Since Sun Ra descended in a breast-shaped Ark to recruit Americans for his planetary Afrotopia, science fiction has played a significant role in representations of African life. The original past represented by Africa as ‘cradle-of-civilization’ has recently been inverted in work which measures futuristic narratives against everyday life on the continent. Now the Arnolfini gallery […]
Now that District 9 is out on DVD and given the fact that it was on a lot of people’s ‘Best Films of 2009″ lists, is a good excuse to talk about its depiction of its Nigerian villains as unrepentant cannibals again. Recently I reread Ato Quayson’s take on “District 9,” especially the portrayal how […]
Comment to New York Press on “District 9″: “As a young Afrikaans South African with a fondness for interspecies-conflict-based fiction, I enjoyed D9, and still I agree with [Armond] White [New York Press film critic] on a few levels. As a purely fictional sci-fi movie, D9 is excellent. During the first 15 minutes of the […]
Nigerian-born, Brooklyn writer, Teju Cole, writing in Nigeria’s NEXT newspaper: Even making allowances for the fact that [District 9] is a fable, with strong elements of satire and allegory, the one-dimensionality of the Nigerian characters is striking. The Nigerians live in District 9 with the prawns, and sell cat food to them (the prawns are […]
While some South African commentators like newspaper editor Ray Hartley, in a rare slip, are saying dumb things about “District 9″ (he got pilloried by his readers on his blog), most people are smart enough to get the film, like the people living in the slum where “District 9″ was filmed: “The movie, District 9 […]
You can’t miss the posters for “District 9″ plastered all over Manhattan. The film opens worldwide in cinemas tomorrow.
