghost In The Darkness starring Hollywood mega stars like Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, also based on real events, tells the story of the man eating lions of Tsavo. The lions gave the British and Indians building the railway in 1889 hell. In the movie, even the Maasai known for their lion-killing prowess fear the animals. While the movie promoted Kenya’s Tsavo reserve, it was unfortunately not shot in Kenya but rather in South Africa and the Maasai in the film were actually South African actors. And to add insult to injury their stuffed remains are today not housed in Museum Hill but rather in Chicago Field Musuem, Illinois, US. The movie which went on to become a big hit changed the manner in which films shot in Kenya are taxed making it possible for movies like the more recent Tomb Raider to be filmed in Kenya.

Last King of Scotland

Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin Dada.

This was a good movie and Forrest Whitaker nailed his performance, he’s accent was okay, the same, however, cannot be said of co-star Kerry Washington. The beautiful actress was introduced early in the movie as one of the wives of Idi Amin, she turns around, smiles, opens her mouth and then …Pandemonium! For some reason, out of her throat emits what sounds like a choir of horny bullfrogs. This supposedly is how most Ugandan women talk. This is just an example of how Hollywood mangles African accents; in fact in most films Africans either sound West African or Jamaican. To make matters worse the African women in Last King of Scotland are portrayed as promiscuous, while the lone white female character in the movie was portrayed as a pious and devoted wife.

Out of Africa

Apparently Kenya’s best marketing tools. The movie was another that did Kenya’s flora and fauna justice with expansive shots of Savannah and wildlife. It was the movie starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford and not the Tourism board that probably maintained Kenyan tourism for another ten years after it’s debut. It’s one of those movies that portray Kenya as a white settlers paradise. Out of Africa won several academy award including best cinematography and best original music score and like a host of Kenyan movies is based on a true story. Though she did not die in Kenya, Karen Blixen remains one of Kenya’s most famous white settlers; an entire suburb is named after her.

Mountains of the Moon

Another movie that preys on the uncharted continent theme. This move based, again, on the apparent real life events of Richard Burton and John Speke tells of the journey the two British explorers took to " discover" the source of the Nile. I thought this whole issue would have been settled had they just asked around. But hey, it wouldn’t have made a great story. Of course, lions and wild tribesmen are featured in abundance, as are black women as sexual predators.