| THE AFRICANS: A Clash of Cultures | ||
|---|---|---|
| This clip is not available for streaming at this time. Please contact WPA. | Tape Master: | 10256 |
| Catalog #: | 491100 | |
| Clip Number: | 491100-1 | |
| Orginal Film: | 61-3991 | |
| Timecode: | ||
| Location: | Africa, various | |
| Year Shot: | 1986 (Actual Year) | |
| Audio: | Yes | |
| Color: | Yes | |
| Headings: | LOCATIONS/AFRICA: Misc | |
| Description: | 10.40.24-Shots of a Mombasa slum, minaret of local mosque. Host discusses his own youth experience with culture clash in Kenya. Shots of a beach in Kenya where European women bathe topless, v.o.-host explains that colonialism has tried to cover up the bodies of African women while prominently displaying the European, a bewildering inversion of traditional attitudes about clothing and modesty. Shots of Muslim women in a city street, women wear veils that cover all but their eyes. Shots of Tuareg people of the Sahara, men wear veils. Shot of a Somalia street where a man speaks in traditional language-v.o.-host describes the Somali tendency to use verse in conversation and rhetoric and Somali efforts to preserve their language, forcing invention of new words for the modern age. 10.44.45-Shots of building of Institute of African Unity. V.O.-circumstances have dictated that the diversity of African languages is overcome by choosing foreign tongues like English to conduct international business. Host in the IAU assembly room, recounts giving a speech here where the use of Swahili instead of English threw the whole translation system out of whack. Shots of students in a university English language lab using headphones. Shots of University French instructor, students in French class. V.O.-discussion of prominence of French, English, Arabic in African government and official business, only 6 nations use indigenous African languages to conduct their affairs. Shot of newspaper press, shots of African and Swahili newspapers, paper vendors. Host with a Swahili newspaper, discusses the more poetic nature of the language and the way it shapes the discourse and laments the eclipse of this cultural form by Western language. 10.50.25-Shot of a pan where coffee beans are roasted and mashed in a metal cylinder. Host describes the roots of Swahili in East Africa as a combination of Muslim Arabic and African speech and cultures. Host drinks coffee with his Ethiopian hosts. Shot of Nigerian men playing a game in which stones are transferred from one cup to another along the length of a board. Host describes the way that Islam, westernization, and traditional African ways can be mediated by local affinities, says that the indigenous legacy must anchor any stable synthesis of Africans' "triple heritage of Islam, tradition, and Westernization. Shot of a woman in Zaire with painted skin, boys build a wooden structure for a wedding. Group of women chant ceremonially. Shots of this wedding ceremony, including a dramatic part where a huge see-saw structure dramatizes the dynamic balance of man and woman, who are enclosed in cages at each end of the see-saw. 10.55.50-Closing credits/WETA-BBC credits/funding credits/telecourse material information/PBS ID 10.58.03--OUT | |
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