Playing the Politics of Erasure: (Post)Colonial Film Images and Cultural Genocide in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Cultural genocide is much maligned and often simply ignored. Yet it is an epistemic condition powerful enough to cause a physical elimination of a targeted “tribe” or group of people. The aim of this article is to highlight cultural genocide and explore how this type of genocide was used in images in European colonial films to destroy or “erase” some important cultural and traditional activities of black people in Africa. It also critically examines how images in some postcolonial films, directed and produced by white filmmakers, are used to perpetuate cultural genocide. Special reference will be made to the film Strike Back Zimbabwe (2010), produced by white filmmakers, which insinuates the possible assassination of Zimbabwe’s president. This article will argue that it is critical to study the nature and manifestations of cultural genocide, which is often relegated to the margins, as a way of understanding the genesis of this condition.

Opsomming
Kulturele volksmoord word met veragting bejeën en dikwels eenvoudig geïgnoreer. Tog is dit ’n epistemiese toestand wat so invloedryk is dat dit die fisiese verwydering van ’n teiken-"stam" of groep mense kan veroorsaak. Die doel van hierdie artikel is om die aandag op kulturele volksmoord te vestig en om ondersoek in te stel na hoe hierdie tipe kulturele volksmoord in beelde in Europese koloniale rolprente gebruik is om sekere belangrike kulturele en tradisionele aktiwiteite van swartmense in Afrika te vernietig of "uit te wis". Dit gee ook ’n kritiese beskouing van hoe beelde in sekere postkoloniale rolprente, wat deur wit rolprentmakers geregisseer en vervaardig is, gebruik word om kulturele volksmoord in stand te hou. Daar sal spesifiek verwys word na die rolprent Strike Back Zimbabwe (2010), wat deur wit rolprent-vervaardigers geproduseer is, waarin daar op ’n moontlike sluipmoordaanval op Zimbabwe se president gesinspeel word. Daar sal aangevoer word dat dit uiters belangrik is om ondersoek in te stel na die aard en manifestasies van kulturele volksmoord, wat dikwels opsy gestoot word, om sodoende die ontstaan van hierdie toestand te verstaan.