Elombe Brath on Raoul Peck's "Lumumba" Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Elombe Brath June 17, 2001 Raoul Peck's "Lumumba" Surmounts Past Film Tradition In Treatment Of Black Heroes In World History By Elombe Brath Far too often whenever Black people are invited to go to the movies what is on the screen is an embarrassment, disparaging us and our historical legacy. This has been particularly true with the many comedies that seem to dominate the Black film presentations, mocking and making fun of the lives of the masses of our people. This includes movies even produced and directed by highly talented members of the African community and feature Black actors and actresses. But the dilemma does not only impact on film comedies. it is also true of dramatic films where real-life heroes have had their lives misappropriated to be misused as central figures in white produced cinematic features to give a film some exotic or esoteric flavor. This goes back to at least the 1930's, where the historical great king of the Congo, the Mani-Congo, was dehumanized when Hollywood moguls took so-called artistic license and transformed him into a gigantic gorilla which they called King Kong, and transferred the setting from central Africa to an offshore island, initiating a spin-off series of movies that denigrated the history of Africa's third largest country and its people. There was also a humiliating portrayal of Tshaka, the great 19th century Zulu king whose brilliant military strategies were later taught to U.S. Army officers at West Point. In contrast to Tshaka's acknowledged role in world history, his characterization in the insulting defamatory film entitled Untamed was distorted and reduced to that of an African Tonto-like assistant to Hollywood's glamour-boy screen star Tyrone Powers, with Tshaka fighting against his own people on behalf of the European settlers who would go on to misrule South Africa for at least 86 years. We also see such manipulation of historical figures in The Mummy Returns, the latest edition in a series of "Mummy" movies which traditionally has defiled Egypt's glorious culture. From Hollywood's early Boris Karloff (1932), Turhan Bey "tana leaf" horror film editions to its current multi-million dollar blockbuster production, where the genius Imhotep of ancient KMT (Kemit) is featured as an irate Caucasoid madman, we can clearly see a pattern to use film production as a propaganda tool to subliminally promote white superiority consensus through control of the most dominant vehicle - the motion picture industry - to mold American popular culture. Even the slight misinformation that was exposed in Steven Steilberg's Amistad, particularly his film treatment of the valiant Sierra Leonean Mende prince Cinque (i.e. Sengbe Tieh) and the melodramatic romanticization of the film's paternalistic white characters during that historic period, which seemed to cause more stress in the African community than admiration for at least the super star director having chose to produce the film in the first place. And now the latest use of another historical Black figure in "Pearl Harbor", that of Dorie Miller - a battleship steward (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) who rose to the occasion and became an extraordinary real-life navy hero during the December 7, 1941 bombing of the U.S. Hawaiian naval base, whose heroics made him the surviving equivalent of Crispus Attucks's role of a martyr when he was killed at Boston Commons on March 5, 1770, which became a cause celebre that helped the then-British colonial subjects later ignite the American revolutionary war. Dorie Miller's incredible courage, in spite of U.S. racism barring him from being trained for combat, to come up from the galley and seize an anti-aircraft battle station and shoot down several attacking Japanese airplanes astounded the navy officers. As Quincy Boykin, a Dorie Miller enthusiast and history buff, points out, although Miller was awarded the Navy Cross (many believe he should have been given the Medal of Honor, the country's highest honor which is given by Congress) for his valor by Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet during World War II, shortly after what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared a "day of infamy", the real infamy was that Miller was never given a commensurate rank for his achievement above that of a mess attendant. He would be later killed in 1943 when a torpedo fired by a Japanese submarine sunk the U.S. navy vessel he was aboard - still serving meals, but with the U.S. Navy's second highest medal pinned on his chest. Nevertheless, Miller's historic achievement is only included in the film (admittingly described as "romantic adventure) now showing only to give some substance and credibility to the generally panned $140 million Disney [along with 13 other listed producers] three hour movie which grossed $75.1 million (over half of its production costs), over its Memorial Day weekend opening - the second-largest box-office sales record opening in film history. I could offer other examples of the historical abuse, misuse - and even often actual miscasting of white people to play the role - of heroic Black figures in history for popular entertainment, but I don't really find it necessary to do so. The point I am raising is that our portrayal in film habitually has left a lot to be desired. But just when you might have thought that maybe you shouldn't go to the movies anymore comes a film that is a real must-see. The Haitian filmmaker and director Raoul Peck's "Lumumba" is a film that not only must be seen but also must be supported by our community to show future producers and directors that we will patronize films that faithfully portray our roles in world history if they make them. Raoul Peck has done that and his film Lumumba documents the extraordinary contributions and self-sacrifice that the 1960's Congolese leader Patrice Emery Lumumba made in