Post-Colonial Africa In The Film "The God Must Be Crazy"
The film ‘The God Must Be Crazy’ is an innocent act, filled with good humor and clearly extended jokes. This 1980 movie portrays differences between 2 distinct societies of social group people of the Kalahari and the civilized people of the post-colonial Africa. The film states that the Kalahari could be a tough place, yet the little people who call it their home live a very straightforward life with no law, violence, or chaos. This quiet, simple life is compared to the fast-dynamic world of technology by the arrival of an empty Coke bottle. The arrival of this new object, perhaps the one thing that mother nature herself could not offer brings conflict instigating desire, crookedness to the once calm, peaceful community. In this 1980 film, the God Must Be Crazy, an ordinary, natural Coke bottle is brought into an isolated group in the Kalahari Desert. Now the usual manner of reading this film would be through symbol – that is, the Coke bottle which represents Western culture, and everything that happens to the once peaceful and elegant tribe (i.e., the following moments of jealousy, violence, and social disorder) are simply shining examples of the West’s influence on different cultures. At the end of the day, the customary method of examining such a story would be through reducing it to a snap of dialect, a solitude representation of East meets West.
Most of us would understand that despite the fact that there may be different approaches to read this film (from a sociological or a mental outlook) this reading is the most straightforward, particularly given the other two chapters in the film which focuses on insurgency and Western migration. Xi, the lead protagonist, is presented to bizarre group of characters, each representing a unique cultural perspective towards technology and modernism. Kate Thompson is an appealing yet fussy journalist who is imported from South Africa to work as a teacher on a mission settlement. Andrew Steyn is the clumsy yet good-natured biologist who uses technology to study the elephants of Botswana or their manure. Sam Boga, the unfortunate Latin revolutionary, is a clear indirect reference to Che Guevara and an obvious demonization of socialism. Lastly, Jack Hind, a capitalist who shows to be apt towards technologies and drives his tour bus across the savanna casually is portrayed as an antagonist in the movie.
Looking from a sociological perception, the movie discusses the intrinsic expenses of the high-tech development that successively indicates modernism in its purest form. When Xi encounters the idea of Western innovations, he views it without presumption of the thought the technology has. Because of a shortage of water inside the community like that, the bottle of Coke raises variety of problems, the foremost vital one is what really this bottle may mean for the members of the community. The quality of the protagonist indicates the value of the technology for the society generally.
The film additionally raises the question of the value of technology because it influences the lives and attitudes of an excellent range of individuals. Through the inexperience of Xi, the film evidently plots the expenses of innovation. We see hurried travel by flawed autos and ridiculous part of a car that simply will not stay in place. We can see that the researchers get stranded by water waves that coud have easily been walked across, clothing getting stuck in trees when its wearers’ idea of decency contradicts the luxury of a climate suitable clothes, and savage, lustful guys made to look like stars primarily because their ahem-devices work better. One of the most important messages from the movie appears to be a specific story in regard to the cultural value of possession.
Now, it is very essential to mention that the Xi’s community lives in the Kalahari, an area where resources are very scarce. Nevertheless, these tribal people do not pity about the lack of these vital resources. Instead, they are grateful to a divine soul(god) for everything they think he/she has provided. There is no such thing as good or evil for these people. All the members are treated equally as no one is held in a superior position than the other. As a matter of fact, it was the Coke bottle that led to the start of disorder to the society who were unfamiliar to any present-day modern item. Until then, Xi’s community had never experienced anger, greed or violence.
