Reflection on 500 years later - Movie Review Example

It would appear as if Africans then were willing and subservient slaves working for Europeans, but in actuality, they tried their best to rise above the horrible conditions they were pushed into. Somehow, it was just inopportune that they were helpless victims to those who had more power then, but all that is part of history now. Being able to view Elmina, said to be the slave colony in Ghana, and getting an idea of how slaves were treated, makes one shudder. Just imagining how they were placed in massive numbers in dungeons with steel plates on their necks, cuffs and ankles, and chains binding them together, creates an image that is so distressing, and it makes one wonder, why did these white people treat the Africans this way?

What have they done to deserve this? What’s even ironic is that there is a church on this fortress; it makes you think how can these church-goers even bear to attend mass there knowing that the Africans were suffering in the dungeons in that area? Despite being the world’s 2nd largest continent – and possibly even one of the richest, because of their natural resources, one of which is diamonds – Africa has a dark history of slavery behind it which is said to be so deeply-ingrained that even the Africans themselves have a distorted view of what they perceive to be “the true, the good and the beautiful”.

This occurrence is highly-expected due to the long-term bondage and subjection to foreign influences by different countries. Africa was an unwilling pawn in this game, and yet it has received the least desired effects which are still felt up to the present day. As one of the resource persons in the documentary states, what took place in Africa 5 centuries before was one that was physical – the torture, the serfdom, the suffering and vulnerability. Currently, Africa is still deep in slavery, but more on mental enslavement, which is indeed very disturbing.

This is made apparent in the following quote: “African people are the largest consumers of self-mutilation products; skin bleaching, hair straightening, artificial nails, false hair, etc.” This is the effect of the long-term exposure to the Western/European cultures and creating icons which are far removed from what Africans can actually see in the environment they are exposed to. Africans have lost their genuine love for what is truly of African origin and have totally embraced that which was merely fed to them by their Western brethren.

What’s more, the act of accepting Western culture as part of being African has been further enriched by attaching negative connotations to the word Black – as evil, dark, ugly, dirty, sinister, etc. – which only served to even widen the gap between the two races. Hence, in trying to be White, the Blacks merely ended up throwing more mud on their faces – not really a great scenario. It is indeed quite unsettling to know that up to the present time, the false notion of White superiority over Blacks is still believed by most Africans.

There is still that undeniable stereotype attached by blacks to whites, and vice-versa, and although it has significantly improved, it will still probably take some time to totally eradicate this principle. This, I think, is a common problem which persists among cultures which were colonized and subjected to foreign influe