attempting to safeguard the territorial integrity of the Congo and protect its tremendous wealth against the avaricious greed and overwhelming odds arrayed against him by the United States of America and its allies. The fact that Peck's Lumumba deals with a particularly sensitive, contemporary nefarious part of U.S. history that is still ongoing to this very day speaks volumes to the director's integrity as a filmmaker and is all the more reason that all people, but particularly the Black community, who claim that they want to see films that reflect the character of cinema verite, must ensure that it has a spectacular opening and a good run so that as many of our people can see this brilliant and majestic work as possible. It is of vital importance that more of us become conscious of the real motivations of U.S. foreign policies and how the machinations to reach their objectives are accomplished. In regards to this factor alone, Lumumba is very instructive in illuminating how the U.S. and its allies actually undermine democracy in African states, destabilize fledgling governments, and help to create a mythical consensus that the final failed result is blamed on the targeted African country itself because they were not yet ready for self-government in the post-World War II period. Moreover, these tactics are time-tested and have been proven to work. For instance, any serious study of the U.S. and Western Europe's historical role in Africa would have you believe that the continent which gave civilization and government to the world is now populated by a people who had no history and are innately inferior and thus incapable of understanding either the political, social or hard sciences unless supervised minutely by white people, or even monitored by non-black-non-whites. Because undetected covert operations by so-called western "counterintelligence agencies are able to stealthily undermine African governments and make them appear to be ungovernable, such devious actions simultaneously foster the bogus notion that once the European colonialists are forced to leave and the African is left to depend his or her own initiative, then they automatically slide back to atavism, stagnating any further progress until the "good white father" returns to rescue them through recolonization and bring them back up to speed. To review what happened after the independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 30, 1961 is to observe a classic case of the above description of the role that foreign intrigue plays in the subversion of the dreams and aspirations of the Congolese people. This is still a source of discontent that haunts the second Democratic Republic of Congo today. In my view, It is not just a casual coincidence that the DRC's late president, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated one day short of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of his mentor Patrice Lumumba. And as more is revealed in due time, mark my words: the same forces that initiated the brutal murder of Patrice Lumumba in 1961, along with the killing of two of his closest aides, Joseph Okito, the head of the Congolese Senate and Maurice Mpolo, the Minister of Youth and Sports, as seen in the film, will be exposed as having spawned the current sinister cabal that engineered Laurent Kabila's murder five months ago. And all of this I believe can be readily understood after seeing Raoul Peck's revelatory new film. Why am I so enthusiastic about this film? Well, as one who has been involved with African liberation struggles for over the last 40 years in general and the Congo in particular, and thus being reasonably cognizant of many of its hidden dynamics that shaped the outcome in the film reveals, I can bear witness that Mr. Peck has directed a great and honest film. This film will surely help to direct our attention to the role of covert so-called anti-Communist activities by western nations led by the United States as being nothing less than insidious Cold War ploys that are projected merely for the benefit of western capitalist monopoly interests. As I have pointed out in the past, the U.S. wasn't able to establish its government until 13 years after its declaration of independence in 1776, and from 1789 until 1917 intervened in the internal affairs of other countries throughout the world 133 times before the Bolshevik Revolution! This contradiction of using the communist bogey to ostensibly save other nations from being taken over by Moscow or Beijing is exposed for the farce that it is in Lumumba. Peck clearly shows that this was the case in the Congo when Lumumba and his Congolese National Movement (MNC) had their newly democratically elected independent nation, which was founded after a free and fair electoral process, usurped by a conspiracy between its former Belgian rulers and their longtime financial partner, the U.S. The collusion of how these two members of the western alliance actually arranged the assassinations of Lumumba and members of his cadre and imposed their own choice to protect their vested economic interests: Col. Joseph Desire Mobutu, the moody, envious, self-serving opportunist who was co-opted - and contracted - by the U.S. to betray and compromise the Congo's national independence in order to micro-manage the country's vast wealth to foreign interests seated innocently in splendid comfort in Brussels and on Wall Street. As a result, according to reports, Mobutu would become second only to the Shah of Iran as the richest world leader, while the Congo had its precious natural resources sucked away as it was reduced to an "economic basket case", leaving the broad masses of Congolese people wretchedly impoverished, their lives reduced to intolerable misery. Eric Ebouney, a stage and film actor from the Cameroon with a mastery of oratory skills, delivers a profound and explosive performance portraying Lumumba which is so exceptional that, if there is any fairness in Academy Awards selections, then he should easily net a nomination and ultimately an Oscar for Best Actor. And Alex Descas, from Guadeloupe, who plays Mobutu, Lumumba's former aide-de-camp who turns out to become his mentor's nemesis, gives such a believable performance that audiences grimace and suck their teeth expressing an actual hatred towards the presence of his on-screen presence as Mobutu. Meanwhile, many are also now researching this particular part of the Congo's history to see if someone could really be as treacherous in betraying their benefactor as depicted in the film. Sadly, the real-life Mobutu Sese Seko was even worse because the film primarily only covers roughly about a one year time period - from pre-independence movement activities until Lumumba's assassination. The film doesn't deal with the subsequent 36-year repressive reign of Mobutu's exploitive military dictatorship which was nearly as brutal as that of King Leopold II, the ruthless Belgian monarch who was given the Congo - a territory 80 times his own Belgium - as his own "fiefdom", a personal reward for his part in organizing the Berlin Conference of November 1884 through February 1885, which divided Africa among the western European powers. Lumumba is a tremendously moving film experience, with beautiful cinematography and a stupendous soundtrack. The casting with both its African and European actors and actresses is outstanding, with everyone presenting exceptional performances. And of course, Raoul Peck's directing exhibits as much finesse as a maestro guiding an orchestra - especially one with storytelling skills as a Duke Ellington. It is no wonder that the film has already won the Director Fortnight Award at Cannes last year and was the winner for best feature film at the Pan-African Film Festival in Los Angeles. The movie was filmed in Belgium, where new information on the Lumumba affair has been released in droves from its archives, and Zimbabwe and Mozambique for its African locations [the war being waged posed a security question against shooting in the DRC], and has already astounded audiences in other parts of Europe, Africa, Cuba and Canada. At all screenings most people have left theatres awestruck and shaken by the depths that so-called civilized and democratic wealthy countries could sink in order to continue their exploitation of an African territory whose people had suffered so much misery ever since they first had contact with Europe four hundred years earlier, during the beginning of the dehumanizing European Trans-Atlantic Africa Slave Trade and trafficking in kidnapped human beings in Africa, and their later further subjugation to colonialisation. Lumumba is an awesome film production. It is a phenomenal retrospect on human suffering and the hypocrisy of so-called western democracies whose avaricious greed have caused a myriad of people of color throughout the world to laugh at their demand that developing countries accept their behavior as a paradigm for providing good governance, establishing democratic norms, and as the only acceptable standard for social advancement in the new millennium. But as Lumumba pointed out in his last message to his wife, Pauline Opanga, "History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach, but that will be taught in countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity." An essential part of that history was written 10 years ago in Raoul Peck's prize winning documentary Lumumba - Death of a Prophet. The substance of that bio-doc has now been magnificently embellished in his poignant and breathtaking major feature film masterpiece, the screenplay which he wrote with Pascal Bonitzer. In cinematic terms, Peck's film is a major contribution to the re-writing of Africa's glorious history in dignity. And the puppeteers are not likely to be happy with Peck's product. But other than that, all people who are truly for common decency and fair play, who believe in social justice, and redressing old grievances by making right past wrongs, will see this film with a more passionate vision. Those who believe in ridding the world of debilitating racist notions dictated by the inordinate military power of self-styled greedy superpowers, and are willing to re-establish a mutually agreed upon truly universal behavior for all humankind - embracing all the respective peoples of this planet, they should love Raoul Peck's Lumumba. To all those who have been contacting me for several months as to when and where they can see this film, Lumumba, at long last, will formally begin its U.S. national release with a premier performance on Wednesday, June 27th, 2001 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, just west of 6th Avenue in lower Manhattan in New York. A celebration will follow the premier nearby at S.O.B.'s, at 204 Varick Street, featuring an exclusive African cultural program with La Troupe Makandal, New York's number 1 Haitian performing group, a surprise celebrity guest host, special invited guest of honor Lumumba filmmaker Raoul Peck, and more. -- Further information on how to purchase tickets to the film screening and opening night party can be obtained by calling (212) 631-1189 or emailing . Those interested can also visit the following website: . -- Elombe Brath is chairman of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, and an African internationalist elder and veteran of over 40 years of activism in the Pan-African nationalist movement. Mr. Brath also worked as a graphic artist and consultant on African Affairs for "Like It Is", the WABC-TV public affairs program produced and hosted by Gil Noble, for 17 years, and produces and hosts his own public affairs radio program, Afrikaleidoscope, on WBAI 99.5 FM, heard weekly on Thursdays between 9 pm and 10 pm. Copyright (c) 2001 Elombe Brath. All Rights Reserved. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - General News Articles/Reports Subscribe: ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-06.19.01-22:44:08-449