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From: riddle@im4u.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.nlang.africa
Subject: Two films on the !Kung
Message-ID: <539@im4u.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Sep-85 16:12:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: im4u.539
Posted: Thu Sep 19 16:12:57 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Sep-85 05:04:57 EDT
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Hedge-Man: "Bob"

Some of you may recall my previous negative comments on "The Gods Must Be
Crazy."  Although I detested the movie, my judgement was just an aesthetic
one: I thought it was an especially bad grade grade of slapstick.  Now I've
discovered that there are other reasons to criticize the movie as well.

According to a review in the August-September 1985 issue of "Sojourners,"
the fanciful depiction of the !Kung in "The Gods Must Be Crazy" is not
merely feeble-minded, it is highly offensive given the actual living
conditions of the !Kung, whose territory in Namibia is under illegal
occupation and control by South Africa.

The review contrasts this portrayal of the !Kung with that of another film,
"N!ai: the Story of a !Kung Woman," a documentary by anthropologist John
Marshall.  Marshall's project began in the 1950s when he took footage of the
!Kung in their traditional occupation as hunters and gatherers.  In 1978 he
returned to take more footage and found that things had changed considerably:
the modern-day !Kung live under apartheid, forced into a small area the
South African administration of Namibia has set up as "Bushmanland."  Since
Bushmanland contains far too few resources for them to continue their old
ways of life, they are forced to adapt as best they can to modern ways:
almost 40% of the !Kung in Bushmanland work for the South African army in
its war against SWAPO, the highest rate of military service of any ethnic
group in the world; another 30% have tuberculosis and live off of cornmeal
rations provided by the government.  The film states its case about the
effects of apartheid and South African rule largely through the life of a
single !Kung woman, whom Marshall was fortunate enough to film as a young
girl in the fifties and then again as a grown woman and mother in 1978.

To quote from the review in "Sojourners:"

    As this documentary makes clear, "The Gods Must Be Crazy" is not
    just a naively wrong or unknowing romanticization of Bushman life,
    but a carefully constructed mirror-image opposite of !Kung life
    under apartheid.  And in that lie, it has been very successful.  It
    has proved to be a public relations goldmine for the South African
    regime.

I'm going to try to see "N!ai" as soon as I can; I hope any of you who have
seen or are thinking of seeing "The Gods" will consider doing the same.

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech}!ut-sally!riddle   riddle@sally.UTEXAS.EDU
--- Leaving the net soon: friends can write for my new snail-mail address.