The continuing image of African victimage : Ali A. Mazrui's The Africans: A Triple Heritage.
This thesis demonstrates that the documentary film is an inherently rhetorical medium. The documentary film The Africans: A Triple Heritage is studied because of its blatently subjective tone. This series perpetuates a rhetorical image of the natives of the Continent of Africa. That image is the African as victim. Africans are portrayed as the innocent victims of exploitation and seduction by the West. The means by which the rhetorical dimensions of the series The Africans are analyzed is the schema established by Bruce Gronbeck for analyzing documentaries in his article "Celluloid Rhetoric: On Genres of Documentary," as well as his notion of rhetorical posture developed in his article "Rhetorical Invention In The Regency Crisis Pamphlets." The second chapter examines the historical image of the African. The African as "brute" developed as a literary abstraction of eighteenth-century Europe. Travel accounts of explorers to the continent presented an image of the African as barbarian. This view was used to support pseudo-scientific racial theories of the period. Biblical interpretations for African inferiority also emerged to defend the notion of African inferiority. The African as victim emerged during the European slave trade debates of 1790-91. Abolitionists portrayed the African as the victim of greedy slave traders. The rhetoric of David Livingstone firmly entrenched this image in the consciousness of eighteenth-century Europe. He argued that the African was an improvable member of the human race, not inherently inferior to the white man. The third chapter analyzes The Africans using Gronbeck's schema. It is argued that the persuasive appeals in the series can be classified as either Moral Philosophies, Morality Plays, Melodramas, Romances, or Reports. When using the Moral Philosophy, Mazrui assumes the posture of philosopher. In this appeal he presents the general theme of exploitation and seduction of innocent victims at the hands of the villain. When employing the Morality Play, Mazrui assumes the posture of the Jeremiad, admonishing the Africans for abandoning traditional values. When using the Melodrama, Mazrui employs the posture of prosecutor, indicting the West for its evil ways. In his Romantic treatment Mazrui employs the posture of publicist, praising African heroes. And finally, in the Report style of presentation Mazrui utilizes the posture of journalist. This treatment is used when dealing with the delicate subject of African internal conflicts. The fourth chapter sums the findings of the previous chapters. The potency of the image of the African as victim is discussed. The use of documentary to create this image is noted. Finally, the implications of this study are suggested. These include the use of documentary to persuade in other more subtle ways.
Africans., Ethnology -- Africa., Documentary television programs -- History and criticism.
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