He goes on to say, in regards to the cannabalistic rituals in the film, that it was largely inspired by the recent attacks on albinos. Unfortunately, Neill has a penchant for painting black Africans with such broad strokes that one would imply, from his interview, that such practices are widespread across the continent, He states that while making this film, he became aware of…”all these tribal witch doctor attacks on Albinos…” I won’t even both to try to figure out what he means by tribal – but, key, is that he never specifies where these practices come from. The assumption is that they’re inherently African. To clarify, these practices were recently highlighted in Tanzania (though I am not sure where specifically). The trouble with this matter is that during this debacle, well-respected documentaries came to the conclusion that these practices were not home-grown, but rather came from Nigeria. You and I both know that such wild speculations couldn’t be farther from the truth. These days it is easy to pin Africa’s wrongs on Nigeria, the bastion of all that is occult and corrupt in the world.

The danger with Neill’s portrayal of Nigerians in his movie, is that they play right into the hands of stereotypes that foster the xenophobic hate and violence towards our people in South Africa. I know that my views and that of others may sound unfairly one-sided against the film. But as someone who lost three members of my maternal home to last year’s riots in SA, we can’t help but protest against such depictions. Personally, I would speculate that Neill’s thoughts towards black Africans runs deeper than just his stereotypes about Nigerians. Indigenous black South Africans were glaringly absent from his movie, save from the occasional yes-men (one of which, admittedly, was presented in a fairer light at the end of the film – won’t spoil it for you). I am almost certain that his reticence to include black South Africans stems from the potential backlash his movie would have received, considering the hypersensitive nature of race relations in SA.

Sorry for the unnecessarily long comments…it makes up for all the other times I failed to comment on your previous posts…

He goes on to say, in regards to the cannabalistic rituals in the film, that it was largely inspired by the recent attacks on albinos. Unfortunately, Neill has a penchant for painting black Africans with such broad strokes that one would imply, from his interview, that such practices are widespread across the continent, He states that while making this film, he became aware of…”all these tribal witch doctor attacks on Albinos…” I won’t even both to try to figure out what he means by tribal – but, key, is that he never specifies where these practices come from. The assumption is that they’re inherently African. To clarify, these practices were recently highlighted in Tanzania (though I am not sure where specifically). The trouble with this matter is that during this debacle, well-respected documentaries came to the conclusion that these practices were not home-grown, but rather came from Nigeria. You and I both know that such wild speculations couldn’t be farther from the truth. These days it is easy to pin Africa’s wrongs on Nigeria, the bastion of all that is occult and corrupt in the world.

The danger with Neill’s portrayal of Nigerians in his movie, is that they play right into the hands of stereotypes that foster the xenophobic hate and violence towards our people in South Africa. I know that my views and that of others may sound unfairly one-sided against the film. But as someone who lost three members of my maternal home to last year’s riots in SA, we can’t help but protest against such depictions. Personally, I would speculate that Neill’s thoughts towards black Africans runs deeper than just his stereotypes about Nigerians. Indigenous black South Africans were glaringly absent from his movie, save from the occasional yes-men (one of which, admittedly, was presented in a fairer light at the end of the film – won’t spoil it for you). I am almost certain that his reticence to include black South Africans stems from the potential backlash his movie would have received, considering the hypersensitive nature of race relations in SA.

Sorry for the unnecessarily long comments…it makes up for all the other times I failed to comment on your previous posts…