The Colonial Misunderstanding

Documentary filmmaker Jean-Marie Teno explores the complex and problematic relationship between Europe and the African continent through the history of European missionaries and colonists in Africa. Christian evangelists paved the way for colonialism and laid the groundwork for European rule in Africa. The leitmotif in Teno’s historical essay is the centenary of the genocide perpetrated against the Herero people of Namibia. Teno shows how colonialism destroyed African beliefs and social structures, replacing them with European ones as the only acceptable route to modernization. As Professor F. Kangué Ewané puts it, “I can forgive Westerners for taking away my land ... but not for taking away my mind and soul.” Through historical documents and interviews with historians, the filmmaker relates how German missionaries brought Christianity to the “heathens,” and with it European culture and domination. To turn the tide in Africa, Teno argues, the Europeans must first acknowledge their wrongdoings.