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Le Malentendu Colonial (Colonial Misunderstanding). Produced and directed by Jean-Marie Teno. 73 minutes. Cameroon, 2004. VHS and DVD. In French, German, and English with English subtitles. Distributed by California Newsreel. $195.00.
How does one explain the vastness and complexity of European colonialism in seventy-three minutes? One solution is to focus on Christian evangelism in two former German colonies, namely Southwest Africa (presentday Namibia) and Cameroon. This is exactly what producer/director JeanMarie Teno does, although his primary emphasis is on Namibia. By taking this approach, he illustrates the salient role played by missionaries in the colonizing endeavor, or, more specifically, in supplanting indigenous cultures with European values and norms. This was inspired by the assumption of European "superiority" and the utter denial of any African civilization. Indeed, the so-called civilizing mission was predicated upon the belief that Europeans would bestow "civilization" on the "primitives" or...