Kenya: Oscars and Blinkers

Is it fair to talk about a film I haven’t seen?

That depends. Is the film The Constant Gardener? Then one might argue that it fails, as every Western film set in Africa has failed, to treat the continent as anything other than backdrop to the main story. The main story, it goes without saying, is the drama of the white people.

A few years ago, I borrowed a set of rules from brilliant American cartoonist, Alison Bechdel. In one of her Dykes To Watch Out For cartoon strips, she has a character say:

"I don't go to a movie unless:

1) It has at least two women in it, who
2) Talk to each other, about
3) Something other than the man in the movie."

I tweaked that for my Africa-films filter. Any film set in, and ostensibly about, Africa has to:

1) Have at least 2 African characters in it.
That's characters. Servants, waiters, extras, are not characters.
2) The two African characters have to talk to each other, about
3) Something other than the white protagonist(s) in the film

I avoided seeing The Constant Gardener because none of my friends who saw it could vouch that it met my 3 rules. Each snippet I came across about it fed my conviction that it would only irritate me beyond belief. Like hearing how the Western actors had been “shocked beyond belief” by the poverty of Nairobi slums. Like actress Rachel Weisz, describing the beauty of “Lake Magadi covered with flamingos.” There are no flamingos at Lake Magadi, Rachel. That’s Lake Nakuru.

Last Sunday night, Rachel Weisz won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Constant Gardener. In her speech, she paid tribute to the brilliance of her director, the John Le Carre novel the film was based on, and reeled off the customary list of personal thanks. She did not mention Africa, Kenya, or Kenyans. She did not even hint at the supposed central theme of the film – giant pharmaceuticals testing drugs on impoverished Africans.

It would appear, then, that it’s perfectly possible – in fact, the norm – to make a film that claims to be about Africa, shoot it in Africa, market it with relentless repetition of the word “Africa”, without actually seeing Africa. Or Africans. I see no reason not to accord such a film the same invisibility when I write of it.

* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan Indian poet and spoken word artist. Visit

* Send comments to [email protected]