Movie films, like any other work of literature, exist to depict a situation in the artist’s environment or feelings towards a phenomenon. The intention to express such instances and phenomena is always to impact, impart, warn, and educate the public. The movie film, Come Back Africa is an African film produced in 1959 and depicts the South African people in their setting, trying to survive the conflicts between lifestyles and cosmopolitanism in the city. Coming to the town is also a result of poverty and other unbearable situations, which makes going back out of the question. In the African setting, as depicted in the South African film, economic and social problems are the major issues onto which many other problems cling. As discussed in this article, poverty, sexual violence, and racial segregation make the conflict of this film.
The film begins with Zachariah being tired of the family’s poverty. He can’t sit and do nothing about it as a man, yet they are starving. He sets out for the city to get a job so that he can fend for and provide for his family. Upon reaching Johannesburg, he finds things different from what he expected. As a poor man from the village, he speaks Zulu while the middle and upper class speak English. Pass restrictions also bar him from free movement in search of jobs (Rogosin 00: 38: 20). He is left with no option other than settling for odd jobs like a public laborer and garage attendant. He is even restricted from meeting with his spouse Vinah, whom Marumu later kills after refusing his several sexual advances. Zachariah s left to weigh between continuing to struggle for his family and himself or the freedom from social injustices, over which he has no power or capacity to influence.
Lionel Rogosin chooses to write and direct a film at the heart of the South African situation and their atrocities, some of which are perpetrated by their own people who have claimed a “class .”The message goes clearly to the African man who imposes neo-colonization or concurs with the whites in oppressing the poor natives. They have abandoned their native languages and speak only English because they are of the middle or upper class (Masilela 63). The whites have exercised full supremacy over the Africans in their own land, and they have no choice. The film uses mere people who have no status but have gone out of their way to find the hidden truth beyond the regular occurrences and their deeper impacts. The simple people on a self-assigned mission are not paid, and for their intrinsic drive, they are not giving up till they are done unmasking all the atrocities. Rogosin uses this film to communicate to the Africans that their problems and suffering are not all about the colonial masters. Some of the worst atrocities against humanity are brought about by natives who have adapted to the policies of various forms of social and economic segregation (Niwamanya 3). The film, regardless of the painful nature due to the happenings and the experiences of the main character, has more lessons to be drawn from and is captivating as well.
In conclusion, this film has focused on a simple character whom the director has used to portray some of the problems people face while blaming the wrong person. While most Africans believe that the West causes all their suffering, a major part of it is a contribution of their brothers and sisters. People must wake up to the call for truth and realize their vicinity lest they blame the wrong angel. White imperialists may have introduced apartheid, but it was always implemented and continued by natives long after colonization (Maylam 37). Hence necessitating the call, ‘Come Back, Africa,’ which is an eye-opener to let them see beyond the open situations.
Works Cited
Rogosin, Lionel. “Come Back, Africa.” 1959. A Film.
Masilela, Ntongela. “Come Back Africa and South African film history.” Jump Cut 36 1991: 61–65.
Niwamanya, Timothy. “Come Back, Africa” is an Apartheid Time Capsule.” 2018. https://www.cinemaescapist.com/2018/04/come-back-africa-apartheid-time-capsule/
Maylam, Paul. “Explaining the apartheid city: 20 years of South African urban historiography.” Journal of Southern African Studies 21.1 1995: 19–38.
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