Finally! the real Hollywood comes to Africa, but for what purpose?

It seems that gone are the days when movies shot in Africa, about Africa would show the West’s stereotypical view of Africa by depicting Africans as barbarians and savages. Movies from the recent past, namely the Lord of War, Blood Diamonds and to a certain extent the last kings of Scottland have done reasonably well to expose the underhandedness of Western influence in the civil wars affecting many African nations. In Lord of War we see the main character (an American arms dealer) selling weaponry to both sides engaged in the civil war (the rebels and the government). Also, in Blood Diamond Western businesses visibly perpetuate the civil war in order to benef from the illegal diamond trade. Unfortunately the events depicted in these movies are real life occurences in Africa.

While I applaud these movies in showing the rest of the world the truth about African civil wars as opposed to the past stereotypes (of Africans as savages who kill one another for no apparent reason). Sadly, it won’t be long before Hollywood moves on to the next big thing and it also won’t be long before the rest of the world forgets about the plight of some of these African nations.

This makes me wonder, whether these movies were created for the purpose of alerting the world to the suffering of some nations or if showing the pain and suffering of others is influenced by the need to grow profit margins and possibly collect a few awards. I tend to lean more towards the latter, mainly because history has shown that movies based on real life stories have more potential of colleting awards, call me a sceptic or pessimist if you must!