Concerning Violence – Movie Review by Frank L.

Director: Göran Olsson
Writers: Frantz Fanon (based on the book), Göran Olsson
Stars: Lauryn Hill, Kati Outinen, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

“Colonialism is not a thinking machine nor a body endowed with reasoning faculty. It is violence in its natural state which will only yield when confronted with greater violence.” This statement with the more widely known statement “The first shall be last and the last shall be first” resonate through this documentary which uses contemporary footage from the sixties and seventies relating to various attempts to end colonialism in Africa. There are nine situations described by the footage of recently found contemporary film which are linked by the authoritative voice of the narrator Ms Lauren Hill whose lack of emotion makes the excerpts which she reads from “The wretched of the earth” by Franz Fanon profoundly disturbing. Colonialism includes western capitalism as is underlined in relation to a Swedish multinational company and its heartless and unjust operations in Liberia ably assisted by the then President of that state.

The privilege of white supremacy is illustrated by middle aged men and women, white of course, all dressed in white playing bowls on a perfectly maintained vast green lawn. The squalor of the non-whites who maintain those lawns are the shanty towns of no space and salvaged bits, pieces and left overs of their colonial masters. It is the leisure of the masters which is so damning as further exemplified by the scene of two boys, white in their early teens, playing golf while their black caddies, probably at least twice their age, carry their golf clubs which underscores their sense of entitlement and the unjust core which supported the entire system. Equally perturbing was a Christian missionary couple whose ignorance of and disdain for native customs made for uneasy watching particularly when they were far from certain from where the Christian doctrine of monogamy arose.

The main part of the documentary is preceded by an introduction from Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak of Columbia University, New York who gives a short and helpful introduction to Franz Fanon, his life and his philosophy. Even though she admits gender inequality was not central to his thesis she chose to include a small part of her speech to include that issue. It forms no part of the subsequent nine situations which are illustrated which raises editorial issues as to why her raising of gender inequality was included as it is an issue which is far more pervasive than colonialisation.

Ohlsson has created a documentary which hopefully will make us all in the Western world and in particular Europe question the privileges which we enjoy today many of which arise from the transfer of vast natural resources from the African to European continent. It is an informative well-constructed documentary even if it makes for uncomfortable viewing